How to completely remove VirtualBox on Mac
You have been using VirtualBox, but you don’t need it anymore. Or you need free space as I did. Well, in that case you might want to remove VirtualBox from your Mac. Uninstalling is easy, drag-drop-done, right? Yes it is, but it won’t take long for you to figure something is wrong. Eventhough you removed VirtualBox, not much free space you got back. Next thing, you went to VirtualBox Forums and they told you to look for /Library/VirtualBox directory, or look for VDI files. However, damn, you could not find any?!? Well, welcome to the club :)
I had a similar issue and figured out that, after removal, VirtualBox doesn’t erase all files/folders created and also these files and folders are not visible on Finder. What you have to do is simple:
1. Open Terminal
2. Type cd /Users/<user_name>/Library
3. Type ls an see if VirtualBox directory is there (should be)
4. rm -rf VirtualBox
Now you should get the free space you deserve :)
February 10th, 2009 at 0:31
Thanks – that was totally useful. I had to revert from the latest version of VirtualBox to an earlier one a was stuck.
April 16th, 2009 at 14:30
Do
lsbom /Library/Receipts/VirtualBoxCLI.pkg/Contents/Archive.bom
too. You need to remove those files.
June 2nd, 2009 at 18:41
Does that delete the partition that it made too?
June 19th, 2009 at 9:27
Very helpful. I had the same problem after running the uninstall script provided but this recovered the HDD space nicely.
June 27th, 2009 at 5:17
Dude thanks Max Howell. That was a sweet tip.
July 12th, 2009 at 18:28
Perhaps I’m a dunce, but to what do you refer by opening Terminal?
July 27th, 2009 at 20:04
Not even close. You need to remove a bunch of other directories and virtual device drivers. Just get the distributed image and run the provided uninstall script.
August 16th, 2009 at 20:01
If you installed the application from a package file such as *.dmg, then simply go to Application and drag the application to your Trash. You will be prompted to provide your admin password and that’s it. You can then remove any other custom shortcut you may have created on the Dock or other places.
August 16th, 2009 at 20:05
I should mention that above instruction than applies afterwords .. Usually uninstall would not remove any data file (such as those *.vdi) created by a specific program/Application.
August 26th, 2009 at 18:37
It’s not that simple. What about the kernel extensions?
114 2 0x35ffc000 0x1d000 0x1c000 org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (2.1.0)
115 0 0x2e5da000 0×7000 0×6000 org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (2.1.0)
116 0 0x2e56c000 0×4000 0×3000 org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (2.1.0)
December 1st, 2009 at 18:55
[...] Visto en | Kuneri bloggy [...]
December 11th, 2009 at 11:46
Just run the “VirtualBox_Uninstall.tool” that comes with the VirtualBox DMG file. Safer and you know it’ll all be removed as intended by the makers of the program… or you want to gamble and have stuff laying around and potentially give you problems or conflicts in future? Be Smart. ;)
February 13th, 2010 at 5:24
[...] the following LINK. [...]
April 10th, 2010 at 18:58
So I followed the instruction of Max Howell to
“Do
lsbom /Library/Receipts/VirtualBoxCLI.pkg/Contents/Archive.bom
too. You need to remove those files.”
and this is what I got:
. 40755 0/80
./usr 40755 0/0
./usr/bin 40755 0/0
./usr/bin/VBoxHeadless 100755 0/0 79 2965821996
./usr/bin/VBoxManage 100755 0/0 77 325582486
./usr/bin/VBoxVRDP 100755 0/0 79 2965821996
./usr/bin/VirtualBox 100755 0/0 77 261023735
./usr/bin/vboxwebsrv 100755 0/0 77 857079400
But how do I remove these files?
April 12th, 2010 at 23:40
I tried the Uninstall script that came with VirtualBox and got nowhere. It asked me for the password to my keychain and rejected it when I typed it in. When I repeated the password two more times, it canceled the script.
Any suggestions? I would like to get a clean uninstall, i.e. no orphaned files or folders left on my HD.
April 26th, 2010 at 9:08
Levi (#14),
Do NOT remove the entire /usr or /usr/bin directories!
Those are only mentioned because if they hadn’t existed the installer would have had to create them before the files below.
Two ways to remove those:
- Open Terminal and type “open /usr/bin” then delete those from the window that pops open like any other file. It will probably ask you for your password before deleting….
OR
- Open Terminal and type “cd /usr/bin” and then “rm -f VBoxHeadless VBoxManage VBoxVRDP VirtualBox vboxwebsrv”.
But that’s the hard way. Just download the app from Virtualbox.org again and run the uninstaller. (If anyone on the VirtualBox team is listening, put a link to JUST the uninstall tool on the download page–you’ll save bandwidth!)
FWIW, here’s what the uninstaller script says it deletes, on my box:
———-
[~] /Volumes/VirtualBox/VirtualBox_Uninstall.tool ; exit;
Welcome to the VirtualBox uninstaller script.
The following files and directories (bundles) will be removed:
/usr/bin/VirtualBox
/usr/bin/VBoxManage
/usr/bin/VBoxVRDP
/usr/bin/VBoxHeadless
/usr/bin/vboxwebsrv
/Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/vboxapi/VirtualBox_constants.py
/Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/vboxapi/VirtualBox_constants.pyc
/Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/vboxapi/__init__.py
/Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/vboxapi/__init__.pyc
/Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/vboxapi-1.0-py2.5.egg-info
/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/vboxapi/VirtualBox_constants.py
/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/vboxapi/VirtualBox_constants.pyc
/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/vboxapi/__init__.py
/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/vboxapi/__init__.pyc
/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/vboxapi-1.0-py2.6.egg-info
/Library/StartupItems/VirtualBox/
/Library/Extensions/VBoxDrv.kext/
/Library/Extensions/VBoxUSB.kext/
/Library/Extensions/VBoxNetFlt.kext/
/Library/Extensions/VBoxNetAdp.kext/
/Library/Extensions/VBoxDrvTiger.kext/
/Library/Extensions/VBoxUSBTiger.kext/
/Applications/VirtualBox.app/
/Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/vboxapi/
/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/vboxapi/
And the following KEXTs will be unloaded:
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv
———-
July 8th, 2010 at 3:24
@Tipper Ruhlin you must fill your password for your mac first on user account preference
the script will continuously reject if you didn’t have a password
July 19th, 2010 at 22:42
Great post.Thanks.
July 31st, 2010 at 16:35
Tipper, I ran across the same problem with the password. Make sure you are logged in on the administrator account for the computer, and run the script from there. Worked like a charm for me.
August 3rd, 2010 at 5:57
I’m with GP, use the uninstaller tool (download again to retrieve it if needed). Mucho painless and the most obvious thing to do.
By the way. Is it just me or does VirtualBox no longer have a first run assistant? I could load any OS