How to remove old entries from Spotlight search on macOS Tahoe?

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Level 1

91 points

How to remove old entries from Spotlight search on macOS Tahoe?

Hello,

I see five very old entries in the list of "results from apps" (Settings -> Spotlight; I use MacOS 26), e.g. com.flexibits.fantastical2.mac or com.surteesstudios.Bartender.

But I uninstalled these app long time ago, e.g. Fantastical 2 (it must have been many years).

How can I delete these "extensions"? Where are they stored?

I searched with EasyFind and HoudahSpot but no positive result. And I already contacted the developers of some of these apps but they could not really help either.

Takk,

Claus

[Edited by Moderator]

Original Title: Old entries in Spotlight settings

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 26.0

Posted on Sep 22, 2025 11:41 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 22, 2025 11:44 AM in response to clausimausi

Finder > Go menu > Go to Folder, enter ~/Library then return.

Check in Application Support and elsewhere.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

121,376 points

Sep 22, 2025 12:26 PM in response to clausimausi

What are your searching. The whole Spotlight window might shed more light, but it is probably your configuration data for those apps. That stuff is normally in Application Support as noted by neuroanatomist.

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Answer 3

clausimausi Author

Level 1

91 points

Sep 22, 2025 1:18 PM in response to neuroanatomist

I did this already ( ~/Library) , but there is no such file.

EasyFind found some other files (e.g. in ~/Library) belonging to e.f. Bartender, I deleted these but this entry in Spotlight is still here.

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Answer 4

clausimausi Author

Level 1

91 points

Sep 22, 2025 1:41 PM in response to Barney-15E

Barney-15E wrote:

The whole Spotlight window might shed more light, ...

Which info would be helpful?

I guess these orphaned items are something like extensions, old and from some years ago. And the details from the Spotlight settings are not related to the "files" (in case these are files).

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