How to Perfectly Uninstall Hotspot Shield for Mac

Hotspot Shield for Mac is a VPN app asserting to protect user privacy by encrypting the data sent and received over the Internet. It claims to help you access to blocked websites and also block malware threats. Yet, some users may be dissatisfied with its over performance and decide to uninstall it after giving it a try.

The question is: how can you perfectly remove Hotspot Shield from your Mac? As we notice, several issues could occur when users are trying to perform the uninstall:

> Hotspot Shield keeps running on background or cannot be quit;
> Hotspot Shield cannot be moved to the Trash because it is in use;
> Hotspot Shield components cannot be totally deleted from your Mac…

In this post we will show you multiple ways of uninstalling Hotspot Shield for Mac. If you are looking for an one-station solution to these issues, we strongly suggest you to carry out the uninstall by utilizing a reputable, powerful uninstaller(shown below).

Recommended: Totally Remove Hotspot Shield in Clicks

Osx Uninstaller is a handy yet high-efficient app designed to remove any problematic, stubborn or malicious apps on Mac. To entirely delete Hotspot Shield as well as all its traces, you just need to take 3 simple steps: launch > select > uninstall. Now watch the video clip to know how it works to easily remove Hotspot Shield.

You only need to follow 4 simple steps below to thoroughly uninstall Hotspot Shield:

1. Quit Hotspot Shield if it is active, and then launch Osx Uninstaller.
2. Select Hotspot Shield, and then click Run Analysis to start the scanning.

3. Review the components that are scanned out from your system, click Complete Uninstall and then Yes in the pop-up dialog box to perform a thorough uninstall.
4. Once the removal is complete, click Back to Interface button to re-scan your Mac.

We have tested this app and Osx Uninstaller is able to clear up all its components in less than one minute. Users don’t need to worry about any app remnants or incomplete uninstallation if they are running Osx Uninstaller to handle this task.

Manual Methods to Uninstall Hotspot Shield

A powerful uninstall helper will definitely save you a lot of trouble in deleting various apps. Yet if you still want to uninstall Hotspot Shield without this handy tool, there are other ways of uninstalling Hotspot Shield from Mac. Note that you should be logged into your Mac with an administrator account. And if Hotspot Shield is currently running, you should quit this app before uninstalling it. To do so, cancel the protection first, then click the X button and choose Quit in the pop-up window.

Now here are three uninstalling options you can choose from.

Option 1: Delete Hotspot Shield to Trash

• Open up Finder from the Dock, and click Applications on the sidebar.
• Locate Hotspot Shield, right click its icon and choose Move to Trash.

• When prompted, enter the current admin account password to allow this change.

• Head to Finder menu, choose Empty Trash, and click Empty Trash again. Alternative, right click Trash icon in dock, choose Empty Trash and click OK in pop-up dialog.

Notice: Emptying Trash is an irrevocable act, and everything in the Trash will be deleted immediately. So, be very cautious when you are going to take this step.

Option 2: Run Uninstall Script

When installing Hotspot Shield, you may have noticed that there is an icon labeled Uninstall in the installation package. That’s the dedicated tool used to execute the default uninstall. So if you still keep the file on your Mac, you can do the followings:

• In Finder, locate the Hotspot Shield.dmg file and double click to open it up.
• Double lick Uninstall to run this uninstall script, and give confirmation.
• As the uninstallation is complete, click Close to exit out of the wizard.

Option 3: Uninstall Hotspot Shield via Launchpad

If you install Hotspot Shield via Mac App Store, you can take this way as well:

• Search for Hotspot Shield you wanna delete in the Launchpad.
• Hold down its icon until it begins to show “X” on the upper left corner.
• Click the “X” icon and click Delete in the confirmation dialog.

As soon as you click the X, the uninstallation will be handled immediately.

Extra Job (for Manual Methods): Delete Hotspot Shield Leftovers

Most Mac apps are bundle software that can be easily removed by aforementioned method. But most of them create components like preference, cache and support files in different system directories during the first setup and daily usage. If you want to completely get rid of Hotspot Shield, it is necessary to delete all related components scattered around the system. Here’s how you can detect and clear up the remnants:

• Open the Finder, click the “Go” from the Menu Bar, and select Go to Folder…
• Type the path of the top level Library on hard disk: /Library, and hit Enter key.

• Search for the files or folders which contains the name of Hotspot Shield or the vendor in the following locations and then delete them: /Library, /Library/Caches, /Library/Preferences, /Library/Application Support, /Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchDaemons, /Library/PreferencePanes, /Library/StartupItems

Warming: deleting the wrong items from Library could do harm to your other apps or even system, so make sure to be very careful what you try to delete. Meanwhile, it could be time-wasting going through each folder and searching for app leftovers. Luckily, you can make use of the Search in Finder to hunt down associated files.

• Go ahead to open up the user library inside home folder: ~/Library.
• Type Hotspot Shield in the Search Bar, and click on Library.
• Identify the matched items, right click on them and choose Move to Trash option.

If there are still some files you fail to locate or identify, do a web search about the app components. Besides, advanced users can utilize the Terminal (located in /Utilities folder) to list the contents of the directory in question and then delete offending items.

Finally, empty the Trash to permanently remove Hotspot Shield components.

Besides, you can go to System Preferences > Profiles, select Hotspot Shield and click the ” – ” button below to remove the VPN settings created by Hotspot Shield.

Now you have learned how to uninstall Hotspot Shield for Mac, either manually or automatically. Which solution do you prefer to apply in the Hotspot Shield removal task? Feel free to raise your question or suggestion to help up improve this article.