Help

Overview

App Cleaner & Uninstaller is a special tool for completely uninstalling an application from macOS. Although apps could be trashed just by putting the icons into the Trash, App Cleaner & Uninstaller allows you to uninstall apps correctly and completely. The program also finds the leftovers of previously removed apps and allows you to operate extensions installed on your Mac.

Just launch App Cleaner & Uninstaller and in several seconds you will see the statistics about your applications and service files, including a number of files, their sizes, unused apps, startup items and other important information about your disk space usage.

Apps’ temporary files

Every program on a Mac creates temporary files. These files include caches, logs, preferences, autosave files, etc. Some apps even create additional folders with Gov. name in their own files, which are not easy to find.
These files don’t get removed by simply putting the apps into the Trash. Little by little, these files fill up your Mac’s disk memory.
With App Cleaner & Uninstaller, you can view all the programs installed on your Mac and the list of their service files. You can remove apps completely or delete only their temporary files to reset the apps.

Remaining Files

If you were regularly removing applications by dragging them into the Trash, their remaining files could still be on your Mac, taking up huge disk space. App Cleaner & Uninstaller finds and allows you to clear these remaining files – broken service files from previously deleted applications.
Switch to the Remaining Files section to view the list of service files from apps you have already removed.

Startup Programs

Startup programs are programs that run automatically when you boot your Mac. The problem is that when too many programs start automatically, your Mac starts to operate slowly.
App Cleaner & Uninstaller allows you to easily operate startup items, disable and enable them with one click and even remove some of them.

Extensions

Having too many browsers or app extensions can also slow down your Mac. Moreover, there may be some features that you don’t use or plugins installed automatically that you don’t even know about. App Cleaner & Uninstaller allows you to remove all these useless additions:

• Installation files
• Web browser extensions
• Screensavers
• Preference panes
• Internet plugins
• Widgets

Open With

If you prefer to open your files with a specific application, you don’t need to use the command “Open with” in the context menu every time you open them. For example, you want to open your images with Photoshop instead of the Photos app. While you can just open Photoshop and then import your image, it will be much easier to double-click on the file and automatically open it with the Photoshop app. With App Cleaner & Uninstaller, you can change the file associations with a few clicks.

Skip List

Any of the listed items can be added to the “Skip List” so you will not see them in the scanned list. You can add apps to the Skip list in two ways:
Way 1
In the list of apps, extensions, or startup programs, make a right-click on the item, and click “Add to Skip List.”
Way 2
Open App Cleaner & Uninstaller’s Preferences → switch to the Skip List tab → Click the Plus(+) icon and add items to the Skip List.

Applications Section

App Cleaner & Uninstaller starts to scan the Applications folder right after being launched. It shows all the installed apps on your hard drive and finds all temporary files created by each of these applications.
You can view a list of all apps with their service files in the Applications section. When you click on any app from the list, you see short information about the app in the right column: total size, the number of service files, the date when it was opened the last time, and its version.

If you want to see the list of the service files of each application, switch to Expert mode.

You can remove an app completely or delete only its service files.
If you want to delete an app completely, just select it and click the Uninstall button. In the Expert mode, this button is called Remove.

Resetting applications

For your convenience, service files from each application are grouped and displayed by their respective categories:

• Executables – application’s program files. Note: Executables with the same identifier are combined to one application.
• Application Support – app-specific data and support files. These are files that an application creates and manages on behalf of the user. Also can include files that contain user data.
• Plugins – application components that add specific features to another application.
• Shared – application service files that are shared between users of the OS X.
• Library – app-specific data and support files shared between other applications.
• Growl – components that support notifications by Growl notification system in the application.
• Caches – cached data that can be regenerated as needed. Applications never rely on the presence of cache files.
• Containers – home directories for any sandboxed applications.
• Preferences – the user preferences files for the application.
• Logs – log files for the console and specific system services.
• Cookies – data files with web browser cookies.
• Crash Reports – crash report files of the application.
• Preference Panes – special application plugins dynamically loaded to System Preferences to customize application settings.
• Login Items – agents, daemons and items in the System Preferences to support application start on system launch or user’s log in.
• Dock Icon – alias to the application in the Dock bar.
• Supported Document Types – file types supported by the application.

These sections are supportive or service files that appear while the app operates. You can remove just the supporting files as well, which means performing an application reset. Hence, if you get rid of them, your app will be clean and you can start using them from the very beginning.

View Supported Documents Types

Some apps may open documents in specific formats, such formats are listed in a section called Supported Document Types.

View specific file types

You can click on each file from the Supported Document Types to view the files found for a specific file type. App Cleaner & Uninstaller displays a search button for every format.

Startup Programs Section

In the Startup Programs section, you will find the list of all launch agents, login items, and system daemons installed on your Mac.

• Launch Agents are hidden or background programs that run on user login or system startup. You can disable the agents’ auto-launch or delete the launch agents from the disk. App Cleaner displays agents stored in the current user and system folders and allows you to manage them.
• Login Items are user-facing programs that run on user login. The app displays a list of installed applications that have special agents and you can disable their auto-launch. You can also manage login items accessible through System Preferences.
• System daemons are the files that contain scripts to automatically manage system service processes. System daemons are loaded on system startup and they run processes for all the users on Mac.

If you want to change Startup programs, then switch the slider “Disable/Enable” next to the items to detach them from your Mac operating system.

App Cleaner & Uninstaller also allows you to remove launch agents. Please, be careful with removing a launch agent file. First, make sure that you will not need it anymore. 

1. In the Startup Programs tab, find launch agents.
2. Click on Remove.
3. Confirm the action.

Extension Section

In the Extensions tab you will find the files of the following types:

• Installations – files that are used to set up programs. App Cleaner displays a list of installation files stored on the Startup disk. You can remove unneeded files to clean your disk space.
• Web Browser Extensions – small software programs that can modify and enhance the functionality of a web browser. They can change the user interface of the web browser without directly affecting the viewable content of a web page. App Cleaner displays extensions for installed web browsers and allows to uninstall extensions.
• Screen Savers – programs that fill the screen when the computer is not in use. App Uninstaller displays installed screen savers and allows you to remove them to free up disk space.
• Preference Panes – special dynamically loaded plugins to customize working of some installed services or applications. The app displays installed Preference Panes and allows you to completely remove them together with their service files.
• Internet Plugins – program components that add specific features for Internet browsing. App Cleaner displays installed plugins and allows you to remove them. Please be careful when you remove system plugins because it may harm the system operations.
• Widgets – simple and easy-to-use programs launched by the Dashboard app. Please be careful when removing core widgets because they do not spread separately and can only be installed with the system.

With App Cleaner & Uninstaller, you can remove unneeded extensions on your Mac. Follow these steps:

1. Go to the Extensions section.
2. Select the unneeded extensions.
3. Click the Remove button and confirm the action.

Remaining Files Section

Most apps are removed by simply putting them into the Trash. In that case, all the service files remain on the disk, littering your Mac. Such broken service files are unnecessary, and they just take up your disk memory. These files are called remains.
App Cleaner & Uninstaller allows you to find such “forgotten” files and clear them. Just launch the app, and it will automatically find all the forgotten files. Go to the Remaining Files section to view them.

There are filenames of applications’ file sets in the left column. Because the app has been deleted, there is no way to know their names. So, these files are named as the apps that created them.

When you select one of the elements from the list on the left, you can see all related files remaining from the removed application in the right column. Delete the remains by selecting the files and clicking the Remove button.

Note that some apps can create and save their service files in different folders, even when it contradicts Apple’s requirements for the organization of temporary and service files. These files can also be found by App Cleaner & Uninstaller. They are displayed as Remaining Files, though in reality, these files are used by applications. That’s why, before you remove them, ensure you don’t need these files. Deleting certain files without removing the app can cause malfunctions.

Opening preference panes

Preference panes are plug-ins that allow users to set configurations for applications or preferences for the system to provide a graphical user interface. Some third-party apps may be downloaded as preference panes, for example, Flash Player, or they may create preference panes the same way MySQL or Wacom drivers do.

App Cleaner & Uninstaller allows you to preview and remove all the preference panes on your Mac installed by third-party apps. You can find preference panes in the Extensions section.

Also, you can open a preference pane in Finder right from the App Cleaner & Uninstaller. For this, click the Arrow icon.

Note: when you do it the first time, it will ask your permission to allow the app access to control System Preferences. You need to click OK in order to quickly access the preference panes from App Cleaner & Uninstaller.

If, for some reason, you click “Cancel” here is the guide to how to give App Cleaner & Uninstaller permission manually.

1. Open System Preferences and go to the Security & Privacy section.
2. Switch to the Privacy tab → select Automation from the list → enable Finder access for App Cleaner & Uninstaller.

Preferences

You can change App Cleaner & Uninstaller’s preferences to customize the app scanning process. To open the app’s settings, go to its menu and select Preferences.

General tab

In this tab of Preferences, you can turn on or turn off the following options:

• Check removed applications for a complete cleanup.
• Display system applications.
• Send anonymous usage data for improving the app.

When you turn on the first option, App Cleaner & Uninstaller starts notifying you when any application is dragged to the Trash and ask permission to delete the remains at the same time.

Locations

In this tab, you can see the default settings where applications are usually stored on your Mac and which folders App Cleaner & Uninstaller scans. However, if for some reason, you store your applications in other folders, add them to this list to allow App Cleaner & Uninstaller to find all your applications.
Use the “+” and “-” buttons to manage the locations of the search.

Skip List

You can exclude apps from being scanned and searching for their temporary files. Go to the Skip List tab and click the Plus button in the left corner to add applications to the Skip list.

Remove

By default, App Cleaner & Uninstaller removes apps and their service files to the Trash, to protect you from uninstalling some apps by mistake and make it possible to recover them.
However, in the Remove tab, you can choose whether you want to remove files permanently or move them first to the Trash. Enable the option “Remove Files Permanently” to remove files instantly without moving them to the Trash.

Advanced

In the Advanced tab in App Cleaner & Uninstaller’s preferences, you will find “Large & Old Files and Applications” and the appearance modes.
Turning on the first option would give you the possibility to put a reference point for scanned apps that correspond to the largest and oldest ones.

Then choose the Appearance mode. App Cleaner & Uninstaller supports light, dark and auto modes. This mean that you can choose the dark theme for the app or select the Auto mode and the application will apply the system settings and change the color depending on your System Settings preferences.

App Cleaner & Uninstaller will have the following look:

Restoring files

For your safety, App Cleaner & Uninstaller, by default, moves files to Trash. You can check the status of this option in the Remove section of the Preferences window.

When the permanent removal of files is disabled, even if you uninstalled an app by mistake, you can always recover it from Trash. For this, follow the steps below:

1. Go to the App Cleaner & Uninstaller’s menu and select File → Removal History.
2. You will see a window with the history of all files and apps you removed with App Cleaner & Uninstaller. Select the items you want to restore and click the Restore button.
   

The files will be restored and moved exactly to the same folder from where they were deleted.

Full disk access

For security reasons, Apple requires that on macOS 10.14 and higher you manually grant access to your apps to operate the user’s files. Since App Cleaner & Uninstaller analyzes your whole Mac hard drive to find all types of service files, you will need to grant Full Disk Access to allow the app to operate extensions or recover removed files from the Trash.

Follow these steps to grant Full Disk Access to App Cleaner & Uninstaller:

(Steps for macOS v.13-14)

1. Quit App Cleaner & Uninstaller.
2. Open System Settings.
3. Go to the Privacy & Security section.
4. Click Full Disk Access.
5. Switch on the toggle button for App Cleaner & Uninstaller.
6. If you don’t see the app in this list, click the plus(+) icon and add App Cleaner & Uninstaller.



7. Run App Cleaner & Uninstaller. Now all the options of the app are available to use.

Note, the option “Check applications for a complete cleanup” is also available when App Cleaner & Uninstaller has Full Disk Access. When this option is enabled in the preferences, App Cleaner & Uninstaller checks your Mac for remaining files each time when you remove applications into the Trash bin.
Steps for macOS 10.14-12:

1. Go to System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Privacy.
2. Select the Full Disk Access section.
3. Click the Lock icon to make changes and enter your user password.
4. Then click the Plus icon.
5. Go to the Applications folder and add App Cleaner & Uninstaller.
6. Click the Lock icon again to prevent further changes and close System Preferences.

Language

App Cleaner & Uninstaller supports the following languages:

The application uses the preferred language you set up for your system. To change the language, follow these steps:

1. Go to System Preferences → select Language & Region.
2. Switch to the Apps tab. Click the “+” and add App Cleaner & Uninstaller to the list of apps. Then customize the language for the app.
   

Then restart App Cleaner & Uninstaller. After these steps, the application will display the language you set up.

Shortcut Commands

App Cleaner & Uninstaller allows you to run some commands from the Main Menu through shortcuts for your convenience.

Processing Apps and Service Files

View Modes

Selections

Search

Additional Options

Upgrade to Pro

App Cleaner & Uninstaller provides a free trial with unlimited features. Once the trial ends, you have to upgrade to Pro to use the following features:

• Preview and remove system extensions
• Remove the service files of installed apps
• Remove the remaining files of already deleted apps
• Preview installed programs, their service files and supported document types
• Stop programs from running at Mac startup
• Uninstall apps completely in one click
• Customize default applications
• Customize the removal and restoring of deleted items

With the license, you can enjoy all the features of the app.

Follow the steps below to upgrade to Pro:

1. Launch the application and click Unlock Full Version – the green button in the top.



2. You will see a pop-up window. Click Go to Purchase.



3. Your browser will open the purchasing page for the app. Choose the license option and click to buy it.
4. Choose the payment method, fill the required fields and click Pay. Please make sure you entered the correct email address, as the license key will be sent there.
5. Once the payment is completed, you will receive an email with the license key. If you don’t see it, please check the Spam folder.
6. Then use this key to activate App Cleaner & Uninstaller’s full version. For this, run the app → in the Menu Bar click on App Cleaner & Uninstaller → select License info… Also, you can click again the green button Unlock Full Version and select Activate License.
   
7. Enter the license key provided in the appropriate field and click Activate.

   

Once you upgrade the uninstaller, the green button in the top right-hand corner disappears. It means that now you can freely use App Cleaner & Uninstaller to get rid of unneeded apps and their service files.

Uninstall App Cleaner & Uninstaller

Steps to completely remove App Cleaner & Uninstaller:

1. Go to the app’s Preferences and switch to the Advanced tab.
2. Scroll down and you will see the uninstalling section.
3. Click on Remove. This will completely uninstall the app on your Mac and deactivate the license.

How to completely remove App Cleaner & Uninstaller v. 6.10 and earlier

1. Remove App Cleaner & Uninstaller from the Application folder into Trash Bin.
   
2. Delete the service files of App Cleaner & Uninstaller which are stored in the Library folder. To access the hidden Library folder, open Finder, go to Menu bar → click Go to Folder → enter the direct location address ~/Library or use the Cmd+ ↑+G key shortcut.
   
3. Find and remove the following subfolders from the Library:
   ~/Library/Application Support/com.nektony.App-Cleaner-Pro
   ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.nektony.App-Cleaner-Pro
   ~/Library/Caches/com.nektony.App-Cleaner-Pro
   ~/Library/Preferences/com.nektony.App-Cleaner-Pro.plist
4. Empty Trash Bin and restart your Mac. App Cleaner & Uninstaller will be removed from your Mac completely.