How to Properly Uninstall Minecraft on Your Mac


minecraft for mac

Minecraft is a creative sandbox game of building and survival. You can easily install this app by opening the package and dragging its icon to the Application folder. However, uninstalling Minecraft may need you to do more than a simple drag-and-drop to the Trash. Generally, its additional files, such as preference files and application support files, still remains on the hard drive after you delete Minecraft from the Application folder. If you are trying to remove Minecraft thoroughly and free up your disk space to the full, cleaning out all its traces is highly necessary. Continue reading this article to learn more about how to uninstall Minecraft properly.

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Manually Steps to Uninstall Minecraft:

First of all, you can try the regular method to get rid of Minecraft. Please follow the instruction below to avoid possible errors during the removal process. Or you can skip these manual steps by using MacRemover – a professional tool for uninstalling Mac apps – to save your time and trouble.

1. Terminate Minecraft process(es) via Activity Monitor

Before uninstalling Minecraft, you’d better quit this application and end all its processes. If Minecraft is frozen, you can press Cmd +Opt + Esc, select Minecraft in the pop-up window and click Force Quit to quit this program (this shortcut for force quit works for the application that appears but not for its hidden processes).

01 fore quit app

Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder in Launchpad. Select the process(es) associated with Minecraft in the list, click Quit Process icon in the left corner of the window, and click Quit in the pop-up dialog box (if that doesn’t work, then try Force Quit).

04 quit process

2. Delete Minecraft application using the Trash

First of all, make sure to log into your Mac with an administrator account, or you will be asked for a password when you try to delete something.

Open the Applications folder in the Finder (if it doesn’t appear in the sidebar, go to the Menu Bar, open the “Go” menu, and select Applications in the list), search for Minecraft application by typing its name in the search field, and then drag it to the Trash (in the dock) to begin the uninstall process. Alternatively you can also click on the Minecraft icon/folder and move it to the Trash by pressing Cmd + Del or choosing the File and Move to Trash commands.

05 locate app in application folder

For the applications that are installed from the App Store, you can simply go to the Launchpad, search for the application you wanna remove, click and hold its icon with your mouse button (or hold down the Option key) until the icon begins to wiggle and shows the “X” in its left upper corner. Then click the “X” and click Delete in the confirmation dialog to uninstall it.

07 delete app in launchpad

3. Remove all components related to Minecraft in Finder

Though Minecraft has been deleted to the Trash, its lingering files, logs, caches and other miscellaneous contents may stay on the hard disk. For complete removal of Minecraft, you can manually detect and clean out all components associated with this application. You can search for the relevant names using Spotlight. Those preference files of Minecraft can be found in the Preferences folder within your user’s library folder (~/Library/Preferences) or the system-wide Library located at the root of the system volume (/Library/Preferences/), while the support files are located in “~/Library/Application Support/” or “/Library/Application Support/”.

Open the Finder, go to the Menu Bar, open the “Go” menu, select the entry Go to Folder… and then enter the path of the Application Support folder: ~/Library

09 enter ~library

Search for any files or folders with the program’s name or developer’s name in the ~/Library/Preferences/, ~/Library/Application Support/ and ~/Library/Caches/ folders. Right click on those items and click Move to Trash to delete them.

11 search and delete leftovers

Meanwhile, search the following locations to identify and delete associated items:
/Library/Preferences/
/Library/Application Support/
/Library/Caches/

Besides, there may be some kernel extensions or hidden files that are not obvious to identify or locate. In that case, you can do a Google search about the components for Minecraft. Usually kernel extensions are located in /System/Library/Extensions and end with the extension.kext, while hidden files are mostly located in your home folder. You can use Terminal (inside Applications/Utilities) to list the contents of the directory in question and delete the offending item.

4. Empty the Trash to fully remove Minecraft

If you are determined to delete Minecraft permanently, the last thing you need to do is emptying the Trash.

To completely empty your trash can, you can right click on the Trash in the dock and choose Empty Trash, or simply choose Empty Trash under the Finder menu (Notice: you can not undo this act, so make sure that you haven’t mistakenly deleted anything before doing this act. If you change your mind, before emptying the Trash, you can right click on the items in the Trash and choose Put Back in the list). In case you cannot empty the Trash, reboot your Mac and do it again.

13 empty trash

Tips for the app with default uninstall utility:

You may not notice that, there are a few of Mac applications that come with dedicated uninstallation programs. Though the method mentioned above can solve the most app uninstall problems, you can still go for its installation package or folder to check if the app has its own uninstaller first. If so, just run such an app and follow the prompts to uninstall properly. After that, search for related files or folders to make sure if the app has been fully deleted from your Mac.

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Uninstall Minecraft with MacRemover (Recommended):

If you encounter any specific issues in manually uninstalling Minecraft (such as you’re not sure which files or folders are associated with this app), or you just wanna uninstall it in a much simpler and more convenient way, you can turn to a professional third-party uninstaller to resolve these worries. Here MacRemover is recommended for you to accomplish Minecraft removal with ease. It is a lite but powerful utility that helps you thoroughly remove unwanted, corrupted or incompatible apps from your Mac. Now let’s see how it works to complete Minecraft uninstall.

1. Download MacRemover and install it by dragging its icon to the Application folder.

15 install macremover

2. Run MacRemover in the Launchpad, select Minecraft appearing on the interface, and click Run Analysis button to proceed.

16 uninstall app with macremover

3. Review Minecraft files and folders, click Complete Uninstall button and then click Yes in the pup-up dialog box to confirm Minecraft removal.

17 uninstall app with macremover

The whole removal process may take a few seconds to finish, and then the Minecraft app as well as its associated items will be successfully removed from your Mac!

This article provides you two methods to properly and quickly uninstall Minecraft, and either of them works for most of the apps on your Mac. With the unique Smart Analytic System, MacRemover is capable of quickly locating every associated components of Minecraft and safely deleting them within a few clicks. All you need to do is just a select-and-delete move. If you confront any problem in any application removal, don’t hesitate to apply this automatic tool and resolve your troubles.

Download MacRemover