How to uninstall AFFiNE on Mac

AFFiNE has two kinds of workspace. A cloud workspace syncs to AFFiNE Cloud and survives removing the app. A local workspace exists only on this Mac, inside ~/Library/Application Support/AFFiNE. AFFiNE's desktop source sets that folder as its data folder (main process) and keeps each workspace's storage.db under workspaces in it (workspace paths). Deleting that folder deletes your local workspaces. This guide covers AFFiNE from its official download and from the Homebrew cask affine.

Back up local workspaces first

  1. Open AFFiNE and check which of your workspaces are local and which are in the cloud.
  2. For a local workspace you want to keep, either move its content into a cloud workspace and wait until it opens on another device or in the browser, or keep a file copy as in the next step.
  3. Quit AFFiNE and copy the whole ~/Library/Application Support/AFFiNE folder somewhere outside ~/Library. It holds workspaces, userspaces and deleted-workspaces next to the app's caches, so copying the whole folder is the simple way to keep everything.

Removing the app does not delete your AFFiNE account or its cloud workspaces.

Quit AFFiNE and remove the app

  1. Quit AFFiNE from the AFFiNE menu. In the recorded test it ran ten processes, including a crash reporter, which Mole's Status page folded into one AFFiNE row.
  2. Search Activity Monitor for AFFiNE and check that its processes have exited.
  3. Move AFFiNE from Finder's Applications folder to the Trash.

The test did not show a login item or background item for AFFiNE.

Where AFFiNE keeps its data

Location What it holds What to do
~/Library/Application Support/AFFiNE Local workspaces in workspaces, plus Electron caches and crash reports Keep it until your copy or cloud move is confirmed
~/Library/Logs/AFFiNE App logs Remove with the app
~/Library/Preferences/pro.affine.app.plist App preferences Remove with the app
~/Library/Saved Application State/pro.affine.app.savedState Saved window state Remove with the app

Check the result

pgrep -il affine
ls "$HOME/Library/Application Support/AFFiNE/workspaces"
  • No output from pgrep means AFFiNE is not running.
  • ls listing folders means local workspace data is still on this Mac, which is what you want if you plan to reinstall. "No such file or directory" means the folder is gone, or you never had a local workspace; check your copy before you empty the Trash.

If you installed it with Homebrew

The affine cask's zap list is ~/Library/Application Support/AFFiNE, ~/Library/Logs/AFFiNE, the preferences file and the saved window state. The first one holds your local workspaces, so brew uninstall --cask --zap affine moves them to the Trash whatever you ticked in Mole. To keep them, remove only the app:

brew uninstall --cask affine

Mole adds --zap only when every path on the zap list sits inside ~/Library, none of them touches a row you left unchecked, and no other installed app claims them. ~/Library/Application Support/AFFiNE is listed but not selected by default, so Mole leaves --zap out unless you tick that row.

What Mole lists

For AFFiNE from the official download:

  • ~/Library/Application Support/AFFiNE is listed but not selected. The cache folders inside it (Cache, Code Cache, GPUCache, DawnGraphiteCache, DawnWebGPUCache, blob_storage) and its Crashpad folder are separate rows selected by default. The workspaces folder is not one of them.
  • ~/Library/Logs/AFFiNE, the preferences file, the recent-documents list and the temporary caches filed under pro.affine.app are selected by default.
  • Cloud workspaces are not on this Mac and are not listed.

What this test covered

On September 26, 2026, AFFiNE 0.27.4 was installed from its official zip, opened once without signing in or creating a workspace, and uninstalled with a development build of Mole with every row ticked. Status showed one AFFiNE row with ten processes using about 612 MB. Fourteen items went to the Trash, including ~/Library/Application Support/AFFiNE (about 6.7 MB) and ~/Library/Logs/AFFiNE, and nothing from the list was left on disk. Earlier, on September 20, 2026, the same version was removed while Mole was still scanning after about 100 seconds, so only the app went and the Application Support folder stayed. A signed-in account, real workspaces, cloud sync and a Homebrew install were not tested.