I was looking on my Mac's Launchpad today and saw a few apps that I'd like to clean out.
I can't find some of them in the Applications
directory, and the standard method of clicking and holding down, then clicking the X
button isn't working – meaning that the X
simply isn't showing up.
Is there a directory in Finder where I can find the items stored in the Launchpad and delete it from there?
Best Answer
Launchpad data is stored in a SQLite 3 database located at:
Example:
3BF614D8-048E-344B-9775-AA8ED64B3564.db
Whether or not you'll be able to successfully edit it depends on your SQL skills.
You could always just delete the file, probably best from Recovery HD, and it will rebuild itself when logging back in and opening Launchpad. You could also just try deleting it and then in Terminal run the
killall Dock
command, then open Launchpad. It should rebuild with only the currently installed apps.Another thing to consider is maybe rebuilding the Launch Services Database may help. Note: Rebuilding the Launch Services Database may remove some customizations you've made and would need to set them once again.
In a Terminal:
Hint: Copy and paste the command above in the Terminal to avoid typos.
The full pathname is:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister
Although you can use the wildcard version, you don't need the fully qualified pathname version for it to execute.