When I delete Mac App Store apps in Launchpad, does it delete related files in the Library folders too? I mean files like preferences, application support files etc.
Mac – Does deleting Mac App Store apps in Launchpad delete related files in the Library folders too
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Related Solutions
If you have Lion, then you can also hold down the option key in Launchpad; the icons will start to wiggle and show little x's on all the App Store installed apps very much like iOS does. Click the x and confirm the deletion and it will be the equivalent of dragging it to the trash from Finder; which means supporting preference files, etc. still remain, but for most users that should be of no concern.
Yes. Just go to the "Purchases" tab and click "Install" by the app you wish to reinstall:
Well-behaved apps should retain settings, etc upon reinstall, as merely deleting the app from /Applications is not sufficient to remove that information from your system. This may not be the case if an app cleaner is used.
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Best Answer
I tried uninstalling some applications, and files in these folders or the corresponding folders in
~/Library/Containers/were sometimes deleted and sometimes not:~/Library/Caches/(deleted for most applications)~/Library/Application Support/Files in these folders weren't deleted for any of the applications I tested with:
~/Library/Preferences/~/Library/Saved Application State//var/db/receipts/~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/~/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/~/Library/Caches/com.plausiblelabs.crashreporter.data/~/Library/Application Support/Growl/Tickets/For example Kindle books or the database for notes in JustNotes were not deleted.
You can see what files are accessed by uninstalld with
sudo opensnoop -n uninstalldand search for support files withmdfind $(osascript -e 'id of app "AppName"'). If you want to uninstall applications more completely, it's probably safe to just delete the whole sandbox containers in~/Library/Containers/.