Help · Guides · Pangalin Uninstaller
How to find leftovers from apps you already deleted.
Apps dragged to the Trash usually leave preferences, caches and support folders behind. Pangalin Uninstaller can find files that belong to apps no longer on your Mac and move the ones you choose to the Trash. It's free, with no licence.
Scan for leftovers
- Open Pangalin Uninstaller and click Leftovers at the top of the window.
- Click Scan for leftovers. It takes a few seconds.
- Read the results: how many leftovers it found and their total size, with each item's name and size. Each row also shows where it is and which app it came from, with a magnifier to see it in Finder.
The scan looks in your Library and the Mac-wide /Library. It's cautious on purpose: it only lists files clearly named after an app that's no longer installed, and Apple's own files are never included. “Nothing found” is a good result: it means every such file belongs to an app you still have.
Items marked system folder — may ask for your approval are in the Mac-wide /Library folder. Those are moved by the background helper, after your approval.
Remove them
- Tick the items you want to remove, or click Select all. Everything starts unticked.
- Click Move … to Trash.
- Check your apps still work, then empty the Trash. Until then, Undo puts everything back.
Removed apps still in the Trash
An app you dragged to the Trash counts as removed, so its files show up as leftovers. But while it's still in the Trash, macOS can keep its background items and still remembers the privacy permissions you gave it. A card at the top of the Leftovers tab, Removed apps still in the Trash, lists these apps, and tags each one macOS still runs things for with has background items.
- Reset permissions asks macOS to reset the app's privacy permissions, such as Camera, Microphone and Photos. It can't be undone; the app asks again if you install it later.
- Delete from Trash… permanently deletes just that app from the Trash, after you confirm it by name. macOS drops its background items at your next restart. The rest of your Trash isn't touched, and it can't be undone.
If another copy of the same app is still installed, the card shows the copy in the Trash only when it has background items, tagged Another copy is installed, and without Reset permissions, so the installed copy keeps its permissions.
Looking in the Trash needs Full Disk Access. Without it, an orange note says so, with Open Full Disk Access Settings.
Want this offered as soon as you drag an app to the Trash? Switch on the Trash watcher.
Doing it by hand
Without the app, look in your Library folder for names of apps you've removed. In Finder choose Go › Go to Folder… (⇧⌘G) and check ~/Library/Application Support, Caches, Preferences and Containers. Our guide to uninstalling apps completely lists every place to look. Move only items clearly named after the old app or its company.
Related guides
Checked against Pangalin Uninstaller 1.8, 10 October 2026.