How can I uninstall NetBeans on a mac?

Question

I currently have NetBeans 6.5 installed on my mac running leopard. I searched Google on how to uninstall it and the NetBeans website says to right click on it, select "Show Package Contents" and the uninstaller should be there, but it isn't.

How can I completely uninstall NetBeans in this situation? Thanks!

Answer 1

The instructions on this page say that dragging the Netbeans application out of the Applications folder and into the Trash is sufficient.

Answer 2

Note that NetBeans leaves some hidden configuration directories in your home directory. You might want to delete those too:

.asadminpass and .asadmintruststore - directories that contain stuff for Glassfish (Java EE application server)

.netbeans and .netbeans-registration - NetBeans configuration directories

.nbprofiler - something from the NetBeans profiler

In a terminal window, you can list all files and directories (including hidden ones) with ls -la, and you can delete them with for example rm -rf .netbeans (BE CAREFUL with that last command, it deletes stuff so that you can't get it back).

Answer 3

Compiled List

Here is a list of the nooks and crannies where you need to find and delete files and folders. I compiled this list from the multiple sources listed on this page.

My list here was true for me in Mountain Lion 10.8.5 with NetBeans 8.0.2. Of course things may change in the future or past.

Some may not be necessary for some upgrades between versions of NetBeans. But if you want a truly fresh install, here you go.

You could write a shell script to do this deleting. But I just do it by hand as this Spring-cleaning is not a regular occurrence.

I suggest making a back-up copy of each of your projects before doing an upgrade of NetBeans.

Home folder

Some hidden folders may appear directly in your home folder. The . as first letter hides the file/folder by default. To permanently show such files/folders in the Finder, read this or this.

• ~/.netbeans-derby

In later versions of Mac OS X, the Library folder is hidden from your home folder. Also not displayed on the Go menu. To expose, hold down the Option key while choosing Go. A Library menu item appears, about in the middle of the menu.

• ~/Library/Application Support/NetBeans/
• ~/Library/Caches/NetBeans/7.4

Root folder

• /Applications/NetBeans
• /private/var/db/receipts/org.netbeans.*

Answer 4

Barry Brown's answer is correct; I would add how this is handled by NetBeans. If you look under the NetBeans installation directory, then under bin, you will see a shell script named "netbeans," which locates your JDK installation when NetBeans is started.

There are third party "Uninstaller" utilities for Mac, but dragging an application from "Applictions" to the trash bin is typically how application removal is done.

Answer 5

I think you can uninstall it the same way it is done on Ubuntu as explained in this sample post. I'm not a Mac user myself, so I may be wrong but it's worth posting this here in case there are Linux users in the house.

Answer 6

Very helpful but if like me you get stuck with a blank 7.1 project because none of the settings ever import it could be that like me you are upgrading a mac osx from 7.0rc1 or 7.0rc2.

To fix this or just re-update your settings. Open Telnet session.

cd /Users/{user}/. netbeans ls

     I had this... 
     my-MBP:.netbeans {my}$ ls
     6.9    7.0rc2  7.1
     my-MBP:.netbeans {my}$

I then removed the duff 7.1 settings and manually moved in the 7.0 settings with

rm -R 7.1
cp -rf 7.0rc2 7.1

When opening up NetBeans next time it will take 2-10 minutes to fully rescan & reindex all but works perfectly after this.

HTH

Simon.