FULL removal of Carbonite from Mac (OSX 10.6)

September 19, 2009 8:12 pm Posted in Tips & Tutorials

Not that most of my regular readers care about this, but I figured out how to get rid of Carbonite completely from my computer…all by myself, I might add. Instead of signing up for posting privileges in forums I never frequent, I’m just going to post what I did here and with any luck someone searching the web for this solution will find it via Google.

So. Carbonite is still relatively new for Mac users and I downloaded the software for a trial run, and decided I didn’t want it. IF ONLY uninstalling it were as easy as right-click-delete like how it is for other apps.

After following Carbonite’s own instructions on uninstalling it, I saw that the icon was still appearing in my navigation bar, a dialogue box for the service still popped up when I tried to restart, and Carbonite’s data-daemons or whatever they were were still appearing in my activity monitor. SO annoying!

(The little “lock” icon is Carbonite’s)

After looking through forums that described solutions that didn’t apply to me (possibly because I’m running Snow Leopard which at the time of this writing is still pretty new), I went back to ActivityMonitor [Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor, and make sure "All Processes" is selected] and noticed that while some of the applications were running under my user name, others–including Carbonite’s shiz—were running under “root.” No wonder I couldn’t seem to get rid of it.

So I enabled the root user for my computer and logged in. Once in the root account, I went to my main hard drive (“Macintosh HD”) and looked into both the “System” and the “Library” folders. LO AND BEHOLD, despite zero traces of Carbonite in my regular user account, the program still had a full folder in the Library here in the root account! I threw it in the Trash, opened ActivityMonitor (again, I am in the root account) and quit the Daemons that were running. Once they were quit, I was able to empty the trash and that troublesome app is gone for good!

I should add that I am not a programmer or hacker. I merely have a spotty, Google-educated handle on all things programmerly and I’m probably not the best person to answer questions regarding anything besides what is exactly (and I mean EXACTLY) in this tutorial. Good luck!

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by Molly

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February 1, 2012 - 11:18 pm

Doug Chermak - Thanks so much – worked perfectly. I really appreciate it.

January 3, 2012 - 9:43 am

Bill - Thanks so much for posting this! Now if I could just figure out how to get my volume buttons to function again on my 2006 MBP.

December 29, 2011 - 7:32 am

Veronica - I can’t thank you enough!!! This was driving me crazy and your simple instructions fixed it immediately…

December 4, 2011 - 3:47 pm

LW - Thank you for this post – and THANK YOU John! Your explanations are perfect. I am downloading MacKeeper now so that I don’t have to do this again when deleting apps. It automatically deletes all this crap when you put the main app in the trash.

June 28, 2011 - 9:29 am

ashlee smith - I tried several of these methods, but none worked. I decided to try one more, and that was Johns method. Praise be to John! I followed his exact instructions – and wa la! It worked!! Thank you so much!

May 24, 2011 - 6:19 am

Cheechvt - Here’s the easy way to do it if this doesn’t work for you

http://carbonite.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3701

Enjoy!

May 7, 2011 - 10:58 am

Carlos - I tried all the tips on the internet including this interesting root user procedure, nevertheless it did not work to me.

Re-installing the carbonite on my mac and following the steps to un-install it worked for me!

March 21, 2011 - 6:33 pm

Ariana Vincent - I can’t copy and past from your blog, so the long URLs are a bit of a hassle. I tried one of the suggestions and moved everything to the trash and then tried to empty the trash and it didn’t work – said that it was still being used. I’d really like to get rid of Carbonite. Any way you could send me this page in another format so I can copy the links without having to retype them and follow the instructions on a written piece of paper, step by step? Thanks.

March 21, 2011 - 6:17 pm

Ariana Vincent - The link to Carbonite’s Own Instructions does not work.

February 3, 2011 - 7:32 am

amber norris - Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I would have never figured out how to get rid of it without your post

January 21, 2011 - 3:22 pm

Yvette Richardson - Thank you sooooo much from the bottom of my heart!!!! I was so frustrated with Carbonite eating up my virtual memory and constantly popping up with the error message. I followed your steps and successfully removed it!!! I am sooo thankful!!!! BTW, I LOVE your images!!

January 3, 2011 - 3:22 pm

Drew Alexander - I contacted Carbonite customer support for help and these are the instructions they gave me for fully uninstalling the app. This is what finally worked for me to completely remove the app:

1. Restart your Computer.
2. Control click on Finder on the dock and select ‘Go to Folder’.
3. Type /Library/Application Support/ into the window that appears.
4. Move the ‘Carbonite’ folder to the Trash.
5. Control-click on the Application Support folder in the header bar and click the Library folder.
6. Go to the Contextual Menu Items folder and move ‘CarboniteCMM.bundle’ to the trash.
7. Go back to the /Library folder and go into the LaunchAgents folder.
8. Delete ‘com.carbonite.launchd.carbonitealerts.plist’ and ‘com.carbonite.launchd.carbonitestatus.plist’.
9. Go back to the /Library folder, and to into LaunchDaemons.
10. Move ‘com.carbonite.launchd.carbonitedaemon.plist’ to the trash.
11. Go back to the /Library folder, and to into PreferencePanes.
12. Move ‘Carbonite.prefPane’ to the Trash.
13. Restart your computer again.
14. Empty your trash.

December 27, 2010 - 10:57 pm

August - Thanks for this info been trying to get rid of it.

December 21, 2010 - 1:41 pm

Scott Kehoe - This is great! Exactly what we needed to fix one Mac in our office that just wouldn’t let go of Carbonite.
Thanks,
-Scott

December 18, 2010 - 10:03 pm

MC - What a lifesaver!! I’ve been trying to get rid if Carbonite for months and John’s tip did the trick! So glad I found this on google!

December 15, 2010 - 4:14 am

Dan - Hey,

Thanks for sharing your Carbonite issues! Unfortunately I had a different issue, where my trial had run out and I couldn’t access the uninstall feature. I chatted to a guy on Carbonite’s live chat and he gave me these instructions which worked (with a bit of jiggery pokery):

1. Restart your Computer.

2. Control click on Finder on the dock and select ‘Go to Folder’.

3. Type /Library/Application Support/ into the window that appears.

4. Move the ‘Carbonite’ folder to the Trash.

5. Control-click on the Application Support folder in the header bar and click the Library folder.

6. Go to the Contextual Menu Items folder and move ‘CarboniteCMM.bundle’ to the trash.

7. Go back to the /Library folder and go into the LaunchAgents folder.

8. Delete ‘com.carbonite.launchd.carbonitealerts.plist’ and ‘com.carbonite.launchd.carbonitestatus.plist’.

9. Go back to the /Library folder, and to into LaunchDaemons.

10. Move ‘com.carbonite.launchd.carbonitedaemon.plist’ to the trash.

11. Go back to the /Library folder, and to into PreferencePanes.

12. Move ‘Carbonite.prefPane’ to the Trash.

13. Restart your computer again.

14. Empty your trash.

Hope they help some one!

Thanks
Dan

August 29, 2010 - 12:33 pm

Lisa - Thank you for sharing this!! I also did the free trial and decided not to continue with Carbonite. I tried to follow Carbonite’s instructions on deleting it but when I opened the preferences, I did not get an uninstall option. GRRR! How aggravating. So I did what you instructed, saw that lock still in my navigation bar but when I opened Carbonite preferences again, I finally had the uninstall option! Weird! So thank you for posting this.

July 28, 2010 - 4:04 pm

Rob - After an uniformed attempt to delete Carbonite, I found that Carbonite’s own instructions worked fine ( http://carbonite.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1404/kw/uninstall%20mac ). Sure enough, there’s an UNINSTALL button in the Carbonite system preference, visible once you disable the backup. If you already deleted the system preference, just download and install it, then follow the directions to uninstall it (which is basically, using the built-in uninstall feature).

NOTE: Luminaire, your link to Carbonite’s uninstall directions just goes to a list of Windows search results… So I’m not even sure what directions you followed.

June 13, 2010 - 1:14 pm

Tim - You can do this without enabling the root user. Just go into the system wide Library folder and select delete–it will ask you for your password and as long as you are logged in as an admin user that password entry will elevate you to root privileges for the purposes of deleting those files. You will still have to force the processes to quit but that can also be done as a normal user.

Still, very helpful to have someone find all the files already. Thanks!

May 22, 2010 - 10:58 pm

dp - Thanks a mill! Worked just fine…imagine somebody creating an app in this day & age with no uninstall option! Like, DUH. I think their brains are encased in carbonite…
Just to add my tale of woe to the pile…after hearing C touted on various tech podcasts I tried the trial. It wasn’t a quarter of the way to backing up my stuff by the time the trial ran out, so needless to say I wasn’t much impressed. Then, every single time I activated the airport, it returned a modal dialog box with ‘server error’, which froze me out of whatever I was doing till I closed the damn box. Just a little nuisance, except that I do live recording on that laptop and don’t really like other people’s dialog boxes demanding my attention at crucial moments. Unlike John, Carbonite support didn’t deign to give me the manual uninstall instrucs, so kudos to you..
Anyway, thanks again!

April 28, 2010 - 2:36 pm

Annie - Thanks for this! Carbonite was causing my laptop to overheat and couldn’t cool it down or stop Carbonite from running!

April 4, 2010 - 12:48 pm

Jay - I have been unable to remove the Carbonite app as well. I appreciate your comments and was able to get into the Activity Monitor as you suggest and yes, indeed there it was. My one problem is understanding how to “throw it in the trash.” I tried to drag and drop it in the trash and tried the “stop” button, but I could not get rid of it. Can you please clarify this point? Thank you!

March 13, 2010 - 10:02 am

Al - Thanks for the information on how to get ride of Carbonite red lock of my menu bar….. It was driving me crazy! it kept trying to back up my files, and there were no files to back up! am running Mac OS 10 X ver. 10.5.8
Thanks Again

February 11, 2010 - 2:48 pm

shauna maness - hi! i just googled getting rid of carbonite and found your post!! glory!! i’ve tried for weeks & couldn’t make it work… thanks for sharing this- John’s comment saved the day!!
all the best to you!

January 31, 2010 - 9:25 pm

Bill - Thanks to the posting by John. I haven’t had the time to U/G to Snow Leopard yet. I followed the directions precisely and it worked perfectly on Leopard.

December 10, 2009 - 8:58 pm

Ann - Thank you so much for posting the directions on getting rid of the “Carbonite” program. I greatly appreciate!

October 24, 2009 - 6:04 pm

John - Rceived this from Carbonite support and it worked:

Please follow the steps below to manually remove the Carbonite program files:
Restart your Computer.
Control click on Finder on the dock and select Go to Folder.
Type /Library/Application Support/ into the window that appears.
Move the Carbonite folder to the Trash.
Control-click on the Application Support folder in the header bar and click the Library folder.
Go to the Contextual Menu Items folder and move CarboniteCMM.bundle to the trash.
Go back to the /Library folder and go into the LaunchAgents folder.
Delete com.carbonite.launchd.carbonitealerts.plist and com.carbonite.launchd.carbonitestatus.plist.
Go back to the /Library folder, and to into LaunchDaemons.
Move com.carbonite.launchd.carbonitedaemon.plist to the trash.
Go back to the /Library folder, and to into PreferencePanes.
Move Carbonite.prefPane to the Trash.
Restart your computer again.
Empty your trash.

October 8, 2009 - 9:27 pm

Molly - Hi Skyler,

When you are logged in as the root user:

-Go to Finder
-Click on the user name (should be “root”)
-Click on ‘Library’

If there’s no Carbonite folders there, go to the HD folder (should be listed 1st under ‘Devices’ in Finder) and click on ‘Library’ and check there. You can also run a search in finder by typing in “Carbonite” in the field with the magnifying glass. Good luck!

October 8, 2009 - 8:59 pm

Skyler - when I login as root user none of the mentioned folders or files are there? is there something im missing? carbonite is pissing the *** out of me! I could kill the developers… it’s taking over my processes by running in console every second literally, and keeping my computer from sleeping…

Can you help anymore than already? I was so excited when I found your post…

Thanks!

September 28, 2009 - 2:01 am

michael Stewart - THANKS!! this was so brilliant – i had this damned thing reminding me 10 times a day to buy their terrible little service adn jamming my machine until i closed the device and could not remove it and indeed having enabled the root directory (in 10.5.8) I then found a load of carbonite’s crap in there – file upon file, the original dmg package and a folder and that was after cleasning the launch daemon file.
USER BEWARE – do not touch carbonite’s free trial – unless you want this irritating hassle!
but thanks again to Molly Ann!

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FULL removal of Carbonite from Mac (OSX 10.6)

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