What is pearcleaner?

Pearcleaner is a free Mac app for cleanly removing other applications from macOS. When you uninstall an app by dragging it to the Trash, macOS typically leaves behind scattered support files, caches, preferences, and other data in various folders. Pearcleaner finds and removes these leftover files so that uninstalls are more complete. The app covers several tasks beyond basic uninstall. It can search for orphaned files that no installed app claims, manage development environment remnants, search for files across the system, manage Homebrew packages, strip unneeded processor architecture code from apps to reduce their size, manage installer packages, plugins, and system services, and check for app updates. It also includes a background monitor called Sentinel that automatically triggers cleanup when an app is moved to the Trash. Additional options let you prune unused app language translations and export app bundles and file lists. The project is currently on hold. As of late 2025, the developer changed jobs and no longer has access to a Mac for personal development. This means bug fixes, new features, and releases are paused indefinitely. The README explains this directly and transparently, and notes that the project is not abandoned entirely. Installation is available from GitHub releases or via Homebrew with a single command. The app requires Full Disk permission to search for files and uses a privileged helper for operations in system folders. It supports macOS Ventura (13.x) through Sequoia (15.x). Pearcleaner is licensed under Apache 2.0 with Commons Clause, which means the source is freely available and can be modified, but commercial use or monetization of the app or any modified versions is not permitted.