Journal App (Tahoe) is damaged and cannot be deleted

Journal app is installed as a component of macOS and cannot be deleted.

I suggest you uninstall Clean My Mac. Apps of this type are nothing but trouble and very often interfere with the proper operation of the OS and other apps.

If that doesn’t resolve the problem, reboot the Mac in safe mode and see if that has s positive effect. Safe mode forces the OS to do disk repair and other housekeeping and often resolve weird software problems.

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/mac-help/mh21245/mac

John Bonn wrote:

Just want to thank all the members who advised against the continued use of Clean My Mac.

[...]

Any advice on a safe app for performing the task of deleting an app?

Thanks again!

You're welcome.

As for deleting an app, if an app is downloaded and installed from the App Store, one can typically just drag the app from the Applications folder to the Trash and then empty the Trash. No additional software required.

If an app has been downloaded from a publisher or otherwise installed on the Mac, then sometimes the uninstall process is aided by an 'uninstaller' provided by the publisher. In cases where you have trouble uninstalling something, it can be helpful to visit the publisher site and ask for guidance. Sometimes that guidance might be to reinstall the app and then find the uninstaller command within, or it may be to find the uninstaller in that app's folder in the install location (usually the Applications folder).

It does happen that some developers don't provide a clean way to remove an app and they leave little bits strewn about the Mac's filesystem. This happens often with application suites like Office or the Adobe apps where some pieces support several different applications.

In those cases, you can take advantage of apps such as  Find Any File  and AppCleaner to hunt down and eliminate those errant bits. They search a file's metadata for terms you define, such as the developer name or application name, to find and present the bits to you for deletion. Both of these apps are often recommended here in the Community.

John Bonn wrote:

Would prefer to remove the App but unable to delete the App by dragging to trash or using CleanMyMac.

Suggestions?

This specific Application Journal is built into the Operating System

Making Impossible to remove it - Full Stop

Any application located in System Setting >> Storage >> Applications

That is Listed a System is not removable at all

The macOS operating system resides in a sealed and read-only volume that can’t be opened by users or third-party applications.

John Bonn wrote:

Folks...After a clean install of Tahoe in Recovery Mode, the problem "Journal is Damaged" message returned🥴

2nd level of Apple Support resolved the issue:

System Settings -> General -> Login Items & Extensions -> Extensions -> Journal -> Info Button -> Turn Sharing Off -> Done

'Now I can open Journal without the error message returning.

Good computing John Bonn ! Appreciate the update and your resolve.

A question: I note a number of negative comments re CleanMyMac...I have been a very satisfied user of this app (& its support group) for more than 13 years on a series of Mac - now on my MacMini4 & MacBook Pro (2021). I run it regularly - have deleted a number of Apps over the years - & never had a concern. Interesting!

That's one of the problems, if not its most insidious one. Often what it does does not manifest or become apparent until long after it was installed and used and probably long since forgotten about. Years, conceievably. Whether it was uninstalled or not, properly or not, after the damage was inflicted does not matter.

Details if you want them, but completely erasing the Mac is the most practicable solution. The alternative requires painstakingly determining which files were altered / deleted / corrupted, followed by recreating them in their proper locations and with the proper macOS permissions. That is not a task I would wish upon anyone nor is it realistic to provide step-by-step instructions for someone over a support site like this one. Personal experience, take it or leave it.

macOS itself is invulnerable to that kind of alteration but files in the user space are fair game for it and similarly categorized junk. Either way, the Mac is "hosed" (to paraphrase a fellow Apple Support Communities contributor).

John Bonn wrote:

Running OS 26.3.1 on my MacMini 4- On any restart or if I try to open the Journal app, I receive this message:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/55dd70a4-77ec-4570-b389-ef9032d997b5

Would prefer to remove the App but unable to delete the App by dragging to trash or using CleanMyMac.

Suggestions?

CleanMyMac , aka “ BrickMyMac 

There are two schools of thought when dealing with CleanMyMac aka “ BrickMyMac “

The steps in #1 below is predicated on the Offending  Application has been Removed as per the Developers Specific Instruction 

# 1 Some Contributors suggest restarting in Recovery Mode and choosing to Reinstall the Operating System over the existing installation. 

This may or may not replace elements of the  Home Folder ( User Account )  and replace any corrupted or removed elements and make things right.

Even if you were remove this application CMM, the computer will never work the way it should work

#2 - Then there are Other Contributors ( like myself ) would suggest  from this link Use Disk Utility to erase a Mac with Apple silicon.

Thereafter to start from scratch and install all Required Applications directly from the Apple Apps Store or Directly from the Developer.

If going this route - I suggest Not using Startup Assist to migrate things back as this will probably Re-Introduce the existing  issue at the time TM Backup was made 

John Bonn wrote:

A question: I note a number of negative comments re CleanMyMac...

I have been a very satisfied user of this app (& its support group) for more than 13 years on a series of Mac

- now on my MacMini4 & MacBook Pro (2021). I run it regularly - have deleted a number of Apps over the years - & never had a concern. Interesting!

The past does not predict the present, or the future. The macOS is tightening down on security, integrity, third party interference & manipulation, and etc..

Your "CleanMyMac" certainly have great marketing strategy and a strong wallet vac, everybody makes money, in the milieu of fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD.)

I never had it, never needed it , and never had an issue.... go figure.

What I can say it is not needed what ever it did for you in the past...

Over and over issues are sorted here—with the tired old adage:

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

If you actually installed and used "CleanMyMac" erase the Mac.

John Bonn wrote:

THANKS! [...]

And thanks to all the members for the quick responses...confirms the great membership of this Apple Forum!

As a Mac user since 1984 (Yep), I am continually impressed with the folks who have chosen Apple!

You're welcome. Happy to read you have this sorted out.

Me, too! 🙂

A question: I note a number of negative comments re CleanMyMac...I have been a very satisfied user of this app (& its support group) for more than 13 years on a series of Mac - now on my MacMini4 & MacBook Pro (2021). I run it regularly - have deleted a number of Apps over the years - & never had a concern. Interesting!

My experience with CMM was... let's say 'disappointing'.

It wasn't system files that CMM mangled, in my case it was photo library and its metadata; my own user files.

I uninstalled the app, repaired the damage and never looked back. I don't feel a need to give an app a second shot at destroying my stuff. You know the adage: "Fool me once, shame on you..."

Been a Mac user since '86, and have discovered in that forty years that there are some things one can live without in the Mac universe, those being apps of the types: antivirus/cleaner/optimizer/security/vpn. I and my ext fam have run very many different Macs and have found no need for these types of apps. Our past experiences with them, and my incident with CMM in particular, emphasize the point for us. We've done the learning so you don't have to. 🤣😭

Given how often these types of apps are implicated as the cause of many user's problems, and the fact that these apps do nothing that the MacOS doesn't or can't do itself, I think it's safe to say they aren't worth installing, ever.

Keep macOS updated and, as another Community contributor often says, "don't install junk". True.

BrickMyMac is akin to smoking cigarettes

The first cigarette may not kill the smoker

Give enough time and smoking, over time, tends to shorten one's lifespan

Could not agree more.

" hosed " is a mild term that may not carry enough weight

🦉-53