How to Uninstall a Printer on a Mac

Going to replace your old printer with a brand new model? That would also mean you would need to delete printer drivers from your Mac, which can be confusing at times. This is because the process of removing a printer from a Mac is not the same as uninstalling standard applications. Per request from our users, we have written this guide to explain how to delete printer drivers with a step-by-step screenshot tutorial.

Contents:

• 1. How to manually delete printer drivers from a Mac
• 2. How to delete HP printer drivers from a Mac using HP Uninstaller
• 3. How To delete printer drivers from a Mac using App Cleaner & Uninstaller

How to manually delete printer drivers from a Mac

1. Select System Preferences from the Apple menu.



2. Click on Printers & Scanners



3. Select the machine that is relevant for you. In our case, it would be HP LaserJet 100. Click on the Minus “-” button to uninstall.



4. Confirm your decision by clicking on Delete Printer.



Keep in mind that you will also need to delete the driver software from the printer manufacturer. In order to completely delete printer drivers, please follow the steps below:

5. Open Finder and go to Applications.



6. Depending on your printer’s manufacturer, your related files may be named differently. You will need to move them to Trash. Here is an example, specific to HP printers:



7. Once that is done, you will also need to delete any cache and service-related files to your printer manufacturer. Usually, those files can be found in the following folders:
   ~/Library/Cache
   ~/Library/Preferences
   ~/Library/Logs
   ~/Library/Application Support
   ~/Library/Containers
   ~/Library/Printers

Don’t forget to clear your Trash afterwards in order to make sure that the apps have been deleted completely.

If you find the manual method too time consuming, take a look at two more methods we have provided below using HP Uninstaller and App Cleaner & Uninstaller software.

How to delete printer drivers using HP Uninstaller

HP Uninstaller is an official application provided by the printer manufacturer. You can use the utility to uninstall your HP printer driver. If you have a different brand of printer, please find the brand’s official website to locate the software needed to uninstall their products.

1. Launch HP Easy Start on your computer, which you can download from the official website.



2. Proceed to click on HP Easy Start in your menu bar above and then select Uninstall HP Software…



3. Simply follow the steps that are required for the uninstallation of HP.



4. If prompted, be sure to enter your username and password to grant permission to make changes.



5. Allow HP Uninstaller up to a few minutes to erase your files.



6. If you wish to reinstall your HP software, simply click on Set Up New Device and follow the instructions.

Even if you used the official software to uninstall the HP drivers, you will still need to delete it from Printer & Scanners by going to System Preferences in your menu bar above. Now go ahead and remove your printer’s icon. For a more detailed guide on how to do this, please click here.

Unfortunately, even by using the official method provided by HP, you will still need to delete remaining cache & service files by yourself. As mentioned previously, see the following folders to locate them on your computer:

~/Library/Cache
~/Library/Preferences
~/Library/Logs
~/Library/Application Support
~/Library/Containers
~/Library/Printers

How to delete printer drivers from Mac
using App Cleaner & Uninstaller

With the utility App Cleaner & Uninstaller, the whole process of uninstallation becomes quick and easy. Once set up, your entire computer is scanned for any related files that were originally installed with the app. Our software will detect them if they are hidden files, saving you time and headache. See the steps below:

1. Launch App Cleaner & Uninstaller. Once launched, the software will automatically begin scanning your computer for files.



2. As the HP products are recognized as mandatory system files by Mac OS X, you will need to enable the Display System Applications feature temporarily for the process of uninstallation. For this, click on App Cleaner & Uninstaller Pro in the menu above and go to Preferences.



3. Enable Display System Applications
   *Please make sure to switch this option off after you finish the uninstallation, in order to prevent accidental removal of some important system files and apps.



4. Select all of the applications related to your printer manufacturer. In our case, that would be HP-related products.



5. See the summary of files that are about to be deleted and click on the Remove button.

And that’s it! All of the files related to your Printer Manufacturer have been permanently deleted from your macOS in just a matter of a few clicks.

Now, simply remove the machine from System Preferences → Printer & Scanners. If you still have not done that, just check the step by step guide in the first section of the article.

Conclusion

As you can see, uninstalling HP Printer products, either manually or using their internal software, is hardly a straightforward process. In order to have the programs completely erased, you still need to delete any remaining service files or cache on your own. This is practically the same for all other printer manufacturers.

On the other hand, if you use the App Cleaner & Uninstaller tool, you will have a complete overview of all the folders and files related to the program, even if they are located in hidden folders.

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