How to uninstall CrashPlan from Mac

Asya Karapetyan
Content marketer, who specializes in Mac how-to guides
September 26, 2023

CrashPlan was a great cloud-based program that gave the users unlimited backup space and protection against malware. However, since August 2017, CrashPlan has not been supported anymore, and today, you cannot use it even if you have peer-to-peer backups. For this reason, you should uninstall CrashPlan so that it does not take up your valuable disk space. In this article, we will explain how to do it correctly.

Uninstalling Crashplan

Contents:

  1. How to uninstall CrashPlan from Mac using its native uninstaller.
  2. How to remove CrashPlan remaining files from Mac.
  3. How to completely uninstall applications from Mac with a few clicks.

Important notes and the methodology used to uninstall CrashPlan from Mac:

  • Since 2017 CrashPlan has not been supported anymore. Using applications that are not updated for the newest macOS can make the system work slowly.
  • To completely uninstall CrashPlan from Mac, you need to find and remove its remaining files.
  • Before writing this guide, we uninstalled CrashPlan using the steps provided on the CrashPlan official web page. Unfortunately, the provided manual does not uninstall the application completely.
  • We will explain how to find CrashPlan leftovers manually and automatically, even if you have already removed CrashPlan from your Mac.
  • We used App Cleaner & Uninstaller from Nektony to automatically find CrashPlan leftovers.

How to uninstall CrashPlan using its native uninstaller

We will start by uninstalling CrashPlan with its native uninstaller and then explain how to check your Mac for its remaining files.

Steps on how to uninstall CrashPlan manually:

  1. Quit CrashPlan.
  2. Find the CrashPlan uninstallation file. For this, open Finder and press the Shift+Command+G shortcut. If the app is installed for everyone, navigate the location /Library/Application Support/CrashPlan/Uninstall.app and click on Go. If the app is installed per user, navigate this location: ~/Library/Application Support/CrashPlan/Uninstall.app
    go to the Folder search field
  3. Double-click on the Uninstall.app file.
    the CrashPlan uninstall file in Finder
  4. In the appeared window, click the Uninstall button and follow the prompts to uninstall CrashPlan from your Mac.
    Uninstall CrashPlan window

How to remove CrashPlan remaining files from Mac

Now you need to check your Mac for CrashPlan’s remaining files. For this, follow the steps below:

  1. Open Finder.
  2. Press the Shift+Command+G shortcut to open the Go to the Folder search field.
  3. Navigate the ~/Library and then the /Library folders. Check each of them for files associated with CrashPlan and remove if you find any. You should check the following locations:

    • ~/Library/Saved Application State
    • ~/Library/Caches/
    • ~/Library/logs
    • ~/Library/Preferences
    • ~/Library/Application Support
    • /Library/Caches/
    • /Library/logs
    • /Library/Preferences
    • /Library/Application Support

    crashplan support files in Library

  4. Also, we found CrashPlan service files in this location:
    ~/private/var/db/receipts
  5. Once you remove all CrashPlan’s service files, empty your Trash and reboot your Mac.

Instead of searching for applications’ service files manually, you can automatically find all of them with App Cleaner & Uninstaller’s help. Keep reading to learn how it is easy to completely uninstall apps on Mac and find leftovers of already removed apps.


How to remove CrashPlan with App Cleaner & Uninstaller

App Cleaner & Uninstaller is a utility that scans the whole Mac’s hard drive and finds applications’ service files. Also, you can find the remaining files of the previously deleted applications.

Steps on how to uninstall CrashPlan from Mac:

  1. Launch App Cleaner & Uninstaller.
  2. Select CrashPlan in the list of scanned applications.
  3. Click on Remove.
  4. Confirm the uninstallation.

App Cleaner & Uninstaller showing CrashPlan
If you have already removed CrashPlan using its native uninstaller, check your Mac for its remaining files. For this, switch to the appropriate section from the sidebar → select, and remove CrashPlan’s remaining files.
CrashPlan remaining files

Note
If you get a notification that CrashPlan can’t be removed, you will most likely, use the version in which developers locked the applications from being uninstalled. You can check it by calling the “Get info” command – you will see that it is locked.
CrashPlan Info panel

You can unlock CrashPlan with the Terminal app. Copy and paste the following command and press Enter:

sudo chflags nouchg /Applications/CrashPlan.app

It will ask for your admin password. Type it and press Enter.
Terminal showing the command to unlock CrashPlan
In case you have logged in to Mac via your user account, you should re-login as Admin or use the following command in Terminal:

login admin [name][/name]
Then use this command:
sudo chflags noschg /Applications/CrashPlan.app
After this, you can easily uninstall CrashPlan from your Mac with App Cleaner & Uninstaller.



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