Delete Apps - User Guide

Delete Apps (previously known as App Shredder) is the best app for quickly and easily finding applications and their associated files to remove, in order to free up valuable disk space on your Mac and improve its performance.

First Launch:

The app functions as a standalone app, and runs in its own window.

Upon the first launch, you will notice that you will be presented with a startup screen as seen below. Please click the ‘Select Applications Folder’ button, and by default, your Applications folder will open up in a Finder window. Press the ‘Choose’ button on the bottom right corner. You will be returned to the main app window screen again and the ‘Select Applications Folder’ button will now be greyed out and disabled.

Next, click the ‘Select User Folder’ button to open up a Finder window where you ensure your main user folder is selected (this is usually your name), and then hit ‘Choose’.

Using the App:

Once you have selected the Applications folder and the User folder, you will then see a screen that lets you scan your system for installed Applications (as seen below). Please click on the ‘Start Scan’ button, which will then allow the app to spend a moment collating all the data about all the Applications you have stored on your Mac. 

Once the scan has occurred, you are presented with a results page of all the apps in your Mac’s Applications folder. You can see how much free space there currently is on your Mac, and how much free space will be freed. 

Next to each app seen on the list is a tick box to select the app for removal. You will also see the app’s full name, app icon, location, details and size. You can also use the search bar to quickly find an app by its name. Use the dropdown menu on the right hand upper middle section to sort files by size, name or selection, in an ascending or descending order.

The ‘Details’ button shows all the associated files of that app (including the plist and containers files and folders) that can also be removed. You have the ability to delete as you wish, in case you want to keep certain contents of an app rather than completely delete it.

Once you have selected the files you wish to delete, you will notice at the top of the app’s window the ‘Amount to be Freed’ information will populate, and you will also see the ‘New Free Space’ your Mac will have should you go forth with the deletion.

Please click ‘Next’ when you are satisfied by what you wish to delete. Note that you will be recommended to make a Time Machine back up before performing a clean, just to ensure you never lose data should you ever require it again in the future.

Once you have clicked ‘Next’, your selected content will be removed and you will see a result of the removal that took place. You can choose to scan again to remove any other applications you may want to.

Please note: Delete Apps cannot remove all applications completely due to sandbox restrictions. When this is the case, it will direct you to the specific file locations and allow you to manually remove any apps/files that it could not automatically delete on your behalf.