How to Delete Things From Launchpad on Mac

Launchpad is macOS's app launcher — the grid of icons that appears when you click the rocket ship in your Dock or pinch with four fingers on a trackpad. It's a fast way to open apps, but over time it can fill up with software you no longer use. Knowing how to clean it up properly saves you time and keeps your workspace organized.

What Launchpad Actually Shows

Before deleting anything, it helps to understand what you're looking at. Launchpad displays apps from two locations:

• The /Applications folder — system apps, apps downloaded from the Mac App Store, and most third-party apps installed manually
• ~/Applications (your user Applications folder) — less common, but some apps install here instead

Not everything in Launchpad can be deleted the same way, and that distinction matters.

The Two Types of Apps in Launchpad

🗂️ App Store apps and manually installed apps behave differently when you try to remove them.

This is the most important thing to know before you start: Launchpad's built-in delete mode only works on App Store downloads.

How to Delete App Store Apps Directly in Launchpad

This is the quickest method for apps downloaded from the Mac App Store:

1. Open Launchpad by clicking its icon in the Dock or using a trackpad gesture
2. Click and hold any app icon until all the icons start wiggling
3. Apps that can be deleted will show an "X" badge in the top-left corner
4. Click the X on the app you want to remove
5. Confirm by clicking Delete
6. Press Escape or click anywhere outside the icons to stop wiggling mode

The app is fully uninstalled — not just hidden from Launchpad. It's removed from your Mac entirely.

If you don't see an X badge on an app, that app was not installed through the App Store.

How to Remove Manually Installed Apps

For apps installed via a downloaded .dmg, .pkg, or drag-and-drop installer, you need a different approach.

The straightforward method:

1. Open Finder
2. Go to the Applications folder (Shift + Command + A)
3. Drag the app to the Trash, or right-click and choose Move to Trash
4. Empty the Trash

Once the app is moved to Trash and the Trash is emptied, Launchpad will automatically remove it from its grid — usually after a moment or the next time you open Launchpad.

What about leftover files? Moving an app to Trash removes the main application bundle but may leave behind preference files, caches, and support files stored in your Library folder. For most users this is a minor issue, but if storage space is a concern, third-party uninstaller utilities can locate and remove these associated files. macOS itself doesn't include a built-in tool for this.

How to Hide an App From Launchpad Without Deleting It

Sometimes you want to clean up the view without actually uninstalling anything — for example, apps you rarely use but want to keep available. macOS doesn't offer a native "hide from Launchpad" toggle for individual apps, but there are a couple of workarounds:

• Use a folder in Launchpad — just like iPhone folders, you can drag one app onto another to group them, reducing visual clutter without removing anything
• Terminal command — you can use a defaults write command to exclude specific app directories from Launchpad's database, though this is more advanced and requires comfort with Terminal

Why Some Apps Won't Delete 🔒

Several categories of apps resist deletion:

• Core Apple apps like Safari, Maps, FaceTime, and Messages are part of macOS and cannot be removed through normal means on most versions of macOS
• Apps with active background processes may show a prompt asking you to quit them first
• Enterprise or MDM-managed apps on work or school Macs may be locked by device management policies

If an app shows no X in wiggle mode and isn't in your Applications folder, it may be a system utility installed in /System/Applications or a similar protected directory.

Resetting Launchpad's Layout

If your Launchpad has become disorganized — icons out of order, folders nested oddly — you can reset its layout entirely without deleting any apps. In Terminal, the command:

defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool true; killall Dock 

resets Launchpad to its default arrangement. Your apps remain installed; only the visual layout resets.

The Variable That Changes Everything

How straightforward this process is depends heavily on how your Mac is set up. A personal Mac where you install everything yourself through the App Store is the simplest case. A Mac that mixes App Store purchases, manually installed professional software, and possibly managed profiles from an employer or institution involves more steps and potential restrictions.

The version of macOS you're running also plays a role — some behaviors around system app removal have changed across major macOS releases. What works cleanly on one version may behave differently on another, which means your specific setup is the deciding factor in how much of this applies to you.