How to Uninstall Safari on Your Mac (And Why You Probably Shouldn‘t)

Safari is the default web browser that comes preinstalled on every Mac computer. While Safari is a capable browser, you may find it running slowly, crashing frequently, or you simply prefer using a different browser like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. In these cases, you might be wondering – can I just uninstall Safari from my Mac entirely?

The short answer is – it depends on which version of macOS your computer is running. Macs with newer operating systems like macOS Ventura, Monterey, or later have made it impossible to uninstall Safari, even for advanced users. However, there are still some optimizations you can make to improve Safari‘s performance and free up storage space without fully deleting it.

For Macs with older operating systems, uninstalling Safari is possible but ill-advised. Apple includes Safari as a core system application, protected by a security feature called System Integrity Protection (SIP). Disabling SIP and removing system apps like Safari can cause instability and unforeseen issues.

In this article, I‘ll walk through your options for "uninstalling" Safari on both older and newer Macs. I‘ll also make the case for why simply switching to a different browser is likely your best bet, rather than trying to remove Safari entirely. Let‘s dive in!

A Quick Overview of System Integrity Protection (SIP)

Before we get into the steps for uninstalling Safari, it‘s important to understand the security feature that protects it – System Integrity Protection, or SIP. Introduced way back in 2015 with OS X El Capitan, SIP is designed to prevent potentially malicious software from modifying protected files and folders on your Mac.

Many core system apps, including Safari, are protected by SIP. Apple uses code signing to ensure these apps haven‘t been tampered with. SIP also restricts full disk access to prevent apps from accessing protected areas of the system without authorization.

The goal of SIP is to protect your Mac and prevent system instability caused by malware or accidental file deletion/modification. For advanced users who need to modify protected parts of macOS, SIP can be disabled – but this is strongly discouraged for most Mac owners. Disabling SIP makes your computer much more vulnerable to security threats.

With that background in mind, let‘s look at your options for dealing with Safari, depending on your current operating system.

How to "Uninstall" Safari on macOS Ventura/Monterey or Later

I have bad news for those of you running macOS Ventura, Monterey, or a later release – Apple has made it impossible to uninstall Safari on your computer, period. Even if you disable SIP using the steps described later in this article, you‘ll find that Safari and other core system apps simply can‘t be deleted.

However, you still have a few options to improve Safari‘s performance and clear out storage space on your Mac. Here are a few steps worth trying:

Disable or Uninstall Safari Extensions

Safari extensions can add really useful extra features to your browser, but they are also a common cause of slowdowns, instability and wasted disk space. If Safari feels sluggish, try disabling or removing your installed extensions:

Open Safari and click the Safari menu in the top-left corner of your screen
Select Preferences from the drop-down menu
Click the Extensions tab at the top of the preferences window
Use the checkboxes to enable/disable extensions, or click Uninstall to remove one entirely

Try browsing without extensions for a while to see if Safari‘s performance improves. If you don‘t notice any change, move on to the next step.

Clear Your Safari Browsing Data

Clearing out your browsing history and website data can help speed up Safari and recover disk space. Here‘s how to wipe it all:

With Safari open, click Safari in the top menu bar
Select "Clear History…" from the drop-down
In the pop-up window, select "all history" from the drop-down
Click the Clear History button to confirm

Keep in mind this will remove all your browsing history, cookies, and other website data. You‘ll need to log into sites again after clearing everything.

Delete Safari‘s Cache Files

In addition to browsing history, Safari keeps a cache of website data to load frequently-visited sites faster. Clearing out the cache can help when Safari is acting up:

In Safari, enable the Develop menu by going to Safari > Preferences > Advanced and checking "Show Develop menu in menu bar"
From the Develop menu, select Empty Caches
Safari will clear its cache files without any other prompts

After clearing the cache, restart Safari to see if performance has improved at all. Just remember that frequently-visited sites may take slightly longer to load on the next visit.

How to Uninstall Safari on macOS Big Sur or Earlier

If you have an older Mac running macOS Big Sur or earlier, you technically can uninstall Safari from your computer – but I would advise against it. Removing core system applications can cause issues elsewhere in macOS that are difficult to diagnose and fix.

However, if you‘re absolutely set on uninstalling Safari, here are the steps. Just be sure to backup your Mac first in case anything goes wrong!

Step 1: Boot Into macOS Recovery Mode

First, you‘ll need to boot your Mac into Recovery mode to access the tools needed to turn off System Integrity Protection. The process is slightly different for Intel-based versus Apple Silicon Macs:

For Intel Macs:

Shut down your Mac and wait a few seconds
Press the power button, then immediately hold Command+R
Keep holding until you see the Apple logo or a spinning globe
Enter your admin password if prompted
Click on Utilities in the macOS utility window menu bar
Select Terminal to open a terminal window

For Apple Silicon Macs:

Shut down your Mac and wait a few seconds
Press and hold the power button until "Loading startup options" appears
Click Options, then click Continue
Enter your admin password if prompted
Click on Utilities in the macOS utility window menu bar
Select Terminal to open a terminal window

Step 2: Disable System Integrity Protection

With the Terminal open in Recovery mode, you can disable SIP with a single command:

Type csrutil disable into the Terminal window
Press return and enter your admin password if prompted
Restart your Mac when finished

After your Mac reboots, SIP will be disabled, allowing you to modify system files and delete default apps. Again, I strongly recommend against disabling SIP unless absolutely necessary. Be very careful making system-level changes with SIP turned off.

Step 3: Delete Safari and All Related Files

Time to actually uninstall Safari. With SIP disabled, you can drag the Safari app to the Trash like any other application. However, that will still leave behind Safari‘s system files scattered in various folders on your Mac.

To fully remove all traces of Safari, you‘ll need to track down and delete these system files manually:

In the Finder, click Go in the top menu bar
Select "Go to Folder…" and enter the following file paths one by one to delete all Safari-related files:

/Users/[YOUR USERNAME]/Library/Safari
/Users/[YOUR USERNAME]/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari
/Users/[YOUR USERNAME]/Library/Caches/com.apple.WebKit.PluginProcess
/Users/[YOUR USERNAME]/Library/Cookies/com.apple.Safari.SafeBrowsing.binarycookies
/Users/[YOUR USERNAME]/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist

Delete any other files or folders you find with "Safari" in the name

After deleting Safari and its associated files, be sure to empty the Trash to free up the disk space. With that done, Safari should be completely uninstalled. But you‘re not quite finished!

Step 4: Re-Enable System Integrity Protection

For the safety of your Mac, I strongly recommend re-enabling SIP after uninstalling Safari or making any other system-level changes.

Reboot your Mac into Recovery mode using the same steps as before
Open the Terminal from the Utilities menu
Type csrutil enable and press Return
Restart your Mac once more

After rebooting, SIP will be re-enabled and your Mac will be protected once again. If all went well, you should no longer see Safari in your Applications folder or anywhere else.

A Better Alternative: Just Switch Browsers!

As you can probably tell by now, uninstalling Safari from your Mac is a hassle at best and impossible at worst. Luckily, there‘s a much easier solution for those who are tired of Safari – simply switch to a different web browser!

macOS allows you to install and use third-party web browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. These browsers have all the modern features you‘d expect, and some would argue they‘re faster and less buggy than Safari. Best of all, they can easily be set as your default browser with a few clicks.

To install a new browser, head to its website and download the macOS version:

Open the downloaded file and drag the app icon to your Applications folder. Double-click the new browser to launch it, and follow the prompts to set it as your default if desired. That‘s it! No mucking around with system files or disabling security features.

Conclusion

While it‘s technically possible to uninstall Safari from older Macs, it‘s rarely worth the effort and risk involved. Disabling System Integrity Protection and deleting core system files can cause unforeseen issues that are difficult to troubleshoot.

On modern Macs running macOS Ventura or later, Safari simply can‘t be removed, period. But even on these systems, there are less drastic ways to improve Safari performance and recover disk space.

For most people, switching to a different browser like Chrome or Firefox is by far the path of least resistance. These alternative browsers are just as fast and feature-filled as Safari. Setting a new default browser takes just a few clicks and avoids the need to modify your Mac‘s core system.

Hopefully this guide has helped clarify your options for "uninstalling" Safari on your particular Mac. Let me know in the comments if you have any other Safari questions! And be sure to backup your Mac before making any big system changes.