25 April 2015

Mac: Uninstall an Application Entirely in OSX

Lots of applications have uninstallers but some don't and others leave stuff behind. This procedure should ensure you have nothing left of an application:
  1. Load Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes
    1. Ensure the app you want to remove is not running. Quit it if it is.
    2. If it automatically relaunches: check if the app is set to automatically launch on startup and delete: 
      • System Preferences, Users & Groups, [username], Login Items
      • Finder: select Go, Go to Folder, /Library/LaunchAgents
      • Finder: select Go, Go to Folder, ~/Library/LaunchAgents
      • Finder: select Go, Go to Folder, /Library/StartupItems
      • Once you've removed the app from the startup list, restart
  2. Launch Finder and search the hard drive for the app name:
    1. Select View, "As List"
    2. Click the + button below search and select:
      • "Name" "Contains", enter the app name
      • "Other...", "System files", select "are included"
  3. Delete all files and folders related to the app
    NB: If you get "The item can’t be moved to the Trash because some of its plugins are in use." You may need to 'show package contents' and delete a Plugins folder if there is one.
  4. Don't empty the Trash until restarted and confirmed all ok e.g. for a week

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