Where is the LaunchPad?

The Launchpad on my MBP lists an application that has been removed from the system. I assumed (shame on me!) that after the app was removed it would disappear from my Launchpad but it has not. In addition there are some apps that I have installed that do not show up in the Launchpad.

I have looked for the Lauchpad settings or setup on my system to try to correct this issue but I cannot find it. Can someone please tell me how to fix an issue like these - existing apps missing from the Launchpad and apps still in the Lauchpad that no longer exist on my system?

Thanks.

MikeFromMesa said:

The Launchpad on my MBP lists an application that has been removed from the system. I assumed (shame on me!) that after the app was removed it would disappear from my Launchpad but it has not. In addition there are some apps that I have installed that do not show up in the Launchpad.

I have looked for the Lauchpad settings or setup on my system to try to correct this issue but I cannot find it. Can someone please tell me how to fix an issue like these - existing apps missing from the Launchpad and apps still in the Lauchpad that no longer exist on my system?

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Hello - you might want to provide information about your computer (model/year) and the OS X that is installed. First, about an app that your removed that is still listed in 'Launchpad' - was the program removed completely? Also, please provide the name of the app - others may be able to help more effectively. And a computer 're-boot' might help.

Second and just to ask a simple question - do you have more that a single page on your 'Launchpad' screen (see arrow on pic below), i.e. the newly installed apps may be on another page. Dave
.

RadDave said:

Hello - you might want to provide information about your computer (model/year) and the OS X that is installed. First, about an app that your removed that is still listed in 'Launchpad' - was the program removed completely? Also, please provide the name of the app - others may be able to help more effectively. And a computer 're-boot' might help.
.

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All perfectly reasonable requests.

I am working on an early 2013 MacBook Pro Retina running OS X 10.9.4 with a 512 GB SSD and 16 GB of RAM. I also have Parallels 8 installed running Windows 8 although the app is a Mac app.

The application that I removed had to be removed manually as it did not have an official uninstall app. As far as I know the app was completely removed but apparently something may be laying around somewhere. I have checked the Applications and the two Library/Application Support folders and removed anything that appeared to be pieces of the app but that did not remove the app from my Launchpad. The Launchpad app itself understands that it cannot run the app as it has a big question mark where the app icon should be, but it is still there.

RadDave said:

Second and just to ask a simple question - do you have more that a single page on your 'Launchpad' screen (see arrow on pic below), i.e. the newly installed apps may be on another page. Dave
.

Click to expand...

I have multiple pages in my Launchpad (4 pages although I could combined them into 3 full pages) and the apps do not show up anywhere in them. I have scanned through all of the pages looking for the apps but did not find them anywhere. The missing apps are less of an issue for me than not being able to remove the uninstalled app. I can, of course, always start a missing app using a desktop icon (which is what I normally do) and not bother with the Launchpad itself.

I am sure there is a reason for all of this. I assume that Launchpad has some internal folder or file information that it keeps listing all of the apps that it is accessing and, if I could find out where that is, I could probably at least gain some information about what might be causing these problems, but I cannot find any of that information on my system. I am sure it is there, perhaps in a plist or some file or structure I don't know about, and that was why I asked the question.

What was this app which you have not named. Some crapware such as Mackeeper can be the very devil to get rid of.

harryb2448 said:

What was this app which you have not named. Some crapware such as Mackeeper can be the very devil to get rid of.

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No. It was nothing like MacKeeper. I did not name it because I did not want people to think that there was something wrong with the software. I assume that the problem is related to something I either did or did not do when I removed it. The software is a 3rd party masking app that can be used as a plugin for Photoshop.

I have a java app that I wrote to examine my system for any files or folders matching a name I enter and, using this, I found some com.xxxx files related to the app. After I removed them and rebooted the app disappeared from my Launchpad so apparently it creates the entries based on some algorithm it uses, probably at startup, when it is examine the system.