Prune Old Applications

Client Notes

In recent weeks, I answered a bunch of Melinda’s questions while migrating her data to her new Mac and left her with a big smile! I also helped Janine and Matt get better connected to each other in their relationship with Google Photos by separating them from a shared account. And, with my patient coaching, Estella got better acquainted with Apple Mail.

Plus, I spent over an hour getting hanging with Julia while picking up some knickknacks she didn’t want to take on a big move — and shared some possible approaches to recovering a photo library on her old Mac. And I’ve started a small-scale business of reselling external drives that are harder to come by and supporting clients to improve their Mac backup strategy. Let me know if you’re in the market for a new backup drive.

I visited Shawn-Anderson Dance Center to reset a few Macs for future new users and identified a number of opportunities for technology advancement in their office. And, I troubleshooted with Bruce a PowerPoint and Zoom mystery that led in part to using Keynote instead.

Additionally, I recommended to Shelley a MacBook Neo to replace her 2013 MacBook Air, supported John to buy a refurbished 2021 iMac to replace his 2015 iMac, and helped Ron make the switch from an Android to an iPhone 17e. I also solved some more mysteries, including with Tom’s Apple account, Irving’s Zoom accounts, Andy’s Word documents, and Amy’s email storage.

Get Info

Mac applications are designed for one or more specific computer chips. For modern Macs, you can generally find apps released for Intel, Apple Silicon, or both (labeled Universal).

Go to your Applications folder in the Finder, select an app, and choose File > Get Info or press Command+I. In the General section of the Info window, look at Kind.

In the example above, you’ll see “Application (Intel).” Thus, if the developer of this application — or, if the source code is open, anyone else — doesn’t update it for Apple Silicon, I won’t be able to open it after I upgrade my Mac to macOS 28.

Honestly, I haven’t used Aurora Desktop in several years. It was developed to program my Aurora Dreamband, a device designed to encourage and trigger lucid dreaming. (It looks like Nick hit the jackpot and acquired dozens of this product to resell on eBay for cheap but with no support.)

I may hold onto the app and run it on an Intel Mac I’ll likely keep around for such purposes. Otherwise, this is an application I would prune.

System Information

One way to list applications and their chip support is with System Information, which I reviewed in Information Overload. This stock application resides in the Utilities folder, which you can access via the Finder’s Go menu or inside the Applications folder. You can also hold the Option key and choose System Information from the Apple menu.

1. Choose Applications under Software and wait patiently while your Mac generates a list
2. Click the Kind column to sort by this identifier
3. Drag the horizontal divider down so you can see more items at once

You may see 32-bit, Apple Silicon, Intel, iOS, Other, and/or Universal among the application types listed.

This is a visually drab method, though, to find applications to prune. System Information sports tiny text that you can’t enlarge, doesn’t remember sort order, and fails to provide much useful information at a glance to know how to proceed. Thus, I don’t recommend it for this purpose.

Prune with Go64

I first mentioned Go64 in Future Incompatibility, my first post about a similar transition. In 2019, Apple dropped support for 32-bit applications. In response, St. Clair Software released Go64 in July of that year, shortly before Apple delivered macOS 10.15, the first version that would only run 64-bit apps.

This application, which draws on the same database as System Information, has new utility because it can also differentiate between application types like Intel and Apple Silicon. Go64 is also more visually pleasing, showing app icons, and lists developer names and websites in dedicated columns.

You can use the toolbar buttons or contextual menu to easily delete an application, visit its developer website, and more.

Prune Completely

On the Mac, most applications don’t come with an uninstaller and macOS lacks a simple way to fully remove them. So, when you prune an app by moving it’s icon to the trash, you may leave behind some amount of additional files used to support the app.

These are commonly strewn across various Library folders and not easy for the human mind to seek out. Thus, it’s useful to have a third-party utility that can handle listing and deleting the excess cruft.

AppCleaner

For years, I’ve used AppCleaner, from FreeMacSoft. It runs in the background, activates when I move an application to the trash, and offers to remove the app’s related files.

I only just discovered that AppCleaner also has a toggle to list/search applications on the computer, select one or more at a time, and list their files in aggregate.

Pearcleaner

Recently, I learned of a slightly more advanced utility called Pearcleaner from developer Alin Lupascu. The app is a little rough around the edges and Alin admittedly has paused development due to other priorities. However, Pearcleaner is effective enough.

Like AppCleaner, it can act on applications you move to the trash or show a list of apps and their related files to delete at will. Additionally, Pearcleaner has a Search Sensitivity setting and a number of other options to enhance its visual and functional appeal.

Neither of these utilities lists the chip architectures that applications support, so you’ll need to cross reference with Go64 to know where to focus your review process. I recommend running Go64 side by side with your chosen uninstaller.