Hello, Like many of you I've tested a million plugins over the years, and now developed a workflow that works for me. The time has come to trim the fat. Will simply deleting .component files free up space, or do I need to somehow "uninstall" the plugins with a reverse installer .dmg ? I'm running an m1 mac on monterey, and installing AU only when possible as a logic user.

I looked around for similar threads. I'm sure this exists but I couldn't find it. Thanks in advance for any tips

ps. i know I can delete files in application support, digidesign library files etc. I guess i'm wondering if there is a specific protocol if the goal is to free up hard drive space. Also, any risk of corrupting any software if for example I delete one plugin by a manufacturer when I originally installed a whole software suite? Thanks for helping a n00b !

w gratitude

 

Wide Blue Sound Audio Plugin Uninstaller is what I use to remove single plugins. www.widebluesound.com/audio-plugin-uninstaller this was free at one point, and you can probably find a copy of it if you look around.

But I use Buho for disk space cleanup. https://www.drbuho.com/buhocleaner/download. That is a free version. Be careful with it, meaning if you are not sure about something don't do it. Mostly Cache and Logs.

There is no problem deleting individual .component plugins.

 

Last edited: Jul 6, 2025

...agree with all clone said, I would toss in that for some things that may be tricker or apps etc, I manually approach things using Find Any File (FAF), and I trust Nektony's App Cleaner & Uninstaller, but as clone said, you have to be careful as sometimes one can toss out some babies with the bathwater, so to speak, and I'd generally advise staying away from some applications out there that claim to "clean up" space etc, as they can be a little reckless and create problems.

But for just plugins, and double checking against FAF or Nektony, Wide Blue Sounds' Audio Plugin Uninstaller has been great for me so far.

 

Good, sensible. questions all.

• If you delete one plugin manually, you delete just that one plugin. No issues with the others from the "Suite."
  
  
• The specific protocol is to go first to the [company name] website and look for Uninstall ___.dmg.
  - If there is one such plugin uninstall dmg, download and run it or them, and life is beautiful.
  - "Product Managers" (e.g., Native Access, UA Connect, Waves Central) also uninstall plugins.
  
  
• If none of the above applies, or using the sister site installers (some of which come with uninstallers), delete AUs manually.
  - It helps to use an App Cleaner app, like AppCleaner.app - to track down dependencies, and trash them automatically.
  - Make sure to delete also from the Application folder, not only from the Application Support.

• Generally speaking, presets, manuals, etc., are smaller in footprint, but
  1) not always (UAD, Waves, come to mind), and
  2) like PPG (pasta, pizza and gravity), it all adds up.
  3) some plugins (Convolution Reverbs, etc) store hundreds of MB of files.
  
  - Check your /Library/Documentation/ and /Documents/[company], and your /Music/Audio\ Music\ Apps folders for instance.
  -> An AppCleaner helps but may not pick up on those as "dependencies."
  

Your best bet is uninstallers, but even manual deletion poses no danger to your system (if you're new, delete one and see for yourself).

 

Me too, but Buho is very good. If it has a weak area, it is in its Duplicate Finder. Everything else works perfectly, but you can be a bit heavy handed and delete stuff like your browser cache. It gets rid of everything but can leave some presets, and plist files in /preferences directory.
I never use Cleaner apps, because paradoxically they often contain bloat and adware. You know where to find the full version.

OP already said he knows to delete manually from the usual locations. I just do a manual cleanup every once in awhile, because without SIP disabled there are only so many places where files get payloaded, and none of them are confusing or sneaky. You just have to know where to look.

 

Completely agreed clone, (and without trying to go too OT here, duplicate finding has always been a bit of a problem I haven't solved satisfactorily myself, and have kinda tossed my hands up outside of manual efforts and some common sense... is there anything along those lines other than Buhu (Gemini or whatever) you would recommend personally for that (of course given the normal caveats, warnings and awareness)?)

I haven't used Buho myself, but I will definitely check it out in regards to the other, thanks for the recommendation.

And yeah, without SIP disabled, there are only so many placed where things can get payloaded,

(... sometimes there may be some exceptions with locked hidden files etc (remember locking certain files, say, within something (extant now, and utilized on different macOS/osx so perhaps bad example, but) like SoundRadix's 32Lives! and whatnot?,.. and I haven't tested, but I'm not sure if things like Baby Audio's licensing folder's obfuscation (actually I'd imagine not a problem either), or some other files evade certain things.. (but/so I'd imagine something like Wide Blue Sound is pretty smart about most that though in how my understanding of how it works...and as you said, although some presets and plists and whatnot might be left behind)... so, I'm sorry, lol, just kinda typing while thinking out loud here about possible exceptions to the rule and don't mean to waste your time or s-clog the thread in my meanderings ;) )

(Also just wondering/questioning/perhaps just good chance of being stupid out loud, about possible ways in which some files/programs behave or act differently or how they were created different from perhaps expected from an app like that with things like sister site/elsewhere modifications and end arounds that might evade certain things other than,)

but whatever, my meandering aside, as you said, the occasional manual inspection, or I also like to check notes on previous installs etc just to maintain consistency or awareness with updates/removal etc. should cover it (along with having backups)... but I know a lot of people don't necessarily keep that kind of thing,or if it's of real impact (as some detritus is going to happen to regardless), ..just with a newer system, I've been "trying" to keep better hygiene/be more selective, than perhaps I have in the past.

 

If you are serious, just wipe out everything without any regret and restart from scratch,installing only what's essential...
Any other solution is a big waste of time. Period.

 

I use the application Find Any File and look up both the plugin name and company. The list is extensive but easy to filter and only delete what is no longer wanted. It's amazing how much I found.

 

This will sort the vast majority of standard plugin dependencies (not Native Instruments and the like with separate custom cloud installers) like extra files in Application Support etc. - just drag and drop the au/vst into there and it'll check for dependencies.

https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

 

There are better alternatives nowadays for the AppCleaner, when it comes to audio plugins only decent option I've used was the Audio Plugin Uninstaller by Wide Blue Sound, even that was unable to delete everything sometimes. For a perfect cleanup for audio plugins, you'll have to delete any residuals manually. For any other apps I'd recommend PearCleaner. It's free and open-source and finds more residuals than app cleaner most of the time.

 

Last edited: Jul 8, 2025

Maybe this is somehow difficult for someone brand new to MacOS. You should be actually looking on your ssd periodically. It's not Windows, with things sometimes hiding all over the place. I'll give you an example. When Nexus 5 was first released by VR, another copy of the plugin was installed in a user directory for absolutely no reason. It was in the folder with your settings.json file. It took 5 seconds to see and delete it when you went to edit settings.json anyway.

If you use Suspicious Package to look at .pkg installers, which are about 75% of audio installers; you can see where everything is payloaded to. Eventually the lightbulb will illuminate, that these files are all installed within about 4 of the same places over and over.

These cleaner and uninstaller applications are convenient and fast, but they are absolutely unnecessary. Most experienced Mac users never use any of them, and not using them at all is frequently recommended. Installing additional programs to keep your system disk clean is sort of counterproductive. Everything you actually need is already in MacOS.

 

I agree, some developers like excite audio always create randomly named folders/files to store license and plugin info for their plugins. those files/folders are almost impossible to find unless noticed in the first place.

 

I use Space Lens in CleanMyMac-X. It shows all files organised by size.
Best working version available: CleanMyMac_X_v4.15.4_macOS
In the newest 5+ version Space Lens is removed.

 

Last edited: Jul 8, 2025