uninstall font book?

Question

Level 2

202 points

uninstall font book?

I am using Suitcase Fusion 7 to manage my fonts and I want to delete Font Book altogether. I can't seem to make that happen. I get "this app is required by the system" or "The operation can't be completed because you don't have the necessary permission."

Specs: MBP (Retina, Late 2013), Mac OS High Sierra v10.13.4

I disabled SIP, and then tried to change the permissions in the Get Info box and then delete. That didn't work.

I have tried to use the venerable Kurt Lang's instructions here to no avail. In Terminal (with SIP still disabled), entering sudo rm -r /Applications/Font\ Book.app produced the following:

override rw-r--r--
root/wheel restricted,compressed for /Applications/Font Book.app/Contents/_CodeSignature/CodeResources?

My next step is going to be to repair permissions, as it has been a while since I've done that, and the above message suggests something with permissions.

Please advise if anyone else has any brighter ideas.

Can Font Book be disabled if not removed?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.4)

Posted on May 27, 2018 8:33 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,152 points

May 27, 2018 9:26 AM in response to Dina

Hello Dina,

Per the notes in my article, you need to either temporarily disable System Integrity Protection, or boot to another drive/partition on that Mac in order to remove Font Book.

You can sort of "disable" Font Book, but only by never double clicking on any font, since that would cause Font Book to launch and recreate its database. It's much better to remove Font Book so it can never interfere with your preferred font manager.

I know you mentioned that you had disabled SIP, but it must still be active, or you wouldn't get the message that Font Book is required by the OS. You would simply be prompted for your admin password in order to move FB to the trash.

Reply

Answer 2

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,152 points

May 27, 2018 9:39 AM in response to Kurt Lang

I see what you mean. Apple changed things again in 10.13.4 as they move macOS to be more like iOS.

Disabling SIP no longer allows you to drag Font Book (or any other app installed by the OS) to the trash. Instead of saying the app is required by the OS, it instead says the app can't be deleted.

However, once SIP is disabled, the Terminal command to remove Font Book does still work.

Reply

uninstall font book?

Similar questions