{"id":25293,"date":"2014-06-23T09:18:43","date_gmt":"2014-06-23T14:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=25293"},"modified":"2014-06-23T16:54:15","modified_gmt":"2014-06-23T21:54:15","slug":"keeping-track-of-the-traces-of-apps-on-your-mac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/25293-keeping-track-of-the-traces-of-apps-on-your-mac\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Track of the ‘Traces’ of Apps on Your Mac"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Globe-DIY\"Have you ever removed an application or driver only to find out later there are still traces of it on your Mac?<\/p>\n

Perhaps you are just curious where files go during an installation?<\/p>\n

Fear not! Apple has made it very easy to find out not only what files are being installed, but also where they are being installed.<\/p>\n

Once you have the installer opened, there are two features you can utilize. The first is a log of what is happening during the install. The second is a list of what files and where they are being installed. Please note that once you complete the install these windows disappear. And as a word of caution, we always recommend backing up your files before deleting\/removing any files<\/em><\/p>\n

I am using the LightScribe installer as the example below.<\/p>\n

\"LightScribe1\"<\/a>Step 1<\/strong>
\nViewing the installation log. <\/strong>At the installer screen, press both the \u201cCommand\u201d and \u201cL\u201d keys. A window should appear with a log of the installation. By default, the drop down is set to \u201cShow Errors Only\u201d. We can also change this to view \u201cShow Errors and Progress\u201d or \u201cShow all Logs\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"LightScribe2\"<\/a>Step 2<\/strong>
\nViewing where the files are being installed.<\/strong> At the installer screen please press both the \u201cCommand\u201d and \u201cI\u201d keys. A window should appear listing each file and its final destination. (The files we see in the example are all invisible files located at the root of the drive.)<\/p>\n

\"LightScribe3\"<\/a>Step 3<\/strong>
\nIf you are looking to remove any trace of the installed application you will need to delete these files. The only problem now is that these files are hidden by default, so we need to make them visible.<\/p>\n

There are many apps that do this for you with the click of a button, but I find terminal just as easy. Open terminal \/Applications\/Utilities\/Terminal.app<\/p>\n

Copy and paste the two commands for \u201cShow invisible files\u201d. Enter each sentence separately below into Terminal and hit return after each. To reverse this when you are done replace TRUE with FALSE in the \u201cHide invisible files\u201d command group below and the files will be hidden again:<\/p>\n

Show invisible files:<\/strong><\/p>\n

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE<\/p>\n

killall Finder<\/p>\n

Hide invisible files:<\/strong><\/p>\n

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE<\/p>\n

killall Finder<\/p>\n

At this point you should be able to browse the location of these files in Finder and remove them if you wish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever removed an application or driver only to find out later there are still traces of it on your Mac? Perhaps you are just curious where files go during an installation? Fear not! Apple has made it very easy to find out not only what files are being installed, but also where they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":7968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"class_list":["post-25293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-tips"],"yoast_head":"\nKeeping Track of the 'Traces' of Apps on Your Mac<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"OWC Brian shows you how to find out just where files go when installed on your Mac\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/25293-keeping-track-of-the-traces-of-apps-on-your-mac\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Keeping Track of the 'Traces' of Apps on Your Mac\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OWC Brian shows you how to find out just where files go when installed on your Mac\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/25293-keeping-track-of-the-traces-of-apps-on-your-mac\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rocket Yard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-23T14:18:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-06-23T21:54:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Globe-DIY.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta 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