08-09-2011, 02:08 AM

Hello,

I'm pretty new to mac , so I made some stupid mistake... I went to AppCleaner to remove some program, then instead of removing that program, I accidentally deleted some other things along with that program, including programs,plugins(for example,youtube now doesn't work) , and I was wondering, is there any way to retrieve these files?

Or can I reinstall the OS without deleting all of my files? for example when I upgraded from SL to Lion I haven't lost any information, so can I rewrite Lion without losing any information as well?

Thank you,
Best regards.

08-09-2011, 02:52 PM

Do you have a backup? That would be the easy way to restore what was accidentally deleted. If not, re-download those programs you deleted and install them again. Plug ins can likewise be downloaded and installed once more.

Do you know exactly what you deleted?

08-09-2011, 03:01 PM

Unfortunately I don't have a backup...
And I don't what exactly was deleted. Is it possible that files that are part of the Lion OS have been deleted? Does AppCleaner give access to system files?
The only reason I want to get back those files is because I was afraid that some important system files have been deleted. I already reinstalled programs that turned buggy or were suddenly missing.
But the important things are.. system files.

Thank you.

08-09-2011, 03:10 PM

Nothing to worry about as AppCleaner will not delete system files. It only deletes files that are associated with the application you deleted. Most system files are hidden anyway and would require your password before deletion.

Any application that's acting strange or won't work, just reinstall it.

08-09-2011, 03:15 PM

I think it did ask for password, though I'm not entirely sure... How can I check that none of the system files were deleted and the system's functioning is in order?

08-09-2011, 03:24 PM

If the system works, you're fine. If something integral to OS X was deleted, you'd know.

If you only removed things from the Applications folder, you won't screw up OS X but you may have removed some important parts. Unfortunately, it's hard for us to tell you how bad it may or may not be without knowing what you deleted.

You mentioned that YouTube doesn't work. YT uses Flash so head over to the Flash download page and reinstall it.

08-09-2011, 03:46 PM

I already reinstalled Flash, youtube works now. I also installed a few programs that suddenly disappeared . It seems that everything works perfectly fine. I wish there was a way to check that all the important files are present...

08-10-2011, 03:59 PM

There is no way, unless you want to reinstall LION, but since you don't have a backup I would not take that chance.

The first cheap option is getting an external USB drive and set it up as Time Machine and have the backups at regular intervals. Yes, it will be manual but in cases like these you will be able to format, reinstall and still get everything back as-is.