Deleting Application Support folders for uninstalled apps?

Kalfaz wrote:

Is it risky to delete stuff from the Application Support folders?

I'm migrating from a 2015 MacBook to new M4 MacBook, in the past I've just run the migration assistant but I'm going to a smaller drive and will need to do a proper cleanup first.

I pulled a System Report from About this Mac and notice that several 32 bit apps. I see them in the System Report but they don't show up in the Finder Application Folder. So I used Go64 and got rid of all the 32bit apps.

I'm also no longer using Google Chrome Browser so when I see all the leftovers like almost 8gb of stuff in my Home->Library->Application Support->Google folder, I'm tempted to delete the application support folder from Google and other 3rd party apps that I've already deleted.

You have r/e privileges yes you can delete those unneeded Support folder if the uninstall process did not clear the situation up.

If there are associated uninstall.app with your third party use it first, they can still leave behind detritus

place to look for parts & pieces, Finder>Go>Go To Folder copy & paste each location:

~/Library/Application Support/

~/Library/Preferences/

~/Library/Caches/

~/Library/LaunchAgents/

/Library/Application Support/

/Library/LaunchDaemons/

/Library/LaunchAgents/

Kalfaz wrote:

I'm planning on using Time Machine backup as the source for migration.

That's what I typically do, I've set up several Macs that way over the past year, IMO it's the best approach.

Probably should have asked a different question. Like Is there a way to prevent Migration Assistant from copying all these Library Application Support stuff over?

Yes, you can choose what to migrate:

For a relatively clean migration, especially from an older Mac, you can choose to just migrate the user folder(s) and skip the Applications and other categories. You'd need to install your applications freshly, but in many cases there will be newer versions for Apple Silicon that you'd want to run instead of the older Intel versions, anyway.