2

How do I remove Safari from my Mac, OS 10.14.3? Is this at all possible?

I have tried to drag it to the trash bin and it does say Safari is required by the OS but I wondered whether there was a way round this at all.

I've also tried sudo rm -rf Safari.app/ but it says operation not permitted

Improve this question
5
  • 1
    You can delete it from the command line while booted to the Recovery HD; however; macOS Updates will restore it if it's included in the update.
    – user3439894
    Apr 12, 2019 at 0:52
  • you last command won't work because Safari.app is really a folder/directory. If you right click on Safai you should get an option to Show package contents.
    – Natsfan
    Apr 12, 2019 at 1:44
  • I googled "mac remove safari" and found several sites with methods to remove and/or disable safari.
    – Natsfan
    Apr 12, 2019 at 1:46
  • @jmh, It doesn't work when booted normally because of SIP and ACLs, which if you read my first comment it's the fastest way as neither SIP of ACLs need to be modified because the root shell from the Recovery HD will just do it, e.g. rm -r /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Applications/Safari.app
    – user3439894
    Apr 12, 2019 at 1:54
  • 1
    why bother. just don't use safari. make some other web browser your default browser. osxdaily.com/2007/04/06/…
    – historystamp
    Apr 12, 2019 at 19:34

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

The correct answer in this case is "Don't do that; you're asking for trouble." Safari is heavily integrated into the OS. Removing/disabling Safari is bound to eventually get you into a situation where an API malfunctions and you'll drive the poor person trying to help you insane.

I dare ask why you would want to remove Safari given that there is no advantage in doing so. You can remove IE from Windows or bash from a Linux distro, but the 26 MB you'll save won't be worth the anguish of having macOS eat its tail at some point down the road.

Improve this answer
4
  • 1
    @WilfriedSmith, it is because there is no satisfactory answer to this question apple.stackexchange.com/questions/118206/… and I cannot seem to block the websites I need to
    – atreeon
    Dec 19, 2019 at 18:22
  • @atreeon Regardless, it's a stretch to go from "I don't want to browse certain web sites" to "I want to delete part of the OS." Safari has an API that can be used to easily block sites, so there are dozens of third-party extensions that will do what you're asking.
    – Wilfred Smith
    Dec 19, 2019 at 19:28
  • unfortunately I was having difficulty finding a free to use website blocker but yesterday I found ColdTurkey which seems to do most of what I required. The way in which the mac relies on safari means that it is not easy and is dangerous to remove safari so I agree with you it is not viable but it is certainly worth a question. In fact I did this in Windows and removed Internet Explorer and only had Firefox and Chrome installed, this worked well.
    – atreeon
    Dec 20, 2019 at 12:17
  • 1
    @atreeon, If a little late, I have successfully removed Safari (despite SIP) from my mac for many years, and despite the varied nature of the apps I use, and I can report no issues at all. I'm sure there's one use case where it matters, but more likely apple is using this to encourage people to use their browser.
    – Rafael
    Nov 1, 2021 at 23:28
0

On macOS, there are restrictions for root user to prevent crashing your Mac integrity and stability. Removing Safari is risky and useless, that’s why macOS prevents that. Not to mention you don't really save much disk space doing this.

You need to disable System Integrity Protection (SIP). Do this with csrutil disable command. You can only use it in macOS recovery mode using Terminal.

Do that by rebooting your Mac with Command+R keys held down. there will be a utilities menu, select Terminal and type that command in. When it is done reboot normally.

Do not forget to re-enable SIP with csrutil enable again in macOS recovery mode once you have deleted the safari.app.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .