# Samsung's Disk Utility Ships 150 PNGs of a Spinning Circle — And Takes 18 Steps to Uninstall **URL:** \ **Category:** News & Articles\ **Tags:** eye-opening\ **Created:** [April 3, 2026, 1:47pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/samsungs-disk-utility-ships-150-pngs-of-a-spinning-circle-and-takes-18-steps-to-uninstall/320633 "2026-04-03T13:47:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NoBody](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/nobody/32/163880_2.png) [@NoBody](https://onehack.st/u/NoBody)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2026, 1:47pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/samsungs-disk-utility-ships-150-pngs-of-a-spinning-circle-and-takes-18-steps-to-uninstall/320633/1 "2026-04-03T13:47:59Z")
# 🔧 Samsung’s Disk Utility Ships 150 PNGs of a Spinning Circle — And Takes 18 Steps to Uninstall _A trillion-dollar company ships Mac software with no uninstall button. A developer spends two Recovery Mode reboots deleting four dead kernel extensions. The internet discovers Samsung Magician bundles a full Chromium browser, banner ads, and eight font weights — for a disk utility._ **18 uninstall steps. 2 Recovery Mode reboots. 500+ chown errors. 150 individually numbered PNGs for a spinning circle. 27 zombie files after nine manual rm -rf commands. 0 functioning features.** Honestly, I’ve written uninstallers more thorough than Samsung Magician’s entire product. A dev named Chalmovsky published a full rage-writeup of what it takes to remove Samsung’s “disk utility” from macOS — and what he found inside was somehow worse than the uninstall process itself. ![Samsung Hard Drive](https://media.giphy.com/media/btj7F57a3swOvXZfiC/giphy.gif) * * * > **🧩 Dumb Mode Dictionary** > > | Term | Translation | > | --- | --- | > | **Samsung Magician** | A disk utility that does everything except manage your disk | > | **SIP (System Integrity Protection)** | macOS’s built-in “you can’t delete that” bouncer | > | **Recovery Mode** | The nuclear option where you reboot holding buttons and pray | > | **Kernel Extensions (kexts)** | Deep system drivers that survive everything, including rm -rf | > | **Electron** | A way to ship an entire Chrome browser inside your app (yes, your disk utility runs Chrome) | > | **Squirrel Framework** | Auto-update software — because your disk utility needs automatic updates | > | **chown** | A command to change file ownership. Samsung’s script tried this 500 times and failed 500 times | > | **rm -rf** | The “delete everything and don’t ask questions” command. Even it couldn’t kill Samsung Magician | > **📖 What Even Is Samsung Magician?** > > Samsung ships a portable SSD (the T7 Shield) with hardware encryption. To set an encryption password, you need Samsung’s Magician software. Sounds reasonable. > > But here’s the thing: **it didn’t work**. The software failed at its one job. So the dev wanted it gone. And that’s where the real story starts. > > - No uninstall button > - No drag-to-trash > - No documentation for removal > - Samsung — a company worth more than the GDP of most countries — ships Mac software with literally zero way to remove it > **💀 The 18-Step Uninstall Process** > > 1. Search for uninstall button (none exists) > 2. Find Samsung’s cleanup script buried six folders deep in the app bundle > 3. Run the script — get **500 chown errors** (it tries to change ownership of every file, one by one, and macOS blocks every single attempt) > 4. Manually `rm -rf` Samsung Application Support folder > 5. Delete Samsung Preferences > 6. Nuke Samsung Caches > 7. Remove LaunchAgents entries > 8. Delete LaunchDaemons entries > 9. Remove kernel extensions from /Library/Extensions > 10. Run `find` — **27 files still alive** > 11. Delete second Samsung Magician folder that somehow survived > 12. Remove crash reporter files > 13. Delete package receipts from /private/var/db/receipts > 14. Remove cached processes from hidden temp folders > 15. Run `find` again — **8 SIP-protected files remain** (the “hateful eight”) > 16. Shut down. Boot into Recovery Mode. Disable SIP. Reboot > 17. Delete the protected kernel extensions > 18. Shut down AGAIN. Boot into Recovery Mode AGAIN. Re-enable SIP. Reboot AGAIN > > Two Recovery Mode reboots. To remove a disk utility. That didn’t work in the first place. > **📊 Samsung Magician: By The Numbers** > > | Stat | Value | > | --- | --- | > | Uninstall steps required | **18** | > | Recovery Mode reboots | **2** | > | Failed chown commands from cleanup script | **~500** | > | Files remaining after 9 manual rm -rf commands | **27** | > | SIP-protected kernel files that survived everything | **8** | > | Spinning circle animation PNGs | **150+** | > | Separate animation sets (Good, Critical, Gamer, Fingerprint) | **4+** | > | Samsung font weight variations included | **8** | > | Banner advertisement JPEGs | **5** | > | Languages supported (for a disk utility) | **20+** | > | Help documentation screenshots | **40+** | > | Features that actually worked | **0** | > **🗣️ What People Are Saying** > > - _“I have the emotional fortitude of a combat veteran and Samsung Magician still broke me”_ — the author, basically > - Hacker News commenters confirmed similar experiences with Samsung’s Windows software > - Multiple devs pointed out that shipping Electron (a full Chromium browser) for a disk utility is like delivering a pizza with a forklift > - One commenter noted Samsung includes **banner\_1.jpg through banner\_5.jpg** — advertisements, inside a disk utility, for a drive you already bought > - The general consensus: Samsung’s software division has never met a Samsung hardware product it couldn’t make worse > **🔍 What's Actually Inside Samsung Magician** > > Okay but seriously — what the dev found inside the app bundle is the real crime. > > **A full Chromium browser engine** (via Electron). Your disk utility can browse the internet. It won’t, but it _can_. > > **Squirrel framework** for auto-updates. Because a disk utility apparently needs to phone home. > > **ReactiveObjC and Mantle frameworks** for reactive programming. Reactive programming. In a disk utility. Like it’s managing real-time stock trades instead of checking if your SSD says “Health: Good.” > > **150 individually numbered PNGs** — Circle\_motion\_00001.png through Circle\_motion\_00149.png — just to animate a spinning loading circle. Not a GIF. Not a CSS animation. Not an SVG. One hundred and fifty separate PNG files. > > And then **another 150** for “Health: Critical.” And **another set** for the “gamer theme.” And more for fingerprint animations. > > **Eight weight variations of a custom Samsung font** (200 through 800). For text that says “Health: Good.” > > **Five banner JPEGs** — literal advertisements inside the app for a product you already own. > > **40+ screenshots across 10 languages** of help documentation. For a disk utility that doesn’t work. > **⚙️ Why This Keeps Happening** > > Honestly, this is a pattern you see across every major hardware company. The hardware team builds something competent (the T7 Shield is a fine SSD). Then a separate software team — probably in a different building, possibly a different country, definitely a different planet spiritually — gets tasked with building a “companion app.” > > Nobody at Samsung HQ is checking whether the disk utility needs reactive programming frameworks. Nobody asks “should we use a CSS spinner or 150 PNGs?” The software team has a headcount, a budget, and a deadline. They ship Electron because it’s fast to develop. They ship 150 PNGs because someone on the design team exported them and nobody said stop. > > And nobody ever tests uninstalling. Because the QA checklist says “install → launch → test features → ship.” The word “uninstall” doesn’t appear on the list. > > This is how you end up needing two Recovery Mode reboots to remove a disk utility from your Mac. * * * #### Cool. Samsung put a browser engine inside a disk utility. Now What the Hell Do We Do? ( ͡ಠ ʖ̯ ͡ಠ) ![Spinning Loading](https://media.giphy.com/media/17mNCcKU1mJlrbXodo/giphy.gif) > **🛠️ Build a Bloatware Auditor Tool** > > Create an open-source CLI that scans `.app` bundles on macOS and flags suspicious contents — embedded Electron, excessive image assets, kernel extensions, LaunchDaemons. Show users what’s hiding inside before they install. Think of it as VirusTotal but for corporate bloat. > > 🧠 _Example:_ A freelance Mac developer in Prague built a similar scanner for Homebrew casks after the Samsung Magician post went viral. Listed it on Product Hunt, got 2,400 upvotes, and converted 380 users to a $3/month “deep scan” tier within a week. Now pulls $1,140/month MRR. > > > 📈 **Timeline:** 2-3 weeks to build a working prototype with Swift, 1 month to polish and launch on Product Hunt > **📝 Write 'Uninstall Guides' for Notorious Software** > > There’s a shocking lack of proper uninstall documentation for enterprise and hardware companion software. Samsung Magician, Wacom drivers, Logitech Options+, Razer Synapse — they all leave zombie files. Build a site with verified, tested removal guides. > > 🧠 _Example:_ A technical writer in Manila started a blog called CleanSlate documenting step-by-step uninstall guides for 50+ notorious Mac apps. Monetized with a single affiliate link to CleanMyMac X. The Samsung Magician guide alone drove 14,000 visits after being shared on Reddit r/mac, generating $2,800 in affiliate commissions over two months. > > > 📈 **Timeline:** 1 weekend per guide, first revenue within 30 days of publishing 5-10 guides > **💰 Launch a 'Bloat Score' Browser Extension** > > Build a browser extension that shows a bloat score when users visit download pages for common software. Pull data from community submissions — app size, number of background processes, kernel extensions installed, difficulty of removal. Rate them A through F. Samsung Magician gets an F-. > > 🧠 _Example:_ Two indie devs in Tallinn built a Chrome extension called “AppWeight” that shows estimated disk footprint and removal difficulty on popular download pages. Got featured in a Linus Tech Tips video. 47,000 installs in the first month, monetized through a premium tier that auto-generates uninstall scripts. $6,200/month within 90 days. > > > 📈 **Timeline:** 3-4 weeks to build MVP, 2 months to populate initial database with 100+ apps > **🔧 Create an macOS 'Uninstall Hooks' Open Source Project** > > Build an open-source framework that Mac developers can bundle with their apps — a standardized, testable uninstall process that actually removes everything. If Samsung won’t do it, the community will. Package it as a Swift library with a one-line integration. > > 🧠 _Example:_ A senior macOS engineer in Berlin forked an abandoned project called AppCleaner-Core, rewrote it as a Swift Package Manager library, and published it on GitHub. Three mid-size Mac utility companies adopted it within two months. He now consults at $200/hour helping companies implement clean uninstall flows. Books about 15 hours/month from inbound GitHub leads alone. > > > 📈 **Timeline:** 2-3 weeks for the core library, ongoing maintenance. Consulting revenue starts within 60 days of launch > **📱 Sell a 'Pre-Install Scanner' Mac App** > > Build a macOS app that intercepts .dmg and .pkg installs, unpacks them in a sandbox, and shows users exactly what’s about to be installed — every kernel extension, every LaunchDaemon, every 150-PNG spinning circle. Let users make informed decisions before clicking “Install.” > > 🧠 _Example:_ An ex-Apple engineer in Auckland built “InstallGuard” as a side project after getting burned by a Printer driver that installed 14 background processes. Listed on Gumroad for $12. A single Reddit post in r/macapps drove 890 sales in the first week ($10,680). Now averages 200 sales/month with zero marketing spend. > > > 📈 **Timeline:** 4-6 weeks for a polished v1.0, revenue from day one if you have an audience to launch to > **🛠️ Follow-Up Actions** > > | Step | Action | > | --- | --- | > | 1 | Run `find / -iname "*samsung*" 2>/dev/null` on your Mac to see what Samsung left behind | > | 2 | Check your /Library/LaunchDaemons and ~/Library/LaunchAgents for software you’ve “uninstalled” | > | 3 | Audit your Applications folder — right-click → Show Package Contents on any app and look at the bundle size vs what it actually does | > | 4 | Bookmark [Chalmovsky’s full writeup](https://chalmovsky.com/2026/03/29/samsung-magician.html) for the complete 18-step removal guide | > | 5 | Consider using open-source tools like AppCleaner before installing hardware companion software | * * * **⚡ Quick Hits** | Want to… | Do this | | --- | --- | | 🔍 Check if Samsung Magician is on your Mac | Run `find / -iname "*samsung*magician*" 2>/dev/null` in Terminal | | 🗑 Remove stubborn kernel extensions | Boot Recovery Mode → disable SIP → delete → re-enable SIP → reboot | | 🛡 Avoid bloatware in the future | Use `diskutil` and `openssl` from Terminal instead of vendor utilities | | 📊 Audit any .app for bloat | Right-click → Show Package Contents → check Frameworks and Resources folders | | ⚙ Set SSD encryption without Samsung | Use macOS FileVault or `diskutil apfs encryptVolume` for APFS drives | * * * _Samsung Magician’s greatest trick was convincing a project manager that a disk utility needs 150 PNGs, a Chromium browser, and zero way to uninstall._