Citrix Receiver is a tool that can be installed on your Mac and allows you to connect to Citrix virtualization tools such as XenDesktop. It has now been superseded by Citrix Workspace. If you don’t need Citrix Receiver on your Mac anymore, you can safely delete it. The internet doesn’t provide enough information on how to uninstall Citrix Receiver from your Mac. So we decided to share our instructions to help you easily remove Citrix Receiver. Here, we’ll show you how to do just that.

What is Citrix Receiver?

It’s the local component of the Citrix suite of tools that allows you to run virtual desktops on your computer. With Citrix Receiver, you can get remote desktop access to a certain server. It’s a useful way of running, say, Windows without actually installing Windows, using Boot Camp or virtualization tools like Parallels Desktop and VMWare fusion. 

Everything you do in Citrix Desktop is done on a server, so no files you create or add are saved on your Mac. This means you can log into your Citrix Workspace from any computer and use the same applications and files.

Do you need Citrix Receiver on your Mac?

Some companies require their employees to use Citrix Receiver to make sure the connection between the servers and computers is secure. If you want to connect to remote servers for personal purposes, you may also find Citrix Receiver useful. But, if you have had Citrix Receiver on your Mac for years and haven’t used it, you probably don’t need it. So, it’s better to uninstall the tool to avoid its files cluttering your Mac

Did you know?

Before we start walking through the manual process of uninstalling Citrix Receiver, we would like to introduce a much easier way. CleanMyMac X’s Uninstaller utility can help you uninstall almost any app, including Citrix Receiver, with just a couple of clicks. The advantage of using CleanMyMac X, rather than the manual method below, is quicker. It removes all the associated files automatically, and you can uninstall multiple apps simultaneously.

Read more about CleanMyMac X

How to uninstall Citrix Receiver (or Citrix Workspace) from your Mac

  1. Navigate to your Downloads folder and locate the installer package you downloaded when you first installed Citrix Receiver. If you no longer have it, you can download it again from the Citrix website. 
  2. Double-click the package to extract it and mount the dmg file.
  3. Open the disk image and look for the uninstaller file. Double-click it to launch it.
  4. Follow the on-screen instructions.
  5. When you’re done, reboot your Mac.


In addition to running the uninstaller, Citrix advises that you may also need to manually remove some files. Here’s how to do that.

  1. Go to your Applications folder and check if the Citrix Receiver app is still there. If so, drag it to the Trash.
  2. In the Finder, click on the Go menu and choose Go to Folder.
  3. Enter the following locations in the box in turn. Drag them a; to the Trash.

    4. /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/CitrixICAClientPlugIn.plugin

    /Library/LaunchAgents/com.citrix.AuthManager_Mac.plist

    /Library/LaunchAgents/com.citrix.ServiceRecords.plist

    Tip

    You’ll notice from the list above that some of the files you need to remove manually are Launch Agents. These are files that launch when you start up your Mac and enable some of the functions of the application. Lots of apps and services install launch agents, and they can sometimes cause problems on your Mac or just clutter your startup drive. 

    Citrix Receiver also has launch agents that may be left on your Mac even after you delete the tool. CleanMyMac X has a special tool for identifying and removing launch agents.


  4. Go back to the Go menu, and this time, type /Users/Shared in the box. Find the Citrix Receiver folder and drag it to the Trash.
  5. Now, locate the following files and drag them to the Trash.

    6. /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/CitrixICAClientPlugIn.plugin

    ~/Library/Application Support/Citrix

    ~/Library/Preferences/com.citrix.receiver.nomas.plist

    ~/Library/Preferences/com.citrix.receiver.nomas.plist.lockfile

    ~/Library/Preferences/com.citrix.ReceiverFTU.AccountRecords.plist

    ~/Library/Preferences/com.citrix.ReceiverFTU.AccountRecords.plist.lockfile

  6. Go to /Applications and drag any applications you added previously in Citrix Receiver to the Trash.
  7. Finally, go to /private/var/db/receipts and drag these four files to the Trash:

    8. com.citrix.ICAClient.bom

    com.citrix.ICAClient.plist

    com.citrix.ShareFile.installer.plist

    com.citrix.ShareFile.installer.bom

  8. Empty the Trash.

How to remove Follow Me data from your Mac

We’re not done yet. One of Citrix’s most important features is Follow Me, a cloud data tool that allows you to log in on different devices and use the same workspace, with all your files intact as you left them last time you logged in. When you uninstall Citrix Receiver, you may also have to uninstall Follow Me data on your Mac manually.

  1. In the Go menu in the Finder, type ~/Library/Applications/Citrix/FollowMeData to access the hidden folder. Drag the files inside it to the Trash.
  2. Empty the Trash.

Once you’ve done all of that, you should have removed all the files associated with Citrix Receiver. That’s quite a few steps. 

If you’d rather do it the easy way, using CleanMyMac X, here’s how you do it.

All apps selected in the Uninstaller module of CMM
  1. Download, install and launch CleanMyMac X.
  2. Choose the Uninstaller tool in the sidebar.
  3. Locate Citrix Receiver in the list of apps in the main window.
  4. Check the box next to it.
  5. Press Uninstall.

That’s it! Citrix Receiver will now be uninstalled and all its associated files removed from your Mac. 

Citrix Receiver is a popular tool for running virtual desktops on a Mac. However, it has now been superseded by Citrix Workspace. That’s one reason you might want to uninstall Receiver. You can do that manually, but it’s a long process involving lots of files as you can see above. CleanMyMac X can help you optimize the process and make sure there is no leftover data on your Mac.