How do I uninstall Adobe Reader 9 for Mac?

Question

Adobe Reader spews files everywhere plus it hijacks Safari.

I can't believe there is no uninstaller for this app?

Google shows no good info.

Solution 1

You should be able to just delete the application and its associated files. This thread has a list of things and discussion of what to delete. Make sure to remove /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/AdobePDFViewer.plugin if you've installed the Safari in-browser viewer from Adobe.

Solution 2

For most applications, OS X doesn't have installers, or uninstallers, per se. Usually, you simply drag the application Icon to the Trash Can. The app icon (Something.app) is a whole directory. However, this doesn't work for every program.

To remove all traces of a program, if it littered the OS with other files, you might need a program like AppCleaner.app or you can follow this guide for more information.

Solution 3

Adobe's site

To uninstall Acrobat 9 in Mac OS

1. Double-click the Acrobat Uninstaller file, located in the Adobe Acrobat 9 folder.
2. Follow the on-screen instructions to uninstall Acrobat.
3. In the Authenticate dialog, type the user name and password for an administrator account and click OK. Note: The uninstaller removes only Adobe Acrobat 9 and 9.1 files from the system. It does not remove Adobe Reader files, Acrobat user data, or files that are shared with other Adobe applications.

Comments

[Corey Floyd]

Reader spews files everywhere plus it hijacks Safari. It also didn't come with an uninstaller.

[Corey Floyd]

Thanks. I did see that, but I wasn't sure what changed from version 8 to version 9. I imagine since it was a major revision, at least some of that list will be out of date.

[Corey Floyd]

I also reinstalled reader to see if it would install the "uninstaller", but it did not, I just ended up with 2 copies of reader.

[Corey Floyd]

Also App Cleaner and App Zapper don't find all of the files. They just search the preferences folcer and application support folder. They miss everything else.

[benc]

Corey - hmm, so much for RTM, I'll see if I can contact adobe.

[benc]

I created an account on their website, posted a comment (with a link to this site) and down-voted their article. Anyone else want to do the same?

[Corey Floyd]

Thanks, didn't know you could even do that! I will vote it down also

[benc]

It gets better. Check out: forums.adobe.com/message/2176089#2176089 * they made me create an adobe account, I commented about this discussion. * they "approved" my post, which actually deleted it. * I went to the forum in the "approval" email they gave me, and found that thread, where nobody has answered the question (posted in April). Can I say... WEAK!

[Corey Floyd]

I followed these instructions with a spotlight search open looking for anything "adobe", "acrobat", or "reader". Seems to be fine.