If you actually did want to remove any of these built-in apps from your Mac, you’d have to disable System Integrity Protection first. We don’t recommend that. However, you can re-enable SIP after and your Mac won’t mind that you’ve deleted Chess.app and other built-in system apps. Really, we recommend you don’t do this. Some apps, such as the built-in Podcasts app, allow you to remove downloaded episodes directly from within the iPhone Storage screen. Others may allow you to delete data from within the app. If you can’t do either, consider offloading or deleting the app.
Installing a new application on Mac is such a simple task and even when you don’t want it anymore, you can finally get rid of it by uninstalling it. This might look simple and easy to note for, but some cases of uninstallation do not remove stubborn apps, or their leftover data as should have been. Their tag along run in the system and takes over your precious space without letting you know.
If this is what you are facing, begin with restarting the system and remove the applications once again. Even after this if the stubbornness remains alive, let’s go ahead!
How To Delete Apps On Mac Using Manual Method?
The most basic and simple method that you must be using by now is deleting apps by dragging it into the trash. This method has been mentioned for confirmation whether you are following it correctly or not. Plus, don’t forget to take these steps right after restarting the system once again.
Step 1: Close the program which you want to delete.
Step 2: Reach to the Applications folder or click the hard disk icon. In fact, you can search for a particular application by searching it in Finder.
Step 3: Drag the icon to the Trash. Finally, empty the trash to delete apps on mac.
How To Delete Apps On Mac That Won’t Delete?
Because all the programs and apps on mac store themselves in the Application directory, you need to make some extra efforts to remove orphan files from the system.
To begin with, you need to repeat the steps mentioned above or uninstall the application by dragging in the trash & emptying it.
After this, open Library > Preferences. How?
Step 1: Open Finder and choose Go option from the menu.
Step 2: Once the menu unfolds, press the Option key for a few seconds until the Library option appears on the screen. Open the files by searching the name of software using Spotlight and draw them into the trash as soon as found.
And it’s done!
But the question is, do you really wish to follow a long method? And what if you want to uninstall multiple apps at the same time? We do not want you to search for the topic of ‘how to delete apps on mac’ every time, and hence recommending an easy way out.
How To Delete Apps On Mac That Won’t Delete Using A Smart Tool?
Now that you have been looking for a smart and efficient tool to delete apps on mac, we would like to recommend tried, tested and trusted by many, Smart Mac Care!
Now as the name says, this tool is taking care of your system at one end whereas helping in uninstallation of unwanted applications on another.
Smart Mac Care though contains many advanced features of its own, Uninstaller has major quality of improving the performance and space in Mac by scanning the unused apps and providing an option to delete them.
You do not even need to bring unwanted applications to the software as Smart Mac Care deals with such situations just like that.
If you look for what it can do more, duplicate files remover, disk usage with capacity, memory optimizer, and privacy protection are other unmissable features of the same.
How to Remove Apps Using Smart Mac Care?
Step 1: Install Smart Mac Care by clicking on the ‘Download’ link below.
Download now and save $20 on Smart Mac Care!
Step 2: The application will itself scan through the system to find the status of various parts of the system. Do not worry about the time taken as deep scanning does take some time!
Step 3: Reach the Uninstaller by coming to the panel of Advanced Features as shown in the image above.
Step 4: The scanning has already shown results to which you can select which app needs to be deleted and which ones not by marking on the white box beside. Select ‘Clean Now’ once selected.
This way, you can delete multiple applications, even those you were not aware of and lying in the system idle and eating space.
How To Delete Apps On Mac From Mac App Store?
If you do not want a particular application on the page of the Mac App store even, you have control for the same. Don’t worry, you can update or download it back from iTunes, in case future call its need.
So what you need to do is:
Step 1: Open the Launchpad by pressing F4 or clicking on the ‘Rocket’ icon.
Step 2: Now whatever is opened in front will be taken over by app icons.
Step 3: Click on the unwanted app for a longer time and all the other icons will show some buzzing. Do not worry, just click on ‘X’ sign above unwanted app and select ‘Delete’ from the next prompt.
And it’s done!
What Are The Advantages Of Deleting Apps On Mac?
Let’s just say that even if you are not an organized person in real life, an organized space of computer system saves you from many problems in the near future. Let’s just look at why you should consider deleting those apps on the Mac that are not in use.
Saves space for tomorrow: As you delete unwanted apps today, you are able to save a good space chunk for the future. Here, you can store new apps, movies, videos, and pictures with better space optimization.
Performance Improvement: If you think that cluttered disk space doesn’t matter to the working performance, think again. When one part of the machine is not running straight, how could others be? And this is why your computer works better when optimum space is present by deleting unwanted apps on Mac.
Finally!
All the self-contained applications that an app invites into your system can be easily removed, hence removing even the last trace. From the various methods mentioned above, you can pick any of the manual method. But to be absolutely sure and let the work be done carefreely will definitely want you to try Smart Mac Care.
Now that when you search for information on how to delete apps on mac that won’t delete, don’t stop trying new tools and giving yourself space and performance.
If you have found out the solution you came here for, let us know in the comment section below. Along with that, we welcome your suggestions and feedback as well. At the same time, do not forget to keep an eye on our Facebook & YouTube page for more updates.
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MacBook storage issue is still a relevant one in 2021. The promised 1 TB of storage — which is the capacity of the MacBook Air 2020 — will still be not enough for many. We generate more and more content on our devices and use apps that are bursting with cache files. This is what creates the cryptic category of “Other” storage on Mac.
On recent macOS versions this storage category is labeled “other volumes in container”. Which, of course, doesn’t make it any less cryptic. This category contains junk files as well as important ones. That’s why you have to learn to properly check storage on Mac. So let’s figure out what Other Storage is and how to remove Other from your Mac.
What is Other on Mac Storage?
Simply, Other storage on Mac consists of files that do not easily fall into the clearer category labels like 'Audio.' The types of 'Other' files would include:
Documents like PDF, .psd, .doc, etc.
macOS system and temporary files.
Cache files like user cache, browser cache, and system cache.
Disk images and archives like .zip and .dmg.
App plugins and extensions.
Everything else that doesn’t fit into the main macOS categories.
Like this file:
What’s this? A song? An unknown archive? Why on Earth it weighs 200 MB?
How to check Mac disk space usage
A few years back Apple introduced “Optimized Storage”, a great feature for finding out how your disk space is structured. This is how to check storage on Mac.
Open the Apple menu (top right corner)
Now, click About this Mac >Storage
Is your disk approaching full capacity? Now, click “Manage.” The sidebar to the left is really enlightening. This is the only place where on your Mac it shows the size of your apps, books, and documents in gigabytes.
Where is Other Storage on a Mac
To show you where it is, let’s look at your Library. This is where your macOS keeps application components, widgets, and various cache archives. This part of your Mac is hidden from view for a reason. Messing up a few folders here may break your Mac. But let’s take a look: Click on Finder > Go (in the top menu). Now paste in: Library/Caches
See those small folders? This is where your “Other” storage is. You’ve found it. Now, we'll see what's possible to delete.
How to delete Other Storage on Mac
You can’t entirely get rid of Other on Mac but you can reduce how much storage space it takes up. We’re now going to look at each of the six types of Other files and show you how to clean up your Mac. We’re going to walk you through deleting useless documents, junk system files, system slowing cache files, old backups, and all sorts of other junk.
1. Remove documents from Other Storage space
Joker games for free. You might not think that pure text documents take up a lot of space but you may be surprised at the size of some .pages and .csv files. And that’s before you start adding images, downloading ebooks, and creating big presentations. Soon your Other documents can start to get out of hand.
To find and remove large and unneeded documents from Other Storage manually:
From your desktop press Command + F.
Click This Mac.
Click the first dropdown menu field and select Other.
From the Search Attributes window tick File Size and File Extension.
Now you can input different document file types (.pdf, .pages, etc.) and file sizes to find large documents.
Review the items and then delete as needed.
Luckily, there’s a much quicker and more thorough way. By using a CleanMyMac X you are presented with a clear view of all the massive files occupying your Other space.
To locate large hidden files in all folders with CleanMyMac:
Open CleanMyMac X and click on Large & Old Files tab
Click big Scan button to start the search
Now, review the results broken down by different categories: archives, documents, movies etc.
Look through your files and delete the ones you no longer need.
What’s great about this method is that you can sort the files by their size and thus free up space most effectively. And there’s a special category for Other files that don’t fit into either category. These files can be also moved to another folder/separate disk or could be removed securely.
You can download CleanMyMac X here (it's free to download from developer's site). In the top right bar (where the time and language is displayed) you’ll find a small Mac icon that takes you to the CleanMyMac X’s Menu.
Click on CleanMyMac X Menu icon (within the upper bar)
Locate windows for Trash and Dropbox
Click Empty to instantly free up space
No try it and see how it helps you slim down Other storage on Mac. Deleting your old files alone can recover you tons of space, but there are more space hoggers that fall under the Other data category.
2. Clean up Other space of system and temporary files
Every second your Mac is on, the macOS creates and piles up system files — logs, for example. At some point, the system needs these files, but they quickly become outdated and just sit there wasting your disk space. And guess what, they are in the Other Mac storage category, too.
These files are mostly temporary but they never actually go away unless you do something about it. The difficulty is that Apple hasn’t made it easy to clear out system files. There’s a good reason for this – people often delete things they shouldn’t.
Let's inspect your Library folder
To manually find where a majority of apps temporary files live navigate to ~/Users/User/Library/Application Support/. In this folder you will find your applications and some searching will reveal a lot of space being taken up. For example, your may have gigabytes worth of old iOS backups in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup.
You could delete these manually but a much safer and faster method is to use a specialist cleaning app like CleanMyMac X. It has a System Junk module that specifically looks for useless system files and knows what’s safe to delete.
Here’s how to easily remove system files from Other Storage:
Go to System Junk in CleanMyMac.
Hit Scan.
Hit Clean.
That’s pretty much it. Seriously. If this is the first time you ever cleaned your Mac, you’ll see that the OS X Other storage tab has shrunk considerably after the system junk cleanup.
Using this method I was able to additionally delete 4.75 GB of 'System Junk' from my MacBook.
3. Delete cache files from Other data section
Cache files are not just another invisible storage hog. They are often one of the worst offenders, often taking up gigabytes of precious space. The three main types cache are – browser, user, and system. Cache files are meant to help your system work faster, but over time they get bigger and bigger, eventually slowing your system down.
To manually clear cache files on Mac:
Navigate to Go > Go To Folder.
Type in ~/Library/Caches and click Go.
Click-hold Option and drag the Caches folder to your desktop as a backup in case something goes wrong.
Select all the files in the Caches folder.
Drag them to the Trash.
Empty Trash.
Follow the same steps for /Library/Caches (without the “~”) and ~/Library/Logs. Cache files sit in numerous folders, and with a little patience, you can clean them out manually (read more detailed instruction on clearing cache).
Did you know: Each time you rotate an image it’s copy is automatically created on your drive. So, just 4 rotations are enough to turn a 2.5 MB file into 10 MB of disk space occupied.
Manage Storage On Mac Won't Delete Apps Automatically
For those who don’t have the time or are worried about deleting the wrong files, CleanMyMac can quickly and safely do the job.
If you already cleaned out system files from step 2, congratulations, in doing so you also cleared out your cache files. If you didn’t, here are the steps again:
Go to System Junk in CleanMyMac.
Hit Scan.
Hit Clean.
This will clear all the cache files on your Mac and considerably reduce Other storage on your Mac.
4. Remove app plugins and extensions from Other storage
Another cool way to manage storage on Mac. While apps are, unsurprisingly, categorized as Apps on the Storage bar, their add-ons are under the Other storage category.Compared to some types of files, app plugins and extensions probably won’t take up as much of your Mac's Other space. Still, every bit counts. Since extensions can sometimes cause other problems on your Mac, why not remove the ones you don’t use to be safe and free up some extra Other storage space at the same time?
Tracking down all your add-ons can be a hassle. Some you’ve forgotten you had (like that nCage extension for Chrome), others you didn’t know of in the first place.
Here’s how to manually remove extensions from Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
To remove extensions from Safari:
Open Safari browser.
Click on Preferences.
Click on the Extensions tab.
Select the extension you want to target and uncheck “Enable” to disable or click “Uninstall” to remove.
To remove extensions from Chrome browser:
Can't Delete Apps On Mac
Open Chrome.
Click the three dot icon in the top-right corner.
Click More tools > Extensions.
Disable or remove as you choose.
To remove extensions from Firefox:
Open Mozilla Firefox browser.
Click on the burger menu in the top-right corner.
Choose Add-ons.
From the Extensions and Plugins tabs disable and remove whatever you want.
Important! If you’re not sure what a plugin does, don’t rush to remove it. Try disabling it first and see if your apps and your system work as expected. You can always remove that add-on later. Also note that Chrome extensions can’t be deleted automatically. But if you’d like to get rid of them, we’ll list these extensions for you and tell how to do that manually.
5. Clear Other space of disk images and archives
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Normally, archives and images are files you keep for a reason. However, if you think you might have accumulated some useless .zip and .dmg files on your Mac, then you should definitely clear them out as well.
You can find these files using Spotlight search:
Open Finder.
Type DMG/ZIP in the search field.
Select Search: This Mac.
Sort the results by Size.
Finder will show you all files of the format you’ve specified, sorted by size. You can clean out those you don’t need.
To safely and easily remove all your old unused disk images, CleanMyMac X has a dedicated tool within the System Junk module. Everything is categorized so you have a better understanding of what you’re removing.
Go to System Junk module in CleanMyMac X.
Click Scan and when it’s done, click Review Details.
Now you get a detailed overview of some ultra-specific categories of files that are normally invisible to you. Among those you’ll see Unused Disk Images (another name for DMG installations). Then, there’s Old Updates — you would like to remove those too. Old Updates are past versions of update packages that you already got installed.
Do you often use graphic editors like Photoshop or Sketch? Then, you’ll probably be fascinated by Document Versions feature. If you click on Document Versions tab (System Junk > Scan > Review Details), you’ll be able to see how much of your space is taken by large document re-edits. Imagine a 60 MB Photoshop file cloned 10 times with just slight differences. In CleanMyMac X you can delete these intermediate revisions. And, handy enough, the program keeps just the original file and its final revision on the drive.
6. Get rid of everything else from Other disk space
Delete App Off Mac
Even Other storage space has its own “other” files and no, the irony of that statement is not lost on us.
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Other storage on Mac can also include:
Files in your user library (screen savers, for example).
Files Spotlight search doesn’t recognize.
Typically, they won’t be as big of a share of Other data on your Mac as cache files and other items we’ve cleared out. However, if you’re determined to clean out as much Other Mac storage as possible, here’s how you can delete screensavers:
Open Finder.
In the Menu bar, select Go > Go to Folder.
Type this: ~/Library/Screen Savers and click Go.
You’ll see the screen saver files now — they are lightweight, but for the sake of being thorough, you can trash them as well.
As for files Spotlight doesn’t recognize, they are rare. They could include files like Windows Boot Camp partitions or virtual machine hard drives. If you don’t recall putting anything like that on your Mac, you probably have nothing to look for.
7. See your disk contents through a Space Lens
Some apps, like Daisy Disk or CleanMyMac create a visual map of your entire drive. It’s an amazing way to see your Mac as it is under the hood — with bubbles of different sizes representing each file category. But what’s most important, you can delete your useless files right from there. It's so cool you can manage storage on Mac in a visual way:
Run the Space Lens tool in CleanMyMac X — A link to a free version from developer’s site
Explore the bubbles
Delete files you don’t need
How much can you expect to delete from Other storage on Mac?
You’ll never remove Other data section from Mac entirely, nor should you want to. It’s perfectly fine to have space taken up by necessary files, whatever category label they have. What is not okay is valuable storage space being wasted.
Download CleanMyMac and follow the steps in this guide to clean gigabytes off Other storage on your Mac. Your lighter and faster Mac will love you for it. =)