How to fully uninstall apps on Mac and remove leftover files

On Mac, dragging an app to the Trash removes the app bundle — the thing in your Applications folder. It doesn't touch the preferences, caches, support files, or launch agents the app scattered around your Library. Over time those leftovers add up. Here's how to clean them out.

Why "drag to Trash" isn't enough

macOS apps are self-contained bundles, but most of them write data to your ~/Library folder when they first run. That's by design — it's where preferences, cached data, and app-specific files live. When you delete the app, macOS doesn't automatically clean any of that up. It stays on your drive indefinitely.

For a small app you used once, it doesn't matter much. For a large app like Lightroom, Xcode, or a game, leftover folders can easily run into several gigabytes.

What gets left behind

The usual locations for app leftovers are:

• ~/Library/Application Support/AppName/ — saved state, user data, local databases
• ~/Library/Preferences/com.company.appname.plist — preferences file
• ~/Library/Caches/com.company.appname/ — cached data (usually safe to delete)
• ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.company.appname.plist — a background agent that may still be running even after the app is deleted
• /Library/Application Support/AppName/ — system-level files installed by apps that needed admin access

Not every app uses all of these — a simple utility might only write a single preferences file. But complex apps can spread files across all of them.

The easy way: use AppCleaner

AppCleaner is a free Mac app that automates all of this. When you drag an app onto its window (or use its built-in browser), it finds all the associated files and lets you delete everything in one go. It's accurate, fast, and has been actively maintained for years.

You can download it from freemacsoft.net. There's no catch — it's genuinely free.

This is the method most people should use. The manual approach below is useful if you want more control or if you're dealing with an app AppCleaner doesn't recognise.

The manual way: find leftovers with Terminal

First, delete the app itself from /Applications by dragging it to Trash. For Mac App Store apps, you can hold Option in Launchpad and click the X.

Then open Terminal (Applications → Utilities → Terminal) and search for leftover files by the app's name:

# search Library for anything matching the app name (case-insensitive)
find ~/Library -name "*appname*" -maxdepth 4 2>/dev/null

Replace appname with part of the app's name or bundle identifier. The output lists every matching file and folder. Review the results before deleting — some of them might be data you want to keep (browser profiles, for example, are stored in Library but you almost certainly want those).

To delete the Application Support folder:

# remove the app's support folder (replace AppName with the actual folder name)
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/AppName

To remove the preferences file via the defaults system (cleaner than just deleting the plist):

# delete the app's stored preferences
defaults delete com.company.appname

If you don't know the exact bundle identifier, look for a .plist file in ~/Library/Preferences/ with the app's name in it.

Check for launch agents

Some apps install a background process that keeps running even after the app is removed. If you deleted an app and it still appears in Activity Monitor, or if you see its name in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/, the agent is still active.

Check for leftover agents:

# list your personal launch agents
ls ~/Library/LaunchAgents/

If you see a .plist for an app you've deleted, you can remove it — but unload it first so it stops running immediately:

# stop and remove a leftover launch agent
launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.company.appname.plist
rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.company.appname.plist

A few things worth keeping

Before deleting anything, be aware of these common cases where Library files are actually data you want:

• Browser data — Chrome, Firefox, and Brave all store your profile in ~/Library/Application Support/. Deleting it removes your history, bookmarks, and saved passwords.
• Game saves — Some games store save files in Application Support. If you might reinstall the game, keep those.
• Mail attachments — Apple Mail stores downloaded attachments in ~/Library/Mail/. This folder can be large but deleting it removes your offline copies.

The rule is simple: if the app stored user-generated content in Library, think before you delete. Caches and preferences are almost always safe to remove. Application Support data needs a second look.