I’m trying to clean up a few leftover application files on my Mac, but I haven’t been able to remove them. The Mac cleaner I used identifies them as remnants, yet it says I don’t have sufficient permissions to delete them.
The items are:
I’m running macOS Tahoe 26.2. I’ve also tried dragging these files to the Trash manually, but when I attempt to empty the Trash, the deletion fails.
How can I delete these app leftovers?
The first thing I’d check is where those app files are located. If they’re inside the Applications folder or another system-protected location, macOS may prevent their removal without administrator authorization.
Since both Python.app entries are involved, it’s also worth being careful. Python can be installed by third-party software, development tools, or package managers, and deleting the wrong component could affect applications that depend on it.
A few things you can try:
If you still can’t delete them, can you tell us where these files are located?
Also, are you getting a specific error message when you try to empty the Trash, such as “The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission” or “The item is in use”?
Which app did you try? You can switch to another Mac cleaning tool. iBoysoft Cleaner is a professional Mac cleaner that can help delete third-party apps and all their associated files.
It also supports clear remnants of apps that were uninstalled before.