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What is the safest app remover for OS X ?

What is the safest app remover for OS X (Yosemite) ?

IMac 27, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Jan 9, 2015 7:27 AM

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8 replies

Jan 10, 2015 6:17 PM in response to DLFoy

So I then assume that you want to know when removal app can figure out if another app installed any malware and if so, then remove it? Of if not, just remove "all" the pieces associated with the app?


Is that your "wish"?


If so, I doubt that is gonna be possible. People are pretty clever about how to get bogus software installed as part of another app that appears to be OK, so think it's gonna come down to having somebody else, just as clever hopefully, maybe even more clever, to figure out what exactly is part of an app and then how to remove all of it's pieces. Stick with installing reputable software from the App Store or reputable developers - then you don't need to worry so much about malware.


The two apps that Eric Root referred to are popular. I use one called "AppCleaner 2". I've used AppZapper but not AppDelete. Between AppZapper and AppCleaner I prefer the latter cause it shows you the exact path of the items it's about to delete where AppZapper just shows the name (not the path which is very important I think), plus AppCleaner seems to do a more thorough job at finding more files pertaining to the app you're trying to get rid of. For example here is what AppZapper and AppCleaner show when removing the same app named AppleWadministrator:


User uploaded file

.

User uploaded file

So AppCleaner found two other files that AppZapper didn't and it shows the paths of all items that it wants to delete.


But like Eric Root also said - double check all the files that the app cleaner is gonna delete and make sure they make sense.


Another thing that has helped me many times is to take a screenshot of the app cleaner window - this lets you have a record of the files that were deleted for a particular app (and also the path it came from for AppCleaner but not for App Zapper) so in case you need to recover things from the trash later you know where they should be moved back to.


Not sure if the "AppDelete" Eric Root referred to is the "AppDelete Lite" in the App Store or not, but if it is, it's $3.99. AppZapper costs $12.95 (but I'v seen it for about half that in MacUpdate promos) and AppCleaner is free, but they can't be obtained from App Store, but from the developers website. Also the "AppDelete Lite" hasn't been updated since May 2014, so it's not clear if it supports Yosemite or not. There is a version called "AppDelete" from the same developer as the "AppDelete Lite" so they must be similar. The AppDelete says it's $7.99 on the developer web site at (but apparently not available on the App Store) and they also have a free trial for the "AppDelete" version. Apparently the main difference between the two versions of AppDelete and AppDelete Lite, is the Lite version can't remove password-protected files to the trash because "App Store apps cannot ask for passwords" according to the developer website at http://www.reggieashworth.com/appdeletelite - the user must do the removal manually with the Lite version but not the full version.


I just checked RoaringApps website for OS X compatibility and:


AppCleaner -- works on version 10.6 thru 10.10 (Snow Leopard thru Yosemite)

AppDelete -- works on version 10.7 thru 10.9 (Lion thru Mavericks)

AppZapper -- works on version 10.6 thru 10.10 (Snow Leopard thru Yosemite)


AppZapper can be found at http://www.appzapper.com


AppCleaner can be found at http://www.freemacsoft.net


So maybe Eric Root has some experience and could compare AppDelete with AppCleaner and say if AppDelete is worth paying $8 for the full version or $4 for the Lite version or if AppCleaner for free has some deficiencies compared to AppDelete.


Good luck...

What is the safest app remover for OS X ?

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