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[Jamil]

I am finding that I have 441MB of Media Center 24 files on my C: drive when it is not even installed.  These files are located here:  C:\Users\<Me>\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 24

I am not sure how MC24 was uninstalled, but it is no longer on my C: drive.  If it was not for the fact that MC25 files were fragmented in a report I just ran, I would never have known that these MC24 files were there taking up space never being used.  Did the MC24 uninstall forget to remove something?

[RoderickGI]

The MC25 installation process does not uninstall MC24. As a Major Upgrade, the previous version is left in place, and MC25 is installed into a new directory. Minor Updates of any major version of MC, i.e. MC24.0.75 to MC24.0.78, will be installed into the same directory as the previous version.

To remove MC24 you have to run the uninstall process. So if MC24 is really gone, you must have uninstalled it. Even after you do that, some files are left behind, because they contain important data. For example, MC24 Library Backups are retained in case you need them, as they can be restored into MC25, and many people have to do that when they Upgrade. There may be other files, such as exported Views and Playlists (if any) and a few other things.

Once you have MC25 running as you wish, and no longer need MC24 Library Backups or other files, you can uninstall MC24 if you haven't, and then delete the leftover sub-directories.

[Jamil]

I uninstalled MC24 awhile back.  The uninstall of this should have removed these files.  At a bare minimum, I should have been prompted to remove them.  I would not even have known to look at Roaming folders to know to delete these unnecessary files that are duplicated under the MC25 location.

[RoderickGI]

Probably true. Well, not really, given the number of people who have saved their Libraries by Restoring a Library Backup from an earlier version of MC.

The uninstall should probably offer to move Library Backup files. Or maybe the installation of the later version should offer that. The MC Upgrade process still isn't perfect.

But you have been using MC for over eight years. Surely you knew this. Either that or you will have a lot more leftover files from earlier versions.

It is what it is, nothing more. There are few applications that completely clean up after themselves, as shown by the numerous cleanup and "optimisation" utilities available for Windows. Even Microsoft doesn't clean up everything with its products, and some of them toss stuff all over the place. Although that is changing a bit, mostly driven by security concerns and the work of security researchers.

[Jamil]

The location I specified is not a backup location.  Backups are located at:  C:\Users\<Me>\Documents\JRiver\Media Center 24\Library Backups.  MC24 also left old stuff here too, but notice I never complained about this.

The location I specified is a location that an end user should not ever have a need to visit.  It is a location for software installed to make use of for storage.  With the software being uninstalled, the correct course of action is to clean this junk up.  The only alternative is to force a user to seek this out and manually delete it.  This is not a standard location that an end user should be seeking out.  A standard location would be under C:\Users\<Me>\Documents.

If it was less than 10KB of storage being used, this wouldn't be such a big deal.  It is over 400MB of storage being 100% wasted for something that does not exist.

[RoderickGI]

Well, I can't actually disagree with you. I think the major version Upgrade process for MC still needs a bunch of work to be user-friendly. The uninstall is in a similar situation.

One of the things I always do before unistalling a version of MC is run that version, let it update Windows to use its components, then uninstall which results, I have found, in a cleaner result. Then I run the new version again and let it update Windows to use its components. But a User shouldn't have to do any of that.

400MB sounds like it could have been the thumbnails databases left behind, or perhaps old versions of the thumbnail database. Where were the leftovers files? "C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 24\Thumbnails"?

It's probably time I uninstalled MC24. I should do that and see what it leaves behind.

[RoderickGI]

Okay, so I uninstalled MC24. Twice.

The first time I didn't select the "Remove Media Center Library Files" option, as shown in the attached image. The uninstall process left everything related to MC24 in the "C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 24\" directory, by the look of it. All 1.24GB for me, mostly in the Cache and Thumbnails sub-directories.

Then I reinstalled MC24, restored one of its Library Backups, checked the directory was still about 1.24GB, and ran the uninstall again, this time with the "Remove Media Center Library Files" option selected. Everything was removed from the "C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 24\" directory. The directory itself was left in place, but empty. Maybe I had the directory in use in Windows, so it couldn't be deleted. I'm not sure on that as I had Windows Explorer windows open, and hadn't rebooted during this testing. Note that I had to test this option as I don't usually use it myself, since I run multiple versions and Beta software regularly. I manually delete the previous version's directory when I am ready.

So, if you installed MC25 first, without uninstalling MC24, got MC25 working correctly, then uninstalled MC24 with the "Remove Media Center Library Files" option set, nothing would be left behind in the "C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 24\" directory. The "C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 24" program directory was also completely removed. The "C:\Users\[UserID]\Documents\JRiver\Media Center 24" remained, but contained only the "Library Backups" sub-directory and the backup files, which is good.

So, bottom line, your original issue was a user error. While you aren't prompted to remove the previous version's files, you are given the option to do so. Maybe the wording of the option could be clearer.

I guess next time you will select that option. Just don't use that option before installing the next Upgrade version, unless you have a very recent Library Backup ready to Restore after the installation. Theoretically, by installing the new Upgrade first, the installation process will find the previous version and transfer the Library across to the new version. Sometimes that doesn't work if you still have multiple versions of MC installed, or if you use a Library that isn't in the default location. But for normal users who have only one version of MC installed, and use the Main Default Library in its default location, this would work.

Cheers. 

[Vocalpoint]

So, if you installed MC25 first, without uninstalling MC24, got MC25 working correctly, then uninstalled MC24 with the "Remove Media Center Library Files" option set, nothing would be left behind in the "C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 24\" directory.

I do this every time after an upgrade - and have never seen a shred of the prior version.

It is a matter of actually reading the dialog and making a choice. Even the dialog clearly states "For a complete uninstall only".

Could it be a whole lot better? Sure - but the tools are all there to do a clean sweep - if one is watching the action closely.

VP

[swiv3d]

HaHa! I have just unistalled a plex server from my machine which left behind 3.57GB of data in the users local folder!

[RoderickGI]

HaHa! I have just installed a plex server from my machine which left behind 3.57GB of data in the users local folder!

  Yep, lots of applications leave junk behind. A user needs to be able to manage their PC and Windows installation, or it just becomes a mess. I guess that is why inexperienced users reinstall Windows regularly. 

[Jamil]

Thanks for posting the screenshot.  I am not sure how you figure this was a user error, since I clearly followed all instructions shown in the screenshot.  I did upgrade from MC24 to MC25, so I did not select the option to remove library files.  Perhaps this was sarcasm, since you also stated changing the wording.

As far as other comments regarding software that cleans up leftover junk, please show me a single cleanup utility that will remove unused and unneeded files from C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 24.  A piece of software that would remove this is not a piece of software I want installed on my computer.  It would have no idea whether or not this directory is safe to delete.  Leaving contents under C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Documents is expected behavior, since this location is not hidden and well-known to users of Windows.  If it was left under my Documents folder, this would be expected.  It being left in a hidden location that users normally never visit is something that needs some work.

Okay, so I uninstalled MC24. Twice.

The first time I didn't select the "Remove Media Center Library Files" option, as shown in the attached image. The uninstall process left everything related to MC24 in the "C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 24\" directory, by the look of it. All 1.24GB for me, mostly in the Cache and Thumbnails sub-directories.

Then I reinstalled MC24, restored one of its Library Backups, checked the directory was still about 1.24GB, and ran the uninstall again, this time with the "Remove Media Center Library Files" option selected. Everything was removed from the "C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 24\" directory. The directory itself was left in place, but empty. Maybe I had the directory in use in Windows, so it couldn't be deleted. I'm not sure on that as I had Windows Explorer windows open, and hadn't rebooted during this testing. Note that I had to test this option as I don't usually use it myself, since I run multiple versions and Beta software regularly. I manually delete the previous version's directory when I am ready.

So, if you installed MC25 first, without uninstalling MC24, got MC25 working correctly, then uninstalled MC24 with the "Remove Media Center Library Files" option set, nothing would be left behind in the "C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 24\" directory. The "C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 24" program directory was also completely removed. The "C:\Users\[UserID]\Documents\JRiver\Media Center 24" remained, but contained only the "Library Backups" sub-directory and the backup files, which is good.

So, bottom line, your original issue was a user error. While you aren't prompted to remove the previous version's files, you are given the option to do so. Maybe the wording of the option could be clearer.

I guess next time you will select that option. Just don't use that option before installing the next Upgrade version, unless you have a very recent Library Backup ready to Restore after the installation. Theoretically, by installing the new Upgrade first, the installation process will find the previous version and transfer the Library across to the new version. Sometimes that doesn't work if you still have multiple versions of MC installed, or if you use a Library that isn't in the default location. But for normal users who have only one version of MC installed, and use the Main Default Library in its default location, this would work.

Cheers. 

[RoderickGI]

I called it a User Error because the functionality to do what you wanted is actually there. It just isn't really clear, and requires some knowledge of the best sequence in which to upgrade MC to the next major version, and then uninstall the previous version.

There are, or have been, plenty of applications that purport to be "Super Uninstallers", which will monitor all Windows installations and record what is installed where, so that when an application is removed, everything everywhere will be removed. Sometimes with confirmation first, sometimes not. The one I tried years ago would also find and remove all files and settings associated with an application, with a prompt, even if an installation had not been monitored. It used Registry settings to find components and file locations for an application, so it didn't find everything, as it couldn't look up files stored to a location purely programmatically.

I'm not going to search for and name one for you. I'm sure references to them would be easy to Google.

All of them, as far as I'm concerned, are dodgy apps, like Registry Cleaners.