How to uninstall apps on a MacBook

Knowing how to uninstall apps on your MacBook is a helpful skill for any macOS user. Perhaps an application you installed long ago is taking up too much space on your desktop. Maybe you downloaded a game that you no longer play and wish to get rid of it. Whatever your reasoning may be, you need to delete a previously installed application from your MacBook, and this tutorial will show you how to do just that. 

Note, for this tutorial, I used a MacBook Air (early 2015) model, but this tutorial will work up to the MacBook Air with the M1 chip or 14-inch MacBook Pro and we’ll test it out on the new M2 MacBook Air as soon as we get it in for review. 

How to uninstall apps on a MacBook

First, navigate down to the Finder tab on your toolbar and click on the icon. 

Once in the Finder tool, navigate to the top of your screen and click on the Go menu. Once in the Go menu, scroll down to the Applications hyperlink and click on it. 

Once you have clicked on the Application hyperlink, scroll down to the application that you wish to uninstall. In this example, I will be deleting the gaming client Steam. Right-click on the icon and scroll down to the “Move to Trash” hyperlink. Click on it. 

Once the application is in the trash, move down to the trash bin in your toolbar. Right-click on the trash bin. 

Once you have right-clicked on the trash bin, you will be prompted with the “Empty Trash” hyperlink. Click on the hyperlink in order to remove your trash. 

A prompt asking, “Are you sure you want to permanently erase the items in the Trash?” will appear. Click “Empty Trash.”  

After you click on “Empty Trash,“ open your trash bin again to be sure that it was emptied. If your trash bin has been emptied, then the unwanted application was successfully uninstalled.