hey guys!

this may be kind of a dumb question, but i really dont know for sure.

over the years i collected a ton of plugins which i never really use and i´d like to get rid of them. most of them, are.....unofficial of course ;-)

so my question is:
is it enough to delete them out of library/audio/plugins/components etc if there isnt a standalone version in the applications folder or is there more to watch out for, e.g. application support?!

im pretty sure it depends on the plugin, but if you guys could post the "most common" folders to look for, id be very grateful

also i´d like to point out that i´m no native english speaker, so please bear with me if im writing some kind of nonsense.

thanks in advance,
ortofon

//edit:
dont know if its important, but i am currently using a hackintosh with mac os ventura 13.6.5

 

Im using find any apps cr*cked for deleting,, my tips is you have to knows what exactly the developer and plugin names to selection and delete it.. done! Generally its clean..

 

The plugin installer also writes files around the HDD, these are the most common folders used:

/Library/Application Support
/Users/[your user]/music
/Library/Preferences

You can start deleting leftovers from there (you will recognize the folder by the dev name). A lot of space can be recovered in case the plugin is for example a rompler. Another way to solve the problem is the "drastic" approach: format the HDD and reinstall the system

You can also try apps like Appzapper, but I don't trust them
https://www.appzapper.com/

 

I find App Cleaner usually works pretty well if an eye is kept on it, but the advice given above of then looking in those folders etc is good...

 

I use AppCleaner to find any related file to the plugin

 

There’s a tool available specifically for uninstalling plugins and it WILL clean out your unused Mac plugins, Audio Plugin Uninstaller by Wide Blue Sound, it’s free and I use it regularly. Probably the best thing but it does sometimes group plugins together, so I can’t say, remove unnecessary AAX plugins without potentially deleting the AU/VST3 versions I would use, but for that you can search the disk yourself for those kinds of situations.

 

Never heard of that one, but that doesn't mean anything as I've been using older MacOS's for the last few years and just upgraded so my antenna is up more now. @clone : you ever hear of this tool?

edit add: well it does add a login item etc... so will look at more later..

 

Last edited: Apr 2, 2024

Wide Blue Sound had an app called audio plugin uninstaller

https://www.widebluesound.com/audio-plugin-uninstaller/#

 

Trick:
Before installation, select the pkg and press spacebar, you will see what's inside the package and where is going to be installed

 

Use Suspicious Package if you want to do this with some nice features. https://mothersruin.com/software/SuspiciousPackage/

I have but have never used it. Can't run the application on High Sierra.

 

Last edited: Apr 2, 2024

Audio Plugin Uninstaller Free
https://www.widebluesound.com/audio-plugin-uninstaller/

 

thanks for your answers.

i tried the uninstaller, but it somehow didnt recognize a lot of plugins like waves (ok,maybe because the shell thing?!) or izotope´s ozone (idiot me has 4 generations of ozone installed :-/ ), so i think i rather stick to the manual method.

again, thanks for your input!

 

i'd stick with the manual mode when and the plugin doesnt have it's own uninstaller and the wide blue sound one doesnt work. there are some reasons why some plugins wont show up, i've had the same when upgraded my os.

and as for waves, yeah it's the shell thing

 

Use this app: ¨App delete¨

 

You can just go into /Library and /Users/{foo}/Library and use the search function focus search by clicking "root_folder_in_finder"with the company name or the plugin_name or a partial.

If you are using a journaling file system like HFS,HFS+,XFS and so on the searches are quick and you can trace all the stuff that is buried in the tree without wasted scanning with a mark I eyeball.

Unless you are searching multiple drives less than 15 seconds usually less than 5 seconds on 2TB / drive here.

You can use grep to do the same thing if you are familiar with the terminal, you can also look up files and litter by anything that might be unique in getInfo for those files.

 

Good lists and advice guys. What about hidden files? I remember some installs (like, say, 32Lives by Sound Radix) that required locking a certain license file in a hidden folder etc...

I usually show all hidden files when uninstalling etc and other activities, but I'm not sure if that is worth mentioning or not in this context...(but a company like SoundRadix does hide their folder in Library/Application Support etc), and I'm not sure if the "uninstaller" tools will find those, or if a user isn't aware of it, wouldn't naturally come across it I don't think in manual mode...

 

All i can say is don't use Clean My Mac, it fucks with your HD

 

I use an app called ”Find Any File”, search for developer name and plugin name. It finds all files even hidden ones.

 

Agree, I actually have been using "Find Any File" and comparing it to what AppCleaner finds, and since I am currently installing on a new machine I want to keep pretty tidy, I also check manually and look for what is being installed when I am installing it etc.

Perhaps overkill, but not big deal as takes another minute, and lord knows what some shitty ass apps/devs/releasers can dump on your system....