Mozilla’s Firefox is one of the most popular web browsers on the Mac. However, there is plenty of competition. And, like all web browsers, Firefox takes up a lot of space on your startup disk. So, if you installed it to try it out and no longer use it, it’s a good idea to uninstall it and free up the space. Unfortunately, Mozilla doesn’t supply an uninstaller, which means that you’ll have to do it manually. We’ll show you how to do that, and we’ll also show you how to free up space by removing Firefox data without uninstalling it.
Why uninstall Firefox?
Firefox, like any other web browser, stores lots of data on your Mac. Some of that data contains personal information, such as your browser history and login details. Also, those files take up lots of much-needed space on your Mac. So, if you no longer use Firefox, uninstalling it properly will free up that space and get rid of that personal data, making your Mac more secure.
How to uninstall Firefox manually
There are two parts to uninstalling Firefox manually. First, you need to remove the application file itself. Then you need to get rid of all the files it has placed on your Mac.
- Go to your Applications folder, locate Firefox, and drag it to the Trash.
- Click on the Desktop.
- In the Finder menu at the top of the screen, click on the Go menu and choose Go to Folder.
- In the text box, type the following: ~/Library/Application Support
- Find the Firefox folder and drag it to the Trash.
- Now, return to the Go to Folder window and type ~/Library/Caches
- Look for the Firefox folder and drag it to the Trash.
- Also, in ~/Library/Caches, look for the Mozilla folder and drag that to the Trash.
- Empty the Trash.
How to uninstall Firefox the easy way
As you can see, uninstalling Firefox manually is quite a lot of work — you have to literally hunt down the files scattered around your Mac. Thankfully, there is an easier way. The easier way uses a dedicated uninstaller app that does all the hard work for you. We recommend CleanMyMac. It can uninstall any app with just a few clicks. You can download it for free here.
- Open CleanMyMac.
- Click Applications in the sidebar and run a scan.
- Click Manage My Applications, find Firefox and select it.
- Click Uninstall.
That’s all you need to do to uninstall Firefox using CleanMyMac. And you can uninstall any app on your Mac in exactly the same way. You can even uninstall multiple apps at the same time.
How to remove Firefox data without uninstalling it
If you think you might want to use Firefox again in the future and don’t want to uninstall it, you can clear some of the files it has saved up on your Mac. This will free up space, improve your privacy, and should help Firefox run more quickly and smoothly. Here’s how to do it.
- Launch Firefox and click the History menu.
- Choose Clear Recent History.
- In the Time to Clear menu, choose Everything.
- Select the boxes for the data you want to delete. Note that Offline Website Data is not marked by default, but you should select it if you want to remove all the files websites you have visited in Firefox have saved on your Mac.
- Click OK.
You can do the same with the help of the app we recommended above — CleanMyMac. Its Applications feature has the reset option that safely removes all the app data. All you have to do is follow the steps we outlined earlier in the article, select all Firefox files (except binaries) and click Remove.
Firefox is a popular web browser, but there are lots of other excellent web browsers for the Mac, including Apple’s own Safari, Google’s Chrome, Opera, and Vivaldi. So, if you haven’t used it for a while and now use another browser, you should uninstall it. Follow the steps above to do that, making sure you delete all the files in your user Library folder to complete the uninstallation.
