What is thermalmonitord on a Mac, and how to check if your Mac is throttling
thermalmonitord watches temperatures and tells macOS when to slow down. pmset on our Mac had recorded no thermal or performance warning. How to check yours.
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Mac storage, explained.
What fills your disk, where it hides, and what is safe to remove. Every guide gives you a way to check it on your own Mac.
What is secd on a Mac, and why does it use CPU?
secd manages your keychain and iCloud Keychain sync. It used 5 to 6 MB on our Mac and was idle. Why it spikes, and why its files are not something to clean.
How to uninstall Docker Desktop on a Mac, and the 4.5 GB the app leaves behind
Docker's own uninstaller, what it misses, and why most guides tell you to delete a folder that does not exist on a Mac. Measured on Docker 4.47.
How to uninstall Google Chrome on a Mac completely
Remove Chrome, its 5 GB cache that lives outside the profile, and the updater most guides forget, without losing the bookmarks you synced.
How to uninstall WhatsApp on a Mac, and where your chats really are
Log out, remove the app, then clear the shared folder that holds your chats and media. The paths most guides list belong to the old WhatsApp app.
How to uninstall Homebrew on a Mac, with a dry run first
Homebrew's own uninstall script, the dry run that shows what it removes, and the apps it leaves behind. On our Mac: 10 GB, 153 tools and 9 apps.
How to uninstall Python on a Mac without breaking the tools that need it
Which Python came from where, which one you cannot remove, and how to see what depends on each before you delete it. Measured on a Mac with four.
How to uninstall Node.js on a Mac, when you have more than one
Node from the installer, Homebrew and nvm each come out differently. On our Mac there were three at once, 2.2 GB of global packages and a 6.3 GB cache.
How to uninstall MySQL on a Mac, including the databases Homebrew leaves behind
Stop the server, remove MySQL, then decide about its data folder: on our Mac, 306 MB of databases that brew uninstall does not touch.
How to uninstall PostgreSQL on a Mac, when you have more than one version
Stop each server, uninstall each version, and find the data folder each one keeps. On our Mac: two versions, two data folders, and a launch agent left behind.
How to uninstall MongoDB on a Mac, and the logs that outgrew the data
MongoDB from Homebrew is three packages, a data folder and a log folder. On our Mac the logs were larger than the databases. How to remove all of it.
How to uninstall Redis on a Mac
Stop Redis, remove it with Homebrew, and clear the settings and saved data it leaves. Redis itself is tiny; check its data file before you delete it.