How to delete an app from Launchpad on a Mac

There are two versions of this question now, and they have different answers. On a Mac running macOS Sequoia 15 or earlier, Launchpad is still there, and removing an app from it means holding the icon until the grid jiggles and clicking a delete badge. On a Mac running macOS Tahoe 26 or macOS 27, Launchpad is gone, and the grid of app icons that replaced it does not work the same way at all.

Working out which of the two is on screen takes a second and saves a lot of hunting. Click the Apple menu, then About This Mac, and read the macOS version at the top.

What happened to Launchpad

The change is visible in Apple's own documentation. The help topic that used to be titled "Use Launchpad to view and open apps on Mac" now carries the same topic identifier but a different title and a different set of instructions.

Spotlight is the central location where you can search, browse, and open your apps. Source: support.apple.com, read September 27, 2026

Selecting macOS Sequoia 15 in the version menu on that same page brings back the Launchpad text, which is the quickest way to confirm which behaviour applies to a given Mac.

In practice the grid still exists and is still one click away. Clicking the Apps icon in the Dock opens it, and so does opening Spotlight and pressing Command-1. The difference is what the grid is. Launchpad kept its own arrangement, with pages, folders that could be created by dragging one app onto another, and per icon delete badges. The Spotlight apps window shows the installed apps filtered by category along the top, with a choice of Grid or List view behind the More button, and no per icon delete control.

That single missing control is the whole of the confusion. On current macOS there is nothing to click on the icon itself, so the removal has to happen where the app actually lives.

Removing an app on macOS Tahoe 26 and macOS 27

The grid reflects the Applications folder, so that is where to work.

To add an app that you didn't download from the App Store, drag the app to the Applications folder in the Finder on your Mac. The app is then shown in Spotlight. Source: support.apple.com, read September 27, 2026

The reverse of that is the removal. Quit the app first. Open a Finder window and click Applications in the sidebar. Check whether the app sits inside a folder of its own, because if it does, that folder often contains an uninstaller named after the app, and running it is the better route. If there is no uninstaller, drag the app to the Trash, or select it and choose File then Move to Trash.

Two details decide whether this actually finishes. Entering an administrator name and password may be required, and that is normal for anything installed for all users. And the space is not released, nor is the app really gone, until the Trash is emptied. Until then the app can be put back: select it in the Trash and choose File, then Put Back.

There is a second place to look if the app is not in the main Applications folder. Some apps install into an Applications folder inside the home folder instead, which is reached by choosing Home from the Go menu in the Finder. An app in either location shows up in the same grid.

Removing an app on macOS Sequoia 15 and earlier

Here the delete badge exists, and Apple's instructions are short.

Click and hold an app until all the apps begin to jiggle. Click the app's Delete button. If a Delete button isn't shown, the app can't be removed from Launchpad. Source: support.apple.com, read September 27, 2026

Option-clicking rather than clicking and holding gets to the same jiggling state faster, and pressing Escape leaves it.

The badge only ever appeared on apps that came from the App Store. That is the single fact that explains almost every version of the complaint about icons with no cross on them. An app dragged in from a disk image, installed by a package installer, or bundled with hardware will never show one, no matter how long the icon is held.

Why an icon has no delete badge, or will not go away

Three separate situations produce the same symptom, and they need different responses.

The app did not come from the App Store. Nothing is wrong. Remove it through the Finder instead, using the app's own uninstaller if it has one, and the icon disappears from the grid once the Applications folder no longer contains it.

The app is one macOS requires. Apple is explicit that a set of built in apps cannot be removed this way at all, and that anything in the System folder is off limits.

You can't use the Finder to delete apps that are required by your Mac. This includes many apps that are installed by macOS, such as Mail, Music, Books, Notes, Podcasts, Maps, News, and Stocks, as well as any apps in the System folder, which is reserved by macOS. Source: support.apple.com, read September 27, 2026

The Mac says the app is in use. Quitting it is the first move, and quitting the wrong window is a common miss, because an app can have no windows open and still be running. If that does not clear it, Apple's documented next steps are to restart, and if the restart does not help, to start up in safe mode and try again. Safe mode matters here because it keeps login items from loading, so an app that is being held open by its own helper can be removed while that helper is not running. A related case is an item the Finder treats as locked, which asks for confirmation on the way to the Trash. That lock is cleared by selecting the item, choosing File then Get Info, and deselecting the Locked checkbox, with an administrator name and password if the account in use is not an administrator.

What removal does not do

Dragging an app to the Trash is narrower in effect than most people assume, and three of the gaps cost real money or real tidiness.

Documents survive. Files created with an app are not touched by removing the app, which is good, except that reopening them may now be impossible. Checking whether anything important is in a proprietary format is worth doing before emptying the Trash.

Subscriptions survive. Apple states plainly that deleting an app does not cancel a subscription bought through it. That has to be cancelled separately, in the App Store account settings or wherever the purchase was made.

Supporting pieces survive. This is the one that shows up on screen afterwards. An app that installed a login item, a background agent or a system extension can leave those entries behind, and the visible symptom is an icon still sitting in the menu bar, or a permission request from something that is supposed to be gone. The place to check is System Settings, then General, then Login Items and Extensions, which Apple describes as the pane that chooses "which items open automatically whenever you log in." A stale entry is removed by selecting its name and clicking the remove button below the list. The same pane carries the list that allows an app "to perform tasks when the app isn't open, such as checking for software updates or syncing data," and that list is where agents belonging to removed apps tend to linger.

This is exactly why an app's own uninstaller is worth using when one exists. Apple's guidance is unambiguous on the point: an uninstaller is the best way to remove the app along with the login items, extensions and other data it stored elsewhere.

An order of operations that avoids the mess

Most of the trouble in this task comes from doing the steps in the wrong sequence, not from any one step being hard. The order below is built out of Apple's own instructions and puts each check before the point at which it stops being possible.

First, find out which macOS is running, because it decides whether a delete badge exists at all. Second, look for files created with the app. Apple's warning is worth taking literally: removing an app does not remove the documents made with it, but it may leave those documents impossible to open. Exporting anything important to a common format is much easier while the app is still installed.

Third, quit the app. An app with no windows on screen can still be running, and macOS will refuse to remove it while it is. Fourth, look inside the app's own folder in Applications before touching the Trash, since a bundled uninstaller does a more complete job than a drag ever will.

Fifth, move the app to the Trash and empty it, because the storage space is not released and the removal is not final until that happens. This is also the last moment at which File, then Put Back, will undo a mistake.

Sixth, check Login Items and Extensions for anything the app left running. And seventh, if a subscription was bought inside the app, cancel it where it was purchased. Skipping the sixth step is what produces a menu bar icon belonging to an app that no longer exists, and skipping the seventh is what produces a charge for software that is no longer installed.

When hiding is the better answer

Not every icon in the grid needs deleting, and two of the common motives are better served another way.

If the goal is a shorter list to look at, the category filter along the top of the apps window does that without removing anything, and the List view behind the More button is denser than the grid. If the goal is fewer things running, removing the login item is the change that matters, not removing the app.

The related case is the menu bar. Apps get deleted specifically because their icon was cluttering the top of the screen, which is a heavy fix for a narrow problem, and it fails when the app is one that has to stay. The built in controls there are limited to Command-dragging a status menu to move it and Command-dragging it out of the menu bar to remove it, and neither creates space. The features page covers what a dedicated tool does with icons that have to stay installed but do not need to be visible, and the pricing page sets out what that costs.

What to change first

Check the macOS version before anything else, because the delete badge in the app grid only exists on macOS Sequoia 15 and earlier. On newer versions, remove the app from the Applications folder in the Finder, preferring its own uninstaller, then empty the Trash and check Login Items and Extensions for what stayed behind. If the icon that started this was in the menu bar rather than the app grid, Koffret solves that without uninstalling anything.