this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
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Apple
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Always thought how crazy it is that the functionality of this app never came built right into macOS itself. Until that happens, this really is a cornerstone app for anyone using macs.
They do it automatically if you delete an app from the store.
But bigger picture I think that whole “Add/Remove Programs” nonsense on the Windows side is something Apple just doesn’t want. They don’t want you to think an uninstall is any more complex than dragging to the trash.
I barely download any apps from the app store, so I didn’t even know that. I just habitually do it straight from the developers.
Regarding uninstalling by dragging to the trash, that would actually be perfect if it worked exactly like AppCleaner does. Unfortunately it always leaves behind cache and a few files here and there.
All Apple needs to do is enable deletion of all app-related files when you drag the app itself to the trash. Can’t imagine it’s too complex if AppCleaner is able to achieve the very same thing as a third-party.
it's a deliberate choice. this way if you change your mind later and reinstall the app, all your settings & data are still there. you could argue that macOS should give you the option, but user choice isn't really Apple's way.
Right?! Something we all WISH would get Sherlocked.
Tricky situation. False positives happen and a significant amount of what AppCleaner picks up is technically “user data”.
If Apple just built what AppCleaner does directly into macOS, we wouldn’t have to worry about anything like that at all. In the meantime, we have to turn to a third party to help with something as essential as uninstalling an app completely.
That’s my point. AppCleaner isn’t magic. It’s killing off some known flotsam and making, essentially, educated guesses. It occasionally gets it wrong. Less frequently with suggesting removal of something it shouldn’t have and more often by not catching “everything”.
Apple doesn’t want to be involved with guessing games and run into the potential of getting it wrong. Microsoft doesn’t do it with Windows and none of major Linux distributions that I’m familiar with do it, under default conditions, either.
Whatever educated guesses it’s making are pretty damn good then.
As a habit, I always give a quick scroll through all the files AppCleaner finds when I ask it to delete something and not once has it selected anything irrelevant. Been using it for many years now and the app’s performance has just been bulletproof for me in all that time.
If it works as well as it has for me, I would rather it go that extra mile and delete whatever crap it needs to delete rather than leaving vestigial files on my computer for apps I don’t want anymore.
App Store apps can be removed by long clicking them and pressing the X in the launcher.