Help · Guides · Pangalin Uninstaller
How to catch leftovers when you drag an app to the Trash.
Dragging an app to the Trash leaves its support files, caches and preferences behind. With the Trash watcher on, Pangalin Uninstaller notices when an app leaves your Applications folders and offers to review what it left. It's free and off until you switch it on.
Switch it on
- In Pangalin Uninstaller, choose Pangalin Uninstaller › Settings… and click Trash.
- Tick Offer to remove leftovers when you drag an app to the Trash.
- Optional: tick Open at login, so it's always watching. The watcher only works while Pangalin Uninstaller is open, so this adds it to your Login Items; at login it opens hidden, in the Dock.
- macOS asks once whether Pangalin Uninstaller may show notifications. If you say no, the offer appears in the app's window instead.
It watches only your Applications folders, never looks inside the Trash, and needs no extra permission.
When you drag an app to the Trash
- A notification (or a banner at the top of the window) says the app is no longer in Applications.
- Click it, or click Review leftovers… on the banner. Click ✕ for Not now.
- A review lists the files the app left behind, with their sizes. Untick anything you want to keep, then move the rest to the Trash. Undo puts them back until you empty the Trash.
Changed your mind and dragged the app back? The review says it's in Applications again and leaves its files alone.
The app itself is still in the Trash, and macOS can keep its background items until it's deleted from there. See Removed apps still in the Trash.
Switch it off
Untick the setting in Settings › Trash. Turning the watcher off also removes Pangalin Uninstaller from your Login Items. You can also switch the login item off in the Startup tab, under Pangalin Uninstaller, or in System Settings › General › Login Items.
Related guides
Checked against Pangalin Uninstaller 1.8, 10 October 2026.