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How to remove leftovers of apps you've already deleted.

By Grant and Brad, who make Pangalin's apps · Updated 14 October 2026

Dragged an app to the Trash yourself? Its settings, caches and support files usually stay behind. The Leftovers tab finds data whose app is no longer installed. Nothing is ticked for you, you see every item first, and what you remove goes to the Trash.

1. Open Leftovers

1. Click Apps in the sidebar (⌘4), then the Leftovers tab. You can also click the App leftovers card on Go › Tools (⌘6).
2. If you haven't scanned yet, it says Find leftovers from apps you've removed. Click Scan. Looking only reads your files; nothing changes.
3. To look again later, for example after removing another app, click Rescan at the right of the Apps page.

2. Choose what to remove

4. Each row shows what the item is, where it is and its size. Hover over a row to read why it was offered, for example that no installed app claims it and when it last changed.
5. Click ⓘ on a row to see what it covers, each part with its own size. The arrow button shows the item in Finder.
6. Tick the rows you want to remove. Nothing is ticked for you. Leftovers are matched to removed apps by name, so check each one before you tick it.

Items under 50 MB are grouped into one row, Small leftovers, when there are three or more of them. Its ⓘ lists every file in the group.

3. Remove them

7. Click Review and clean up … in the bar at the bottom. Nothing changes yet.
8. The review lists every ticked item again with its size. Untick anything you want to keep. Click a row's padlock to put it on your Never Clean list, so it's left out of this and every future clean-up.
9. Click Clean up …. The items go to the Trash.

To remove a single item, click its ⓘ, then Move to Trash…, and confirm with Move to Trash.

“Skip the Trash — remove permanently now” in the review is off by default. Leave it off unless you're sure: with it on, the space comes back straight away, but nothing can be recovered, and the button says (permanent).

Some leftovers sit outside your home folder: a dead system launch item, or an orphaned privileged helper and the launch daemon that starts it. These need your administrator password, and the row says so. They're listed as separate rows, so remove both. Anything already running stops at your next restart.

If something couldn't be moved, an orange Not everything was done card says what stayed and why.

How it decides what's a leftover

Pangalin Space Manager only offers data it can show was left behind. It looks in your Library (preferences, caches, containers, Application Support, shared app data, web data and cookies, saved state, app scripts and logs) and at login items and background items, then asks of each one: does any installed app claim this?

• It first lists every app installed in your Applications folders, in ~/Applications and in Application Support, plus installed plug-ins, and the shared app data each installed app uses.
• It then asks Spotlight whether an app with that name exists anywhere else on your Mac. An app sitting in the Trash doesn't count as installed.
• If Spotlight couldn't answer, the row says Claim check unavailable (is Spotlight on?). Check the app is really gone before you remove it.
• A login item or background item is offered when the program it starts no longer exists. If that program was on a drive that isn't connected, plug the drive in before deciding.
• A model or data folder in your home folder, such as LM Studio's, is offered only when it's over 50 MB and neither the app nor its command-line tool is installed.

Containers, Application Support folders and shared app data can hold documents or saves, so their rows say look inside before acting.

What it never offers

• Data that an installed app, that developer's other apps, an installed plug-in or macOS could still use.
• Apple's own data, including iCloud, the Dock, Spotlight and Contacts.
• Application Support folders with plain names that it can't match to a known app.
• Anything on your Never Clean list.

What you might see

• Find leftovers from apps you've removed with Scan: Pangalin Space Manager hasn't looked yet.
• Looking for leftovers from removed apps: a scan is running. It only reads; nothing changes.
• No leftovers from removed apps found: a good result. Every app's support data belongs to an installed app, its developer's other apps or macOS.
• Couldn't list every installed app with Rescan: a folder of apps couldn't be read, or there were too many to finish. Without the full list it can't prove an app is gone, so it offers nothing that depends on that. If the same warning appears in orange above a list, click Rescan before removing anything.

Getting files back

• While Pangalin Space Manager is open: choose Edit › Undo Move to Trash (⌥⌘Z) to bring back what you just removed.
• Later: open the Trash and drag the items back out to where they were. Finder's Put Back isn't offered for files an app moves to the Trash, so check the action log in History (⌘7) for where each one came from.
• Items that needed your administrator password were moved to the Trash with it, so they're not covered by Undo. Putting one back into a system folder needs your password too.
• The space comes back when you empty the Trash. Emptying the Trash is permanent, as is anything you removed with Skip the Trash.

Your free 5 GB

Scanning for leftovers is free. Removing them counts toward your free 5 GB per Mac, by what actually went, once it has worked. After that, a licence is $25 a year.

To be offered an app's leftovers as soon as you drag it out of Applications, switch on Trash Watcher in Settings › Space Watch. See Use Space Watch.

Related guides

• Uninstall an app with Pangalin Space Manager
• Manage startup items
• Protect files with Never Clean

Checked against Pangalin Space Manager 3.48.1, 14 October 2026.