This article was co-authored by Chiara Corsaro.Chiara Corsaro is the General Manager and Apple Certified Mac & iOS Technician for macVolks, Inc., an Apple Authorized Service Provider located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Was founded in 1990, is accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) with an A+ rating, and is part of the Apple Consultants Network (ACN). Removing an app may also remove all data for that app. Make sure you have any information you need backed up before removing an app for your Mac. To Remove an App Installed from the App Store. Open the Launchpad from the dock. Click and hold on an icon until all icons start to jiggle. Click the 'x' on the top left of the icon you want to remove. How to delete apps from your Dock; How to delete apps downloaded from the Mac App Store. Deleting an app you downloaded from the Mac App Store is a lot like deleting an app from your iPhone. Open Launchpad on your Mac. This can be done by clicking the Launchpad icon on your Dock, tapping F4 in the function row, or performing a four-finger pinch. Click X from the top-left corner of the unwanted app’s icon (PDF Reader Pro Free for this example), and click Delete in the confirmation box. This uninstalls the app from your Mac. This uninstalls the app from your Mac.
So you’ve had your Mac for a while, and things don’t feel as fresh and clean as they used to? Although Macs don’t require a lot of maintenance for cleaning, those temporary files, app leftovers, and system cache do accumulate. These files may slow down your machine and take up a lot of valuable space. In this article, we share quick and easy ways to clean up your MacBook. Let’s get started!
How to clean your Mac automatically
Here’s a simple diagram to explain the most common types of computer junk, sorted by size. Some of these, like Trash bin files, are easily reachable, while others are stored away in hidden system folders. Sadly, there’s no easy way to clear them up without special skills.
If you don’t feel like spending the next several hours cleaning your Mac manually, you can use a powerful cleaning tool CleanMyMac X to find and remove all the clutter your Mac contains. It knows which files are useless, how to find them and remove completely. CleanMyMac has everything to finish the 3-hour task of a Mac cleanup in under 5 minutes. It will even clean up the junk you didn’t know about and give your computer a speed boost.
How to clean up system storage on Mac with CleanMyMac X:
- Download CleanMyMac X for free here.
- Run the app and go to System Junk.
- Click Scan.
- Press Clean to get rid of all junk.
Done! Now your Mac looks much better!
How to Clean Mac Hard Drive Manually
If you never performed an automatic or manual system cleaning — it means that your Mac has been collecting unnecessary files and clutter for years. You can quickly clean up your Mac with these easy steps.
1. Clean up cache
You’ve probably heard “Remove your cache” as a web browser troubleshooting tip. In fact, your Mac stores a lot of information in files called caches, allowing fast access to that data and reducing the need to get it from the original source again. Unfortunately, those files take a lot of space on your Mac, and instead of speeding the things up, they slow your computer down. Therefore, if you want to give your system a boost, clean your Mac from the cache files.
There are two ways to do that: you can delete them manually or use a MacBook cleaner like CleanMyMac X to do the job for you. Of course, the second way is an easy and fast one. However, if you decide to clean up the cache manually, check out a comprehensive guide on “How to Clear Cache on a Mac.”
2. Uninstall apps you don’t use
The applications you’ve installed on your Mac take up space, of course. And over time when your Mac becomes full of different apps, it may start running slowly. How to clean MacBook? In the first place, you need to remove the apps you no longer use or need. To do this, right-click on the app you want to remove and choose Move to Bin.
You may be surprised to find out that sending an app to the Trash will not uninstall it completely because the app leftovers still remain on your Mac taking up a lot of storage. So, if you want to be a responsible Mac user, you need to uninstall applications the right way. Here’s a step-by-step guide on “How to Uninstall Apps on a Mac.”
Extra step: Trim down your login items
Login items are applications that run automatically upon startup. Nowadays, every second app tries to become as prominent as possible and get into your Login Items. First of all, you may not even know what they are (not all of them appear in the Dock). Secondly, such apps consume memory. That's enough reasons to get rid of extra login items you don't need.
- Open System Preferences.
- Go to Users & Groups.
- Choose your nickname on the left.
- Choose the Login Items tab.
- Check startup programs you want to remove.
- Press the “–” sign below.
You’re done.
3. Clean out useless duplicates
Identical photos, music tracks you’ve added one time too many, saved and re-saved PDF files… all of that sits on your Mac and gobbles up storage. The storage that could be used for better purposes.
So how do you quickly weed them out? The fastest way is to use Gemini 2: The Duplicate Cleaner.
- Download and launch the app
- Click “Scan for Duplicates”, and watch as it quickly fetches them from different corners of your Mac.
- Once the scan is done, hit Review Results and check which copies you want to remove.
- Click Smart Cleanup to delete everything you’ve selected.
That's it. Now your Mac should be completely duplicate-free.
4. Empty the trash
Even though you’ve deleted the files, they reside in your Trash bin taking up a lot of storage on your Mac. They are just waiting to be removed completely. If you want your precious hard drive space back, you need to empty the Trash.
Here’s how to clean your MacBook from the trash:
- Click and hold on the Trash can icon in the Dock.
- Click Empty and then Empty Bin.
The process is quite simple, right? There is even a more effortless way to clear Trash. CleanMyMac X scans your Mac for junk and lets you remove all trashed files. To do that, launch CleanMyMac X and press Scan. When the scan is completed, click Review Details to see what exactly CleanMyMac X has found.
I’ve already cleaned Bin a couple of weeks before, but over some time, almost a gigabyte of trashed files has accumulated. Now, I can simply click Back to Summary and then Run to clean Trash and system junk.
5. Reduce clutter
Apple has already thought about the clutter that can be generated on the Macs and provided a possible solution. Here’s how to reduce clutter on your Mac:
- Go to the Apple menu.
- Choose About This Mac and then Storage. Here you can see how much free space is left on your computer.
- Then click Manage.
Here’re some recommendations for saving space on your Mac. You can choose Review Files to examine apps, documents, and other files that are stored on your Mac.
But that's not all, it also enable to organize the startup programs that may slow down the PC by disabling them. ConclusionAfter a careful evaluation and testing + experimenting with 7 Mac cleaning apps, we have found that CleanGeeker is the best software among them, as it is offering a marvelous combination of essential specifications with an impressive user interface. It also helps to boost the browser speed by erasing cache, cookies, malicious extensions and plugins. It's the easiest tool to from the system as well as those heavy unnecessary language files, which takes up a lot of space.Moreover, uninstalling program and apps with this tool is phenomenal as it also erases every single data file generated by the app. What is the best mac cleaning app. However be careful not to delete files or features that are important unknowingly.
You can choose any file in every category (Applications, Bin, Documents, etc.) and click Delete to remove it and optimize space. Look through other recommendations and make the necessary changes to use your Mac’s space more efficiently.
6. Delete large and old files
It has always been a rule of thumb among computer geeks, that you should keep a minimum of 15-20% of free space on your main hard drive. This is just a rough estimation, but the more free space you have, the faster your Mac works. A computer magazine once performed a test on this, which concluded that the difference in speed can reach as much as 35%. If you work with heavy graphics or video rendering, even more free space is recommended.
How to have more free space? Delete large and old files.
The first way is totally manual and requires you to find them one by one, while for the second way, you just need to make two clicks and CleanMyMac X will do the job for you.
How to clean up Mac with CleanMyMac X:
- Download CleanMyMac X (a link to a free edition of the app)
- Launch the program.
- Go to the Large and Old Files section on the menu.
- Click Scan.
- Review the details, select what to clean and then click Clean.
That’s it!
7. Remove old iOS backups
Having your files backed up is a wonderful thing. But over time your Mac becomes overloaded with old backups that take gigabytes of storage on your hard drive. That’s why you should consider removing the old iOS backups you no longer need.
Each backup remains stored on your computer and is accessible via iTunes. To delete the old backups, you need to do the following:
How To Delete An App On A Mac Pro
- Choose the Apple menu and then select About This Mac.
- Go to the Storage tab and click Manage.
- Here, choose iOS Files.
- Select the backup you want to remove and click Delete.
- Confirm and you’re done!
How To Delete Apps From Macbook Pro
That’s it! The backup files are gone from your Mac forever.
8. Wipe out Language files
Unused language localizations take up about 1 GB of storage space. Mac applications come with language files for every language they support. It allows starting using the app in that language immediately. Cool, right? Not always. Just consider: when was the last time you used the app in Bengali or Korean? Since you don’t speak those languages, such files just waste space on your Mac. You need to remove the unnecessary language files and clean MacBook from that clutter.
How to delete the language files? Go to Finder > Applications, then right-click the app which language files you want to remove and choose Show Package Contents. Open the Resources folder and then find folders ending with “.lproj.” Every folder contains language files for one particular language. Note that for every app you should manually find and select the files to remove. But there is an automatic way to delete the language files that will save you tons of time — CleanMyMac X. Just download the application (for free) and it will do the job for you.
9. Delete old DMGs
Disk images (DMGs) often take up valuable space on your Mac. Here’s how to perform a Mac cleanup and get rid of those files:
- Open Finder and type “disk image” in the search bar.
- Then delete all files that have .dmg extensions. Don’t forget to remove them from Trash as well.
CleanMyMac X allows you to locate and delete DMGs quicker. With its System Junk module you can remove unused disk image in the single click of a button:
Linux portable tar users: No install required, simply extract the archive and run it.You can drag the Shotcut folder to copy and move it wherever you want. If double-clicking the icon in your file manager does not launch Shotcut, open Shotcut.app, and try double-clicking the shotcut shell script. Install apps on mac shortuct.
Just press Clean and it’s done!
10. Remove duplicates
Useless copies of your documents, files, and photos eat up your Mac’s precious space. Therefore, if you wonder how to clean up a Mac and boost its performance, try to delete the duplicates. Note that the process of finding and removing the duplicates requires either a lot of patience and time (if you decide to delete them manually) or a duplicate finder app. Whatever method you choose, make sure to check out this article on “How to Find Duplicates on Mac.”
11. Tidy up your desktop
Many people use Desktop as their primary destination for files. But this could be tricky because your OS treats every file on a desktop as an active window. When items on your desktop are too many, Finder gets substantially slower. This leads us to the most compelling advice in this article — cleaning up desktop does miracles!
In either case, you can again access the hidden folder using the Go To Folder option. Hide folders mac app. Instead of something more intriguing ( Top secret). This moves the original folder to one with a period at the beginning of its name; by default, folders with periods at the beginning of their names are hidden in OS X. 6: Hide in plain sightUse innocent-sounding filenames such as Cat videos January 2013— LOL! You can also type mkdir.hiddenfolder to create a new hidden folder.
Rather than just leaving every file on your desktop, organize them into folders. The latest macOS does that automatically thanks to the Stacks feature. You can also use Google Drive, Dropbox or any external storage device to save your files and keep your desktop tidy.
12. Clean your Mac’s keyboard
Our last but not least advice is to wipe your Mac’s keyboard. As you use your keyboard daily, it quickly gets dirty. Moreover, all those crumbs may live under the keys forever!
If you were wondering how to clean Mac’s keyboard, there are no special rules here. You can try blowing the dust and other particles out of your keyboard once in a while. Disinfecting wipes and alcohol-based sprays may also prove useful. Just choose the piece of fabric and wipe the keys gently to make them clean and shiny!
All in all, be careful with your system files. Don’t delete things you’re not sure about. If you are not completely confident that you can manage the task by yourself, better use a dedicated utility like CleanMyMac X to get a fresh and clean Mac in just two clicks. Here's the video describing quick tips to clean up your Mac:
Happy cleaning!
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Have you ever installed an app on your MacBook Pro only to find that it isn’t quite what you’re looking for? Maybe you just used an app for a while, but it’s no longer needed.
Whether you’re trying to save space on your hard drive or just want to get rid of bothersome app files, uninstalling these apps can be bothersome. Especially if you’re new to the Mac, the process of deleting unwanted apps can be confusing.
In this guide, we’ll show you some built-in, free, and paid methods for clearing up apps thoroughly; together with the pros and cons of each method.
We’ll also point out some additional features that will also free up space and keep your MacBook Pro from getting bogged down with old files.
1. Move to Trash
While you may have used the trash for standard files like old documents and images, the trash is a method of uninstalling apps on your MacBook as well. Here’s how to do it:
First, open Finder and locate the app you want to delete. Select it by clicking once, so that it is highlighted.
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Then, press control + trackpad to bring up the supplementary menu. Here, you can select Move to Trash. Once you do, the application will be automatically moved to the trash and disappear from the Finder window you are viewing.
Once the application is in the trash, you can no longer use it. However, it is still taking up space on your computer until you empty the trash. To do this, open the Trash from your dock, then navigate to the top right corner of the window, where it says “Empty”.
Once you empty the trash, the window will close automatically, and you’ll have regained some valuable disk space for future use.
2. Uninstall Apps with AppCleaner
One software you can use to remove unwanted applications is AppCleaner. Because third-party applications distribute their files throughout your disk rather than storing them in a single location, you may accidentally leave chunks of the application on your Mac even after you think you’ve deleted it. AppCleaner will make sure to catch these extra files, even when you don’t know they exist.
Pros:
- It’s completely free.
- Extremely effective at removing hidden extra folders when you want to get rid of an entire application rather than just the surface level files.
- Easy to use, simply drag unwanted apps into the window and let AppCleaner find all the files associated with it
Cons:
- Downloading an app to remove apps seems a bit counterproductive.
- Doesn’t have support/a help reference, but the app should be pretty easy to use anyways.
3. Remove Apps with CCleaner
Just like AppCleaner, CCleaner for Mac will remove hidden files associated with an unwanted app. However, it has a greater variety of features and tools. If you’re looking for something a wider set of abilities, this might be the more fitting app.
Pros:
- Fast and easy application uninstaller for catching unseen folders.
- Also includes general file cleaner for places where temporary files collect and eat up space such as Safari’s catch, preferences, and downloads.
- Junk files can be scheduled for regular deletion so you can worry about more important tasks.
Cons:
- If you want to access all the features, you’ll need to pay for the upgraded version.
- Some users report complications when trying to select which files to delete and which to keep.
4. Via CleanMyMac Uninstaller
If you want a sleek, long-term solution to ridding yourself of unwanted apps and files, CleanMyMac X is a well-developed app that will keep your Mac in top shape. In addition to offering the smart Uninstaller that allows you to remove apps in batch and grabs hidden folders, it can also scan for junk files and securely delete sensitive files. Made by MacPaw, it’s an application you can trust to work smoothly and do exactly what it claims to.
Pros:
- Smart uninstaller makes sure all files associated with a program are deleted and not left behind to take up space.
- Clean out system junk and unnecessary files with tools to delete unwanted attachments or full caches.
- Integrates with iPhoto (now Photos) to reduce space taken by photos on your Mac.
- The combination of tools will help make any MacBook that feels sluggish get back to speed with very little effort on your part.
- Plenty of support and help resources, an extremely clean interface for easy and intuitive use.
Cons:
- Not a free software (though a trial version is available and allows you to remove up to 500 MB data), this is understandable given the breadth of features available.
5. Via MacBooster Uninstaller
Another great alternative for clearing out old apps and programs is MacBooster, made by IOBit. Besides removing apps from your MacBook, it also includes a built-in junk file remover and a duplicate file identifier. The duplicate identifier is especially useful because it can eliminate everything from double pictures to over-saved documents, among other files that can quickly add up over time.
Pros:
- Clean and simple interface, intuitive to use.
- Combines duplicate file searching program with junk file eliminator for the greatest level of excess file removal.
- Can find unknown folders attached to unwanted apps and delete them to save you space and completely erase unnecessary files.
- Optimize the memory on your MacBook and keep everything running smoothly with just one program, and keep track of everything with the menu bar widget.
Cons:
- Excessive cleaning can be detrimental to Mac performance as your laptop rebuilds necessary caches it references frequently.
- It’s not freeware, though a free evaluation version is available.
We hope this guide has given you an idea of the many ways you can rely on to keep your Mac clean of unwanted apps and make it run at peak performance even after long periods of use.
The built-in process of moving an application to the trash will always work, but if you want to go a bit deeper, all the apps mentioned above can fill in the gap and provide additional services.
Got an app that doesn’t seem to delete or keeps reappearing? You may have a virus or malware on your Mac – these are possible to accidentally catch on Mac and you’ll want to check out this article from MacWorld on how to remove them from your MacBook.
What’s your preferred method for removing apps on your MacBook Pro? Tell us more in the comments below.