How To Clean up & Organize Mac’s Launchpad

Launchpad on your Mac is a dedicated place where all your apps are centrally located. As the name suggests, you can open the Launchpad and access all the applications that are installed on your Mac. But, over a period of time, your Launchpad may become a mess as you install new applications each day. So, won’t it be better if you gave your Launchpad a quick cleaning? Wouldn’t it be better to organize it a little bit?

If that sounds tedious, worry not! Let’s discuss some of the best ways to clean and organize your Mac for improving productivity.

How To Use Launchpad To View And Open Apps On Mac

Launchpad can be accessed directly from your Dock. We have mentioned quite a lot about it in this post. If you have deleted it by mistake, here is how you can get it back –

1. Switch to Finder.
2. Click on Go and select Applications.
3. Locate the Launchpad and drag it onto your Dock.

How To Organize Launchpad On Mac

1. Rearrange Apps In Your Launchpad

Rearranging apps based on how often you use them is probably one of the best ways to clean up the Launchpad on Mac. Here’s what we mean –

Your Launchpad consists of many screens – screen numbers 1, 2, and so on. Just like you’d move apps on your iOS device, you can drag an app and move it onto some other screen. As you’d move an app, the other icons will scoot around and make space.

Now, using this same principle, rearrange the apps on your Launchpad. For example, you may not want the apps that are already there on your Dock to appear on screen number 1 of your Launchpad.  Therefore, drag and push to screen number two or three. You may also want to remove apps that you don’t need anymore. This will help free up space on your Launchpad and you will be able to make space for new apps.

2. Remove Unnecessary Apps

To sort your Mac’s launchpad you need to get rid of those unwanted apps that you haven’t used in ages. They are just sitting there for no apparent reason. Such apps unnecessarily hogs space and make your Launchpad look congested. It is better to let go of them once and for all.

One way to get rid of such apps is to uninstall them manually. But that may still not help you get rid of them completely, as the leftover & belonging files still resides on your storage. That’s why we highly recommend to use an uninstaller app like Advanced Uninstall Manager. It isn’t just a utility that can help you uninstall apps, but it helps you do so in a way that no remnants of the app are left. It even helps you with various optimization tasks as well.

We have discussed all its features in this post.  For uninstalling apps on Mac using Advanced Uninstall Manager, here are the steps –

1. Download, install and run Advanced Uninstall Manager

   

2. From the left-hand side, click on Delete Files.
3. On the right-hand side, all the applications will be enlisted.
   
4. Select the app you want to uninstall.
5. Click on Delete from the bottom-right corner of the interface.

3. Create Folders

Aptly segregating the apps folder-wise is a great way to clean up your Launchpad. Folders help categorize apps. For instance, you may have several browsers that you can put under one category “browser”. Then you may have a bunch of productivity apps that you can again consolidate under the head “Productivity”. On a personal front, you can pick up selected apps from each of these categories and put them on your dock. This way, you’ll have a set of apps that you can readily use. And, as and when required you can swap apps under each category with another.

4. Rebuilding Launchpad Database

While not an exact way to organize or clean up Launchpad, let’s say, you are in a situation where you have reordered the apps abruptly. Or, you can’t see app icons because of say, the wrong installation. Here you can rebuild the Launchpad database and, here are the steps.

1. Open Finder.
2. Click on Go and head to Library.
3. Open the Applications Support Folder and then open the Dock folder.
4. Except for desktoppicture.db, move all the other files to the trash.
   
5. Launch Terminal and copy and paste the below-mentioned command –
   defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool true
6. Next, enter the command killall Dock and press Return

Wrapping Up

Believe it or not, cluttered Launchpad can make your life hard, especially if you have a small Mac screen and you depend upon your Launchpad to gain access to apps. Do let us know if you found the steps mentioned in this post helpful, do let us know in the comments section below. For more such content, keep reading WeTheGeek. You can also find us on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Flipboard.