The mail app on the Mac Operating System is protected by System Integrity Protocol (SIP). This protocol prevents you from deleting or uninstalling system apps like the Mail app. Hence, you will find it quite impossible to delete an app like the Mail app on the MacBook Air.
Nevertheless, there are still ways you can turn this situation around and delete the mail app on the MacBook Air. And this simply involves removing what is preventing you from uninstalling the Mail app, the System Integrity Protocol.
To delete the Mail app on MacBook Air, you must disable the System Integrity Protocol. This action is the first you have to make before attempting to uninstall the Mail app.
This article will provide you with a clear and stepwise guide on how you can perfectly uninstall the Mail app on your MacBook Air.
How To Delete Mail App on MacBook Air
Deleting the Mail app on MacBook Air is very simple. You only need to perform three main steps.
Firstly, you must disable the System Integrity Protocol in your MacBook Air control panel. Secondly, proceed with your standard method of uninstalling software on your PC. Lastly, you will need to re-enable your SIP.
These three steps are explained below.
Step #1: Disable System Integrity Protocol
To disable the system integrity protocol, you must restart your MacBook Air in Recovery mode.
Here is how to restart your MacBook Air on Recovery mode:
- Turn off your MacBook Air by holding the “Power button/Touch ID” until the startup options appear. This action will take about 5 to 7 seconds.
- Select “Options” > “Continue”.
- Input your admin password and click on “Continue” to get to Recovery mode.
Now that the MacBook Air is in Recovery mode, it provides you with the commands needed to disable the SIP. To disable System Integrity Protocol, you should:
- Select “Utilities” on the Recovery mode screen. This command is found nearly in the top left corner.
- Click on “Terminal” and type in
csrutil disable. - Type “y.” This
y commandstands for yes. It is a prior confirmation that you want to disable your SIP. - Press the “Return” key, and input your admin password for the final confirmation.
- Once done, the terminal would indicate that the SIP is off.
- Close the terminal and restart your MacBook Air again.
Step #2: Uninstall Mail App
Like the previous step, to uninstall the mail app, you should use the Recovery mode terminal. However, this time you will type in uninstall commands.
Here is how to uninstall the mail app after disabling SIP:
- On your Menu bar, click “Applications”. Alternatively, you can access your Applications by pressing
Cmd + Shift + A. - Go to “Utilities” and open the “Terminal”.
- To delete the Mail app, type
cd /Applications/, andsudo rm -rf Mail.app/in the terminal. - On the keyboard, press the “Enter key”.
- Lastly, input your password.
Following the above procedures will remove your Mail app.
Step #3: Re-enable the System Integrity Protocol (SIP)
You can’t leave the SIP disabled because it will leave the PC exposed to malware when you download third-party applications. Therefore, you need to enable it back on your MacBook Air.
However, enabling SIP is similar to disabling it. It just uses a different command. To enable System Integrity Protocol on MacBook air, you should:
- Restart your Mac M1 computer in Recovery mode.
- Select “Utilities” and then “Terminal”.
- In the command space, input
csrutil enable. - Press the “Return” key.
- Restart your MacBook Air once more.
Conclusion
Almost everyone has Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Microsoft Outlook as commonly used mail applications. Hence, any additional mail app is unneeded and takes unnecessary space. In this situation, it becomes vital to delete the system applications like the Mail App of the MacBook Air. However, it can’t be uninstalled because the System Integrity Protocol protects it.
This article has explained how to walk past this SIP to uninstall your MacBook Mail app. It has also included how you can save space on your MacBook Air without deleting your Mail app. Follow the steps to experience the incredible tricks and functions your MacBook air can perform to uninstall system applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
Disabling media downloads, deleting junk files, and trashing spam mails will help you save space on your MacBook Air.
Here is how to change your settings to help you automatically delete unneeded messages on your Mail app:
On your Mail app, select “Preferences” > “Accounts” > ‘Mailbox Behaviors.”
On the “Erase Junk Messages” and “Erase Deleted Messages” tabs, set the interval for automatic deletion. Erasing the junk messages tab will help you automatically delete junk messages. On the other hand, erasing deleted messages will help you permanently delete all messages.
The only way to reinstall your Mail app on MacBook Air is to Reinstall your Mac Operating System. Hence, you will need to back up your files before attempting to reinstall your Mail app.
If your Mail app is misbehaving or constantly crashing, you will need to install a CleanMyMac X software to reset it.
