You are now free to break things again with your excessive tweaking, fellow crazy person. Fire up the application and everything should be set to default again. When you’re sure you’ve found the correct folders, go ahead and delete them. You’re going to have to use similar judgement.
For example: the the above list, I didn’t delete the “TweetDeck” folder, because that’s another app entirely. But sometimes the folders will have straight-forward names, like “Firefox.” Use your best judgement, and try to avoid deleting folders that reference other applications. Sometimes, the correct folders will follow a pattern: com, followed by the name of the company who makes the app, followed by the name of the app itself. In our example, Twitter’s Mac app, the proper folders are named “-mac”, but this will vary depending on the application you’re trying to clear out.įiguring out which folders to delete can be a puzzle.
Now, seek out the folders that are relevant to your app. To do that, click the “+” icon below the search box, then set the second row to “Kind” is “Folder”. To narrow things down, I like to limit the results to folders. You’ll see a lot of results, most of them irrelevant. Then narrow your search by clicking “Library” in the toolbar above the results. Do not use spaces, even if the app in question has a space in its name. Then head to your Mac’s Library folder, and search for the application’s name. But first, you should know that with the release of macOS 10.12 Apple has made changes in its security technology System Integrity Protection (SIP) and it now forbids modifying system items on Macs. Despite the warning, it is possible to remove unnecessary standard programs via Terminal.
#Default app mac os how to#
If you don’t want to install AppCleaner just for this purpose, or if AppCleaner is having trouble finding the right files, you can also do this manually.įirst, close the program you want to reset. How to uninstall default apps on Mac with Terminal.
#Default app mac os manual#
The Manual Way: Search the Library Folder Power users break things that’s just how it is, so you should keep AppCleaner handy. Hopefully whatever you won’t break things again, but we both know that’s not true. This means that, if you were previously signed into an account, you’ll need to sign in again. Click “Remove” when ready, and everything will be sent to the Trash.įire up the application and you should see all settings restored to the default. If not, don’t panic: AppCleaner is generally pretty good about only deleting things relevant to a specific app. If you’re a confident power user, you can browse the list and make sure everything is related to your app. Uncheck the application itself in this list–that way, AppCleaner will leave the app in place, but delete all its settings. Click your application, and you’ll see a list of files to remove. Click the button at top-right to see your list of installed applications.įind the program you want to delete settings for, by searching or scrolling. Close the application you want to reset (we’ll use Twitter as an example), then open AppCleaner.