How to uninstall apps on Mac

Apps are an essential part of life these days. They help us improve our workflow, organize our lives, stay connected, and provide entertainment. If there is something that needs to be done, it’s likely there’s an app for it! But as developers studiously fulfill our every need with apps, have you ever considered how much memory they all take up and do you even know how many you have?

Many apps are huge and consume loads of memory. They slowly but surely accumulate and chew into your hard drive space until your Mac starts to become sluggish and you notice your machine isn’t performing how it used to.

Deleting or uninstalling apps will free up storage space on your Mac and allow your computer to run smoother with fewer interruptions. If you think it’s time for a cleanup, we’re going to show you a few ways how to uninstall apps on Macs, and remove them for good.

If you’d like an automated way, you can download CCleaner for Mac and let it do the hard work for you. It also comes with plenty of other features that will optimize your precious Mac so it performs as it should. More on that later. In the meantime, here are some manual ways to find and uninstall apps you no longer use (or perhaps never did!).

Use Finder to locate and uninstall apps

Perhaps the easiest manual method to locate and uninstall apps on a Mac is to use the built-in Finder. Simply follow these steps:

To open a new Finder window, all you have to do is click anywhere on your desktop and use the keyboard shortcut “command + N”.
Click on “Applications” on the sidebar to the left and select the app you want to uninstall.
Select “File” then “Move to Bin”. Alternatively, right-click on the app and select “Move to Bin”, or use the hotkey shortcut “command + delete”. Note: your Mac may ask you for a security password if you have security settings activated.
Right-click on the bin icon in the dock and select “Empty Bin”.

And that’s it, you’ve successfully removed an unwanted app from your Mac. Congratulations, it feels good right?

How to remove an app from your mac using Launchpad

If you’re using macOS X Lion or newer then you’ll have Launchpad as one of the default features on your Mac. Launchpad is an easy way to organize, find, and delete your apps. To open and delete an app using Launchpad, follow these instructions:

Press the “F4” key on your Mac to bring up the Launchpad display. Alternatively, go to your dock and find the Launchpad icon.
Click and hold for 2 seconds on one of the apps and you’ll see all of the apps jiggle.
Click on the app you wish to delete. Apps that are from the App store will show a small “X” which means they can be deleted.
In the upper-left corner of the app, click on the “X”.

Note: any app that is not from the App store (or apps that came with your Mac e.g. Facetime) cannot be deleted using Launchpad.