While uninstalling an app on Mac is often very easy, some apps are difficult to remove properly. Here's how.

 
Windows has a dedicated section for uninstalling apps, but Mac does not. The process is supposed to be easier on the Mac – you delete an app simply by dragging a file to the Trash and then emptying said Trash. It works very well for the majority of applications, but some are more difficult to uninstall because they leave traces everywhere on the machine.

The Mac AppCleaner utility is the most effective solution for removing most Mac apps and their associated files – it even cleans the library and your preferences files. Still, some apps are not completely removed without following some additional steps.

 
Parallels VM

The Parallels VM application is quite easy to uninstall - by dragging and dropping the application to the Trash and then emptying the Trash -. But uninstalling Parallels leaves all the VMs you had on your machine. Before uninstalling the app, open the app, click the Parallels icon in the menu bar and go to Control Center. There, right-click on the VM then click on “Delete” and then “Move to Trash”. Empty the Trash to recover a lot of space on your machine.

McAfee Antivirus

To completely uninstall McAfee Antivirus, you need to use the official uninstaller that comes with the application. It is found in the Applications folder named “ McAfee Internet Security Uninstaller ”. Launch the utility and follow the guide.

Adobe Creative Cloud

To uninstall apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier, and more, open the Creative Cloud app on your Mac. From the Dash, find the app you want to uninstall, click the Menu button with the three dots and choose Uninstall. Then choose if you want to keep the settings and then go through the uninstallation process.

Next, uninstall the Creative Cloud app itself. Adobe now includes the uninstaller. Open Finder, go to the Adobe Creative Cloud folder and click Uninstall Adobe Creative Cloud. Follow the instructions.

Dropbox

Dropbox is one of the stickiest apps out there, it uses all sorts of workarounds to gain system-level functionality. Log out of Dropbox and exit the app. Then drag and drop the app to the Trash and empty the Trash. (You can also use AppCleaner to remove Dropbox). Next, open Finder and click Go > Go to Folder from the menu. Enter “/Library” and click “Go”. There, delete the “DropboxHelperTools” folder.

To delete Dropbox settings, enter “~/.dropbox” in the “Go to Folder” window and delete everything in that folder.

Microsoft Office

Microsoft offers an uninstaller for Office apps on Windows, but not on Mac. Instead, find the Office app in question in the Applications folder and move it to the Trash. To easily remove associated files, use AppCleaner; to do it manually, you can delete the files from Finder. Click Go > Go to Folder and enter “/Library”. There, find and delete:

~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.errorreporting
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excelcom.microsoft.netlib.shipassertprocess
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Office365ServiceV2
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Outlook
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Powerpoint
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.RMS-XPCService
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word
~/Library/GroupContainers/UBF8T346G9.ms
~/Library/GroupContainers/UBF8T346G9.Office
~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.OfficeOsfWebHost
~/Library/ApplicationScripts/com.microsoft.errorreporting
~/Library/Application Scripts/com.microsoft.Excel
~/Library/Application Scripts/com.microsoft.Office365ServiceV2
~/Library/Application Scripts/com.microsoft.onenote.mac
~/Library/Application Scripts/com.microsoft.Powerpoint
~/Library/Application Scripts/com.microsoft.Word
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Excel.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Outlook.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Powerpoint.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Word.plist

Microsoft Teams

Teams is another Microsoft app that doesn't uninstall easily. Log out and quit (or force quit) the app to make sure it's not running in the background. Drag the Microsoft Teams app icon to the Trash (and empty the Trash). Next, open Finder, click Go > Go to Folder and enter “/Library”. Click Go then find and delete the files:

~/Library/Caches/com.Microsoft.teams
~/Library/Caches/com.Microsoft.teams.shipit
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/Application Cache/Cache
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/blob_storage
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/Cache
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/databases
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/GPUCache
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/IndexedDB
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/LocalStorage
~/Library/ApplicationSupport/Microsoft/Teams/tmp