Mac Cleaner Pro — the best free app cleaner
for Mac that uninstalls cleanly

Preferences (.plist files in ~/Library/Preferences) are the most universal residual — every app, even the smallest menu bar utility, writes a preference file. These are small (10-200 KB each) but accumulate over years of app turnover. A Mac used for five years may have 300-500 orphaned preference files from apps long uninstalled. Mac Cleaner Pro's app cleaner for mac identifies them by bundle identifier and removes them with the app uninstall action.

Application Support folders (~/Library/Application Support) are the largest residual category by volume. Apps use these for databases, offline content, user data caches and plugin files. A single creative app (Adobe, Affinity, Sketch) can accumulate 1-3 GB here after heavy use. When the app is removed, the support folder remains. The app cleaner mac module inside Mac Cleaner Pro identifies support folders by matching their name or contained bundle ID against the uninstalled app and removes them in the same sweep.

Sandbox containers (~/Library/Containers) are the heaviest residuals from sandboxed Mac App Store apps. Each sandboxed app gets an isolated container that holds its preferences, support data, caches and documents. The container is not removed when the app is deleted — macOS leaves it in place in case you reinstall the app. An orphaned container from a sandboxed app can hold 2-5 GB of data that is now completely inaccessible and useless. The app cleaner identifies orphaned containers (containers whose parent bundle identifier is no longer in /Applications) and flags them for removal.

Launch agents and daemons (~/Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons) are the most insidious residuals. When an app installs a helper process or background update checker, macOS registers a launch agent that runs at login — even after the main app is gone. These orphaned agents consume CPU cycles, slow boot time and occasionally generate error logs. The app uninstaller in Mac Cleaner Pro identifies registered launch agents by their bundle identifier, checks whether the corresponding app is still installed, and removes orphaned ones. Cleaning launch agents is often the single change that most improves boot time. Together with keychain entries (orphaned saved passwords and auth tokens from uninstalled apps) and plugin files scattered across system extension directories, these six residual types represent the complete footprint an app leaves behind. The best app cleaner for mac is the one that finds all six — not just the visible folder.