Deleting Dropbox from your Mac is a little more complicated than deleting regular apps. There are dozens of threads in the Dropbox forum about uninstalling Dropbox. For example:
Tried to delete the Dropbox app from my Mac, but it gave me this error message saying ‘The item “Dropbox” can’t be moved to the Trash because some of its plugins are in use.
I have deleted Dropbox on my MacBook Air. However, I still see all the Dropbox files in Mac Finder. Can I delete these files? Will this remove the files from my Dropbox account?
To answer these questions, this post is going to introduce the correct way to delete Dropbox from Mac, and what’s more, an easy way to remove Dropbox and its files with one click.
Steps to Delete Dropbox from Mac Thoroughly
Step 1. Unlink Your Mac from your Dropbox Account
When you unlink your Mac from your Dropbox account, files and folders of your account are no longer synced to the Dropbox folder on your Mac. To unlink your Mac:
Open Dropbox, click the gear icon > Preferences > Account tab, and choose to Unlink this Dropbox.
Step 2. Quit Dropbox
This is an important step if you don’t want to see the “some of its plugins are in use” error.
Open Dropbox and click the gear icon. Then select Quit Dropbox.
If Dropbox is frozen, you can go to Utilities > Activity Monitor and terminate the Dropbox process.
Step 3. Drag Dropbox Application to Trash
Then you can remove Dropbox from the Application folder to Trash. And delete the Dropbox application in the Trash.
Step 4. Remove Files in the Dropbox Folder
Find the Dropbox folder in your Mac and right-click to move the folder to Trash. This will delete your local Dropbox files. But you can still access the files in your Dropbox account if you have synced them to the account.
Step 5. Delete Dropbox Contextual Menu:
- Press Shift+Command+G to open the “Go to the folder” window. Type in /Library and enter to locate the Library folder.
- Find and delete the DropboxHelperTools folder.
Step 6. Remove Dropbox Application Files
Also, there are still some app files that are left behind, such as caches, preferences, log files. You may want to delete them to free up space.
On the “Go to the Folder” window, type in ~/.dropbox and click the return key. Select all files in the folder and delete them.
Now you have thoroughly deleted the Dropbox application, files, and settings from your Mac.
Simple Steps to Completely Uninstall Dropbox from Mac
If you find it too troublesome to delete Dropbox manually from Mac, you can use a Mac app uninstaller to simplify things.
MobePas Mac Cleaner is a program that can delete an app and its app files with one click. With its Uninstaller feature, you can simplify the process and uninstall Dropbox in three steps.
Step 1. Download MobePas Mac Cleaner.
Step 2. Unlink your Mac from your Dropbox account.
Step 3. Launch MobePas Mac Cleaner on Mac. Enter Uninstaller. Click Scan to scan out all applications on your Mac.
Step 4. Type Dropbox on the search bar to bring up the app and its related files. Tick the app and its files. Hit Clean.
Step 5. The cleaning process will be done within seconds.
If you have any questions about deleting Dropbox from your Mac, please send them to our email or leave your comments below.