Question
Issue: How to Uninstall McAfee on Mac OS X
I’ve installed McAfee for Mac just to be sure that my machine is free of viruses. Now I see that it is slowing my Mac’s work a little bit, so I would like to uninstall this app. Unfortunately, it seems that I am not as advanced as I thought because after two attempts McAfee is still on my machine. Can you help me?
Solved Answer
Sometimes you download a program to your Mac thinking that it will help you. You may be convinced that it will improve your browsing experience, will let you entertain yourself or will protect your machine from viruses. However, after installing it on the system and using for some days, you can clearly see that you want the only thing – to uninstall it from the system. If you have just downloaded McAfee[1] and now you see that you need to uninstall it, this post is for you. Here, you will know what options do you have when you need to uninstall McAfee on Mac OS X.
First of all, it must be said that McAfee is legitimate security software,[2] which can be downloaded from its official or its affiliate websites. However, if you have just found a new anti-virus to try, you may need to uninstall this program from your Mac before you download the new one. This can be done using manual removal method or automatic uninstalling option. For that, you will need a special utility.
You may think that you don’t want to install another program on your Mac. However, you should know that that’s the easiest way to uninstall programs and their components. If you would select the manual removal of McAfee, you would also need to run thru all of your folders and find each of its components. But first, let's discuss each of methods that can be used for uninstalling McAfee on Mac OS X.[3] Please, do NOT think that it is a very difficult process.
How to Uninstall McAfee on Mac OS X?
So, if you are looking for the best method of uninstalling McAfee, you should know that there are two different options -“uninstalling” and “removing”. These procedures are not the same because removing means that you just filed the icon of the program and drag it to the Trash. However, here you should realize that this won’t help you to uninstall additional files of McAfee. This can be done only with the help of CleanMyMac 3.
Method 1. Place the McAfee icon in the Trash section
If you still believe that manual removal is all that you need and that you don’t need additional programs because you can find the additional files of this program yourself, you should follow these 4 easy steps:
- Enter the Applications folder.
- Find McAfee icon, then click and hold it.
- Put the McAfee icon to Trash.
- Empty the Trash by holding Ctrl and clicking on Empty Trash.
However, you should also make sure that you complete the whole process of uninstalling McAfee from the system because after leaving its additional components, you may lead your Mac to slow down (that’s how you may waste its space). When trying to uninstall McAfee on Mac OS X with all its files, we recommend you to install a free application, which is called MacKeeper. After launching it, it will quickly check your Mac and will show you useless files and other junk.
So, let's sum up everything!
Method 2. Check some folders
In order to uninstall McAfee on Mac OS X manually, you should first follow steps that are given above. As you can see, you just need to drag the icon of McAfee to the Trash. If you want to delete its associated files, the next step that you should perform is running thru your folders and deleting extra files. If that sounds like a simple thing, we must warn you that sometimes it takes several hours. Here are the most common folders that you should check when looking for extra files that are associated with McAfee:
- ~/Library/Preferences/
- ~/Library/Application Support/
If you need a quicker and more reliable way for uninstalling this or any other application, use Reimage.
Get rid of programs with only one click
You can uninstall this program with the help of the step-by-step guide presented to you by ugetfix.com experts. To save your time, we have also selected tools that will help you carry out this task automatically. If you are in a hurry or if you feel that you are not experienced enough to uninstall the program by your own, feel free to use these solutions:
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Ugnius Kiguolis is the founder and editor-in-chief of UGetFix. He is a professional security specialist and malware analyst who has been working in IT industry for over 20 years.
- ^ McAfee. Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia.
- ^ Security Software. Techopedia. Tech terms and IT definitions.
- ^ Vangie Beal. Mac OS X. Webopedia. Computer terms and IT definitions.
