How can I uninstall Office 2004 after upgrading to Lion?

Uninstalling Software: The Basics

Most OS X applications are completely self-contained "packages" that can be uninstalled by simply dragging the application to the Trash. Applications may create preference files that are stored in the /Home/Library/Preferences/ folder. Although they do nothing once you delete the associated application, they do take up some disk space. If you want you can look for them in the above location and delete them, too.

Some applications may install an uninstaller program that can be used to remove the application. In some cases the uninstaller may be part of the application's installer, and is invoked by clicking on a Customize button that will appear during the install process.

Some applications may install components in the /Home/Library/Applications Support/ folder. You can also check there to see if the application has created a folder. You can also delete the folder that's in the Applications Support folder. Again, they don't do anything but take up disk space once the application is trashed.

Some applications may install a startupitem or a Log In item. Startupitems are usually installed in the /Library/StartupItems/ folder and less often in the /Home/Library/StartupItems/ folder. Log In Items are set in the Accounts preferences. Open System Preferences, click on the Accounts icon, then click on the LogIn Items tab. Locate the item in the list for the application you want to remove and click on the "-" button to delete it from the list.

Some software use startup daemons or agents that are a new feature of the OS. Look for them in /Library/LaunchAgents/ and /Library/LaunchDaemons/ or in /Home/Library/LaunchAgents/.

If an application installs any other files the best way to track them down is to do a Finder search using the application name or the developer name as the search term. Unfortunately Spotlight will not look in certain folders by default. You can modify Spotlight's behavior or use a third-party search utility, Easy Find, instead. Download Easy Find at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.

Some applications install a receipt in the /Library/Receipts/ folder. Usually with the same name as the program or the developer. The item generally has a ".pkg" extension. Be sure you also delete this item as some programs use it to determine if it's already installed.

There are many utilities that can uninstall applications. Here is a selection:

AppZapper

Automaton

Hazel

CleanApp

Yank

SuperPop

Uninstaller

Spring Cleaning

Look for them at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.

For more information visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on removing software.

I receive the same error:

"You can't open the application Microsoft Sync Services because PowerPC applications are no longer supported."

every few minutes after upgrading to 10.7 and do not have Office 2004 installed. Using System Information report, I have identified and then removed all PowerPC programs and deleted supporting files using CleanApp.

Is there another way to track down the source of the problem? What program continues to try to open Sync Services?

Two places to look.

First, check the Console logs (All Messages) and see if you can see where it is calling from.

Second, look in your user/Library/StartupItems for something related to Office, Microsoft, or Entourage. As I don't have it, I don't know what to look for.

Thanks for the help. The console system.log left this message:

Jul 25 20:13:30 shoin com.apple.coreservices.uiagent[589]: Jul 25 20:13:30 shoin.local CoreServicesUIAgent[589] <Notice>: Application failed to launch (id = Microsoft Sync Services, version = Unknown reason = kLSNoRosettaEnvironmentErr)

This file does not show up in a directory search.

I was having exactly the same problem. After installig OSX Lion, MS Office 2004 completely stopped. I deleted all the applications individually but had the same messages about Microsoft Sync Services.

I decided to purchase MS Office 2011 which works perfectly, but I still received the errors as you have described. For me, downloading EasyFind from MacUpdate and searching for the phrase 'Microsoft Sync Services' produced 8 file matches. All the files were created either last year or before, so I surmised that they shouldn't affect the installation I had just carried out to install Office '11.

After deleting them the problem has completely gone. Hope this helps.

Thanks, I think this worked. I had deleted MS Office 2004 but didn't empty the trash. When I searched for file names with 'Microsoft Sync Services', they were in the trash but apparently still making system calls every few minutes.

So, the solution is:

1. Find files with the phrase 'Microsoft Sync Services' in the name using Spotlight or EasyFind. Note that some of these files may be located in /Users/username/Library and that the user library folder is now hidden by default in Mac OS 10.7. You can see it by selecting the 'Go' menu in the 'Finder' and then pressing the 'Option' key - Library will appear under Home in the drop down menu.

2. Move these files to the trash and then empty the trash.

3. Restart the computer.

Thanks for the fix - it worked for me too. I had recently uninstalled Office2004, so not sure if it was the trash/empty reboot, or my subsequent move of the "microsoft user data" folder to the trash (not yet emptied). No more pop ups, and can't find a negative result either.

I had Office 2004 and upgraded to Lion and also got "You can't open the application Microsoft Sync Services because"...

Here is what I did:

1) I deleted the Microsoft application folder from my "Applications" folder -- This did not solve the problem.

2) I then restarted my computer, but still the notices appeared.

3) I typed "Microsoft" into the Spotlight finder in the top right hand corner of the screen to find missing files. I found a folder in my "Documents" folder called "Microsoft User Data". I sent all of this to the TRASH.

4) I emptied the TRASH and restarted. PROBLEM SOLVED!

I'm not sure it it was the deleting of my trash can or the removal of the file called "Microsoft User Data".

Don't worry about getting rid of MS Office. You will still have all of your MS documents. You can simply upload those to your free Google Docs account and work from those in the Cloud. I'm so glad to get rid of MS products. I'm much happier with Google Docs!! Give it a try...

For me, downloading EasyFind from MacUpdate and searching for the phrase 'Microsoft Sync Services' produced 8 file matches.

I just wanted to let you know that this saved my bacon. I was getting all manner of weird error messages after upgrading my roommate's MBP to Lion:

CoreServicesUIAgent[1917] <Notice>: Application failed to launch (id = Adobe Reader Updater Helper, version = Unknown reason = kLSNoRosettaEnvironmentErr)

The mystery deepens: there was no Adobe Reader installed on her boot drive! After searching all volumes with EasyFind (searching within packages) then compared the results to older failed installs of Adobe Reader update logs, I was able to determine that this stupid Updater Helper was trying to launch from within Adobe Acrobat Reader 9 located an older, cloned 10.5 (I think) system on an external USB hard drive! Used AppClean to remove it. Hoping it will prevent it from happening again.

OT, but thanks for the nudge in that direction.

sandra