Microsoft Office has been one of the most popular suites of applications on the Mac for three decades. It’s also one of the most unpopular – Mac users really do have a love/hate relationship with it. Lots of people install it, use it, then get so annoyed with it they uninstall it. However, uninstalling Office isn’t as easy as it should be, so here’s a step-by-step guide to show you how to uninstall every part of Microsoft Office.
What is Microsoft Office?
Office is a suite of tools that comprises: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and OneDrive. To use such apps, you can either subscribe to Office 365 on Microsoft's website and download the apps from there or download the individual apps from the Mac App Store and buy a subscription as an in-app purchase.
Option 1 - Uninstall Office from the Control Panel Open the Control Panel. Tip: If you installed the Office apps as part of a suite, such as Office Home and Student or Microsoft 365, search for the suite name. For stand-alone apps search by the app name, such as Project or Visio. Why Do You Need to Uninstall Microsoft Office on Mac. If you are using you MAC computer for. Remove Office for Mac applications Open Finder Applications. Command +click to select all of the Office for Mac applications. Ctrl+click an application you selected and click Move to Trash.
Subscriptions are annual and there are several different tiers, each of which provides a different level of service with regard to the number of devices you can install Office apps on.
Why is it so difficult to uninstall Office?
Good question! On Windows PCs, Microsoft offers an uninstall utility that allows you to remove Office or any Office app with a few clicks. However, on a Mac, you have to do it the manual way. That means not just removing the app binaries themselves, but hunting down all the other ‘junk’ files that Microsoft Office installs on your Mac.
Backup your data
Once you’ve uninstalled Office, you will obviously not be able to open any files you have that are in Microsoft formats like .doc, .xls, or .ppt in their parent applications. So, before you uninstall Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, make sure that you have another way of opening those files if you need them.
That could be another application that supports those file formats or another computer that has Office installed on it. If that’s not possible, you should open each file in Office and export it in a format that can be read in other applications, such as .rtf for Word documents. Don’t uninstall anything until you have made sure you will still be able to read and edit your files.
When you uninstall Outlook on your Mac, you will also remove all of its data, including email messages and attachments. If you use an IMAP server or an account like iCloud or Gmail, there’s nothing to worry about, your messages and attachments will still be on the server. However, if you have downloaded messages and attachments and deleted them from the mail server, or if you use a POP3 mail server, you should backup up all your messages and attachments before you uninstall Outlook. You can do this by exporting messages from Outlook in mbox format. You should also consider making a copy of the Containers folder described below, just in case.
Before you go ahead and attempt the manual uninstallation described below, there is another, much easier way. CleanMyMac X allows you to uninstall Office apps, or any other app, with just a couple of clicks, using its uninstaller tool. Here’s how it works:
- Download and launch CleanMyMac X — get a free version here
- Choose the Uninstaller tool from the sidebar.
- In the window on the right, check the box next to the Office apps (Word, Excel, etc) you want to uninstall.
- Press Uninstall
CleanMyMac X now removes not just the apps themselves, but all the associated junk files, saving you a huge amount of time and effort.
You can now check whether there are any leftover files.
- Go to the Uninstaller tool in CleanMyMac X.
- Click on Leftovers.
- If there are any files listed, check the box next to them and press Uninstall.
How to uninstall Office 365 on Mac
To uninstall Office 365, you need to uninstall each app and depending on which version of Office you are using, the process is slightly different.
Uninstall Office 2011
- Navigate to your Applications folder.
- Select Microsoft Excel
- Hold down the Command key and select Outlook, Powerpoint, and Word.
- Drag them all to the Trash and empty it.
This will uninstall Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook from your Mac.
Uninstall Office 365 2016
Uninstalling Office 2016 is more complicated than uninstalling the 2011 version, because you need to locate files in several different folders and move them to the Trash.
- Go to your Applications folder and select Microsoft Excel.
- Hold down the Command key and click on the following apps: OneNote; Outlook; PowerPoint; Word; One Drive.
- With all those apps selected, drag them to the Trash or Control-click on one of the apps and choose Move to Trash from the menu.
- In the Finder, click on the Go menu and choose Go to Folder, or press Command+Shift+G.
- In the box that opens, type: ~/Library and press Go.
- Locate the Containers folder and open it.
- Locate each of the folders listed below and drag them to the Trash (some of them may not be present)
com.microsoft.errorreporting
com.microsoft.Excel
com.microsoft.netlib.shipassertprocess
com.microsoft.Office365ServiceV2
com.microsoft.Outlook
com.microsoft.Powerpoint
com.microsoft.RMS-XPCService
com.microsoft.Word
com.microsoft.onenote.mac - Click the back arrow in the Finder window to go back to ~/Library and open the Group Containers folder.
- Locate the folders below and move them to the Trash (again, some may not be present).
UBF8T346G9.ms
UBF8T346G9.Office
UBF8T346G9.OfficeOsfWebHost - Empty the Trash
- If any Office icons are in the Dock, right-click on them and choose Options>Remove from Dock.
- Restart your Mac
You have now uninstalled Office 2016 from your Mac.
If your reason for uninstalling Office from your Mac is to save space, consider using CleanMyMac X to get rid of junk files before you uninstall. CleanMyMac X is an expert at getting rid of files you didn’t even know were there and can recover tens of gigabytes of disk space without having to uninstall anything.
If your reason for uninstalling Office from your Mac is to save space, consider using CleanMyMac X to get rid of junk files before you uninstall. CleanMyMac X is an expert at getting rid of files you didn’t even know were there and can recover tens of gigabytes of disk space without having to uninstall anything.
Uninstall Microsoft Office 2008 For Mac
Uninstalling Microsoft Office is straightforward if you are using Office 2011. But Office 2016 is much more complicated to get rid of. There is no official uninstaller, so you have to track down files and folders manually and drag them to the Trash. A much easier solution is to use the CleanMyMac X’s Uninstaller tool which can uninstall applications with just a couple of clicks, removing all their associated files.
Uninstall Microsoft Office For Mac
By Nathan E. Malpass, Last updated: August 27, 2019
Microsoft Office 2016 is a powerful tool in handling Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook documents in our daily working or everyday learning. However, a fly in the ointment is that the Microsoft Office 2016 coexists with Microsoft Office’s earlier version including 2003, 2007, and 2010, except for the 2013 version.
Therefore, if you prefer to the Microsoft Office 2013 version, you’d better uninstall the Microsoft Office 2016 on your Mac or computer first. Steps are simple and easy to uninstall Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac. Let us see how to process the steps together.
Note: The following steps need you to sign in as an administrator. It is also OK for you if you can provide an administrator name with a password.
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I Uninstall Microsoft Office 2016 in Applications
One of the most direct ways to remove the Microsoft Office 2016 on your Mac is to uninstall it via the Applications under Finder.
Step 1. Launch Finder on your Mac and then choose Applications.
Step 2. Press the Command button on the keyboard and click the whole Microsoft Office applications.
Step 3. Ctrl + click or right-click and select Move to Trash in the menu list later.
Uninstalling Microsoft Office 2016 in Applications under Finder is the first easy and simple method to uninstall Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac.
II Remove Microsoft Office 2016 from User Library Folder
To begin with, as far as the second method, you are supposed to set the Finder View options and then start the steps to remove Microsoft Office 2016 from your user library folder.
Step 1. Press Command + Shift + H on your keyboard in Finder.
Step 2. Open the menu list at the top side in Finder and click View, as List and Show View Options in turn.
Step 3. Then, tick Show Library Folder after you chose the Show View Options in the last step. Save the instruction you set and you can finish this step later.
Then, go forward and see how to further get Microsoft Office 2016 out of your user library folder.
Step 4. You need to Ctrl + click the files below and confirm Move to Trash. These files can be found in Finder> Library> Containers.
- microsoft.errorreporting
- microsoft.Excel
- microsoft.netlib.shipassertprocess
- microsoft.Office365ServiceV2
- microsoft.Outlook
- microsoft.Powerpoint
- microsoft.RMS-XPCService
- microsoft.Word
- microsoft.onenote.mac
Note: You are no need to delete all the files above as not the whole files would be shown on your Mac.
Step 5. Outlook data on your Mac will be deleted or erased at the same time if you remove the three files in the list. Therefore, you are better to back up the files before you remove them to Trash. Back to the Library and enter Group Containers, you can delete the three files if they can be shown.
- ms
- Office
- OfficeOsfWebHost
It is much more complicated compared to the first method to remove Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac. However, it is also advisable for you who are seeking for ways to uninstall Microsoft Office 2016 on Mac.
III Remove Microsoft Office 2016 from Dock and Restart
If Microsoft Office 2016 is added in the Dock on your Mac, you can remove Microsoft Office 2016 on your Mac through removing Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook from the Dock. It is the third method for you to uninstall Microsoft Office 2016 on your Mac.
Here are the steps:
Step 1. First of all, press Ctrl + click the Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook under Microsoft Office 2016 on the Dock to enter the menu list.
Step 2. Then, choose Options and Remove from Dock.
Step 3. Microsoft Office 2016 will be entirely removed after you restart your Mac.
If Microsoft Office 2016 is put in the Dock on your Mac, this method is extremely easy for you to complete the uninstalling.
IV Uninstall Microsoft Office 2016 with FoneDog Mac Cleaner
Except for the three methods to remove Microsoft Office 2016 on your Mac, you can also consider uninstalling Microsoft Office 2016 with the help of a third-party application. Here, the FoneDog Mac Cleaner is a good alternative for you.
FoneDog Mac Cleaner has SIX competitive and advantageous points:
- Speed up and improve the performance of your Mac with simple clicks.
- Swiftly scan your Mac and easily delete junk files.
- An overview of the primary status of your Mac, consisting of the disk usage, CPU status, memory usage.
- Find out and remove duplicate or similar pictures and other identical files.
- 30-day money back guarantee is provided.
- 8-in-1 Mac Software: ①System Status, ②Mac Cleaner, ③Similar Image Finder, ④Duplicate Files Finder, ⑤Mac App Uninstaller, ⑥Extensions Manager, ⑦Browser Privacy Cleanup, and ⑧File Shredder.
Refer to the 6th point, FoneDog Mac Cleaner excels in uninstalling apps on your Mac as well, including Microsoft Office 2016.
Step 1. Download the FoneDog Mac Cleaner from the FoneDog official website or click the button below.
Step 2. Launch the tool on your Mac and choose Uninstaller in Toolkit.
Step 3. Then, the Uninstaller begins to scan the apps on your Mac.
Step 4. View scanning results and find out the Microsoft Office 2016.
Step 5. Press the Clean and Confirm buttons to uninstall.
To conclude, there are FOUR methods to uninstall Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac: removing Microsoft Office 2016 in Applications under Finder, from User Library Folder, from the Dock on Mac and with using FoneDog Mac Cleaner. Hope the methods would be helpful for you.