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I installed Python 3 on macOS and installed some packages as well. But then I see AWS Lamda does not support Python 3 so I decided to downgrade.

I removed Python3 folder in Applications and cleared the trash. But still I see a folder named 3 in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions which is causing problems, such as this:

$ python3 -m pip install virtualenv Requirement already satisfied: virtualenv in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.10/lib/python3.10/site-packages (20.14.1) Requirement already satisfied: platformdirs<3,>=2 in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.10/lib/python3.10/site-packages (from virtualenv) (2.5.2)

So my question is how do I completely uninstall Python 3 from my macOS machine?

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    Why uninstall it? Lambda will support it at some point, and you can install multiple versions of Python side-by-side until then. Commented Apr 25, 2022 at 20:24
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    Ok, but because I am learning lambda from scratch I just wanted to be safe and not waste time in debugging issues caused by configurations. For instance, when I am installing virtualenv after installing python 3.8, it is finding site-packages in 3.10 folder in library(when 3.10 was supposedly uninstalled). Not sure if something unpredictable happens. Commented Apr 25, 2022 at 20:34
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    I suspect you aren't actually using Python 3.8 to create the virtual environment. Commented Apr 25, 2022 at 20:42

5 Answers 5

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⚠️ WARNING: macOS comes with a system Python installation in /usr/bin/python3 that should NOT be removed as it's required for system functionality. Only remove Python versions you've manually installed.

Please read the end of 5.1.1 for official insight: https://docs.python.org/3/using/mac.html#installation-steps

Legacy Python

The previous edit for this question suggested removing /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.x/bin/python as a way of completely removing Python. This flexibility has since changed with newer macOS updates.

Identify Your Python Installations

Before removing anything, determine which Python installations exist and where they're located:

# List all Python installations which -a python python3 # Check Python versions python3 --version # Find installation locations ls -l /opt/homebrew/bin/python* ls -l /usr/local/bin/python* ls -l /usr/bin/python*

For Homebrew Python

# Uninstall Python brew uninstall [email protected] # Remove orphaned files brew cleanup # List any broken symlinks, etc. brew doctor

For Python.org installer

# Remove the application sudo rm -rf /Applications/Python\ 3.x # Check for framework files ls -la /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/ # If found, remove the specific version sudo rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.x # Check for and remove symbolic links # For Intel Macs: cd /usr/local/bin ls -l | grep '../Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.x' | awk '{print $9}' | xargs rm -f # For Apple Silicon: cd /usr/local/bin ls -l | grep '../Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.x' | awk '{print $9}' | xargs rm -f # Check for user-specific packages ls -l ~/Library/Python/ # Remove if needed rm -rf ~/Library/Python/3.x/

For pyenv-managed Python

# List all installed Python versions pyenv versions # Show the current active version pyenv version # Uninstall a specific version pyenv uninstall 3.x.y # Check pyenv installation location ls -la ~/.pyenv/versions/ # Remove pyenv shims and rehash pyenv rehash # If you want to completely remove pyenv itself # For Homebrew installation: brew uninstall pyenv # For manual installation: rm -rf ~/.pyenv # Don't forget to remove pyenv initialization from your shell profile # (.bash_profile, .zshrc, etc.)

Clean Up Remaining Files

# Remove Python cache files find ~/ -name "__pycache__" -type d -exec rm -rf {} + find ~/ -name "*.pyc" -delete # Check for any remaining Python-related directories ls -la ~/Library/Application\ Support/ | grep -i python ls -la ~/Library/Caches/ | grep -i python
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9 Comments

For the given command to list broken symbolic links, on a macOS I had to replace the smart quotes with straight quotes. ''
On macOS, when determining version: % Python3 --version response was Python 3.8.6 but the directory is 3.8 so slight amplification of the answer, you may not want to put the full, responded version number in, use the directory name in which is likely to be the minor version, slightly truncated version.
None of these answers accounts for the fact that your PATH variable is impacted. In my case, using zsh, I had to remove a line from my .zprofile. Note this means you have to restart your terminal entirely afterwards.
@mfaani if you installed with homebrew then the best option is likely to just uninstall with homebrew, like brew uninstall python
The files in ~/Library/Python seems to come from the systems python (/usr/bin/python3). I would leave this untouched though it's probably not necessary. Also this solution states Python from python.org installs symlinks into /opt/homebrew/bin for arm64 machines. This is not true. python.org installers always put symlinks into /usr/local/bin. Aside from that thanks for this complete paths :). This should exists for every macOS installer.
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# The version of Python that you want to delete python_version_number=3.10 sudo rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/${python_version_number}/ sudo rm -rf "/Applications/Python ${python_version_number}/" cd /usr/local/bin && ls -l | grep "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/${python_version_number}" | awk '{print $9}' | sudo xargs rm
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3 Comments

Just in case someone went through the same, it worked for me when I used the two-number format, as in, "3.12" instead of the three-number, like "3.12.0".
does it matter if I installed it using homebrew or installed it directly?
I do what you describe but when I write the command 'python3.10' it still keeps opening the python terminal. any other suggestions?
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The other answers here may become outdated if the Python installer changes what it's installed and where. However, a more general solution like this one that explains how to remove all the contents of a .pkg file from your mac will clean up the files included with the installer, and will be resilient to most installer changes in the future.

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1 Comment

My old install (3.8) didn't support this, but the newer one (3.11) did. Not sure when they implemented a proper package. Could possibly be an option in the installer I missed in the earlier version.
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I was having problems uninstalling / removing [email protected]

Turns out I had used Homebrew to install it. Used: brew uninstall [email protected]

Worked like a charm.

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If your version of Python was deployed, you'll also want to remove the receipt with pkgutil or else you'll run into issues trying to redeploy it in the future.

Grab the identifier from the installed package;

pkgutil --packages | grep Python

You'll be after these four. I'll be basing this on Python 3.12;

org.python.Python.PythonFramework-3.12 org.python.Python.PythonDocumentation-3.12 org.python.Python.PythonApplications-3.12 org.python.Python.PythonUnixTools-3.12

Then forget the receipts;

pkgutil --forget org.python.Python.PythonFramework-${PYTHON_VERSION_NUMBER} pkgutil --forget org.python.Python.PythonDocumentation-${PYTHON_VERSION_NUMBER} pkgutil --forget org.python.Python.PythonApplications-${PYTHON_VERSION_NUMBER} pkgutil --forget org.python.Python.PythonUnixTools-${PYTHON_VERSION_NUMBER}
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