MacOS – Completely remove Google Backup and Sync from the Mac

google-drivehigh sierramacos

I'm running macOS High Sierra and sometime ago I uninstalled Google Drive from my machine. OR so I thought. Today I see the Backup and Sync app in my Applications folder and when I try and delete it I see the following error.

I went to my Library folder and deleted the Google folder from there. I also deleted anything that sounded like Google from Library/Application Support.
However, I still get the same message when I try and move the application to Trash.
How do I get rid of this completely?

Best Answer

Moving of the Backup and Sync from Google app to the Trash and emptying it only removes the application bundle. It doesn't uninstall the Finder Sync Extension, application script, APFS container, preferences, etc.

You'd also want to remove the following & reboot:

~/Library/Application\ Scripts/com.google.GoogleDrive.FinderSyncAPIExtension
~/Library/Caches/com.google.GoogleDrive
~/Library/Containers/com.google.GoogleDrive.FinderSyncAPIExtension
~/Library/Cookies/com.google.GoogleDrive.binarycookies
~/Library/Group\ Containers/google_drive
~/Library/Preferences/com.google.GoogleDrive.plist
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