How to uninstall BetterTouchTool on Mac

Export your presets before you remove BetterTouchTool. Your gestures, shortcuts and settings, the automatic backups BetterTouchTool makes after each update, and the installed license file all sit in ~/Library/Application Support/BetterTouchTool, so deleting that folder loses them. Keep the purchase email as well, because it carries an activation link and a copy of the license file. This guide covers the app downloaded from folivora.ai and the Homebrew cask bettertouchtool.

Export presets and keep the license

  1. Open BetterTouchTool's configuration window and click the Preset button at the top right.
  2. Select each preset you use and choose Export a Preset. BetterTouchTool writes it as a JSON file; save it outside ~/Library, for example in Documents. Presets can contain scripts, so later import only files you trust. BetterTouchTool presets
  3. Search your mail for the subject "BetterTouchTool License For". That email has the activation link and the license file. The developer notes that the installed license file lives in ~/Library/Application Support/BetterTouchTool, and that clicking the activation link again also restores the license on another Mac. License transfer on the BetterTouchTool forum

The automatic backups are useful for restoring an older setup on this Mac, but they sit in the same folder you are about to remove, so they are not a substitute for an exported preset. Restoring automatic backups

Quit and remove the app

BetterTouchTool is a menu bar app with several helper processes. In the recorded test it ran twelve, including AppleScriptRunner, WebKit processes and BTTRelaunch.

  1. Quit BetterTouchTool from its menu bar icon.
  2. Search Activity Monitor for BetterTouchTool and check that its processes have exited.
  3. Move BetterTouchTool from Applications to the Trash. That is folivora's whole removal step for the app itself. BetterTouchTool installation and uninstallation
  4. Open System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions and turn off any BetterTouchTool entry that is still listed.

Where BetterTouchTool keeps its data

Press Shift + Command + G in Finder and open each location. Skip any that is missing.

Location What it holds What to do
~/Library/Application Support/BetterTouchTool Presets, settings, automatic backups and the installed license Keep it until your exported presets and license email are safe; folivora names it as the settings folder to delete for a full removal
~/Library/Preferences/com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool.plist Preferences, the second settings file folivora names Remove it only for a clean start
~/Library/Caches/com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool Cache Safe to remove after quitting
~/Library/HTTPStorages/com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool and ~/Library/WebKit/com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool Web storage for BetterTouchTool's built-in web views Remove with the app
~/Library/Containers/com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool.BetterTouchTool-Widgets and ~/Library/Containers/com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool.BTTFinderContextMenu, with the matching folders in ~/Library/Application Scripts The widget and Finder menu extensions Remove with the app
~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.folivora.BTTShared A shared folder observed in the recorded test Remove it only once the app is gone and you do not plan to reinstall

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the app is in the Trash:

pgrep -lf BetterTouchTool.app
ls -d "$HOME/Library/Application Support/BetterTouchTool" ~/Library/Group\ Containers/group.com.folivora.BTTShared
  • No output from pgrep means neither BetterTouchTool nor one of its helpers is running. A listed process means it is still open; quit it before touching its data.
  • ls -d prints each folder that still exists. A surviving Application Support/BetterTouchTool is expected if you kept your setup. "No such file or directory" means that folder is gone; a permission error is a different result, so look at it before deciding anything.

If a BetterTouchTool process keeps coming back after the app is in the Trash, see App Still Running After Uninstall on Mac?

If you installed it with Homebrew

Mole skips --zap when the zap list reaches data you left unchecked, a path another installed app uses, or anything Mole cannot check, and it still cleans the leftovers you selected.

The bettertouchtool cask's zap list includes ~/Library/Application Support/BetterTouchTool, which holds your presets, backups and license, along with the preferences file, the cache, HTTP storage, both extension containers and their Application Scripts folders, and BetterTouchTool's recent-documents list. brew uninstall --cask --zap bettertouchtool moves all of them to the Trash and does not ask about your presets. The zap list does not name group.com.folivora.BTTShared. Homebrew's bettertouchtool cask

With the default selection, Mole leaves Application Support/BetterTouchTool unchecked, so Mole does not run the zap step. To keep your setup when you use Homebrew directly, export presets first, or remove only the app:

brew uninstall --cask bettertouchtool

License

Removing the app does not use up or return your license. On a new Mac, click the activation link in the license email again or import the license file from it.

What Mole lists

For BetterTouchTool downloaded from folivora.ai:

  • ~/Library/Application Support/BetterTouchTool is listed but not selected, so your presets, backups and license stay unless you tick it.
  • The cache, preferences, HTTP storage and WebKit data filed under com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool are selected by default.
  • The widget and Finder menu extension containers are selected by default, since both extensions ship inside BetterTouchTool.app.
  • group.com.folivora.BTTShared is not selected by default, and in the recorded test it stayed on disk.
  • Login items are not edited; turn them off in System Settings.

What this test covered

On September 19, 2026, BetterTouchTool was copied from folivora's download into Applications, without Homebrew, and uninstalled with Mole 1.15 Preview build 277 using the default selection. While it ran, Mole's Status tab showed it as one row with twelve processes. The app went to the Trash, but that build mistook BetterTouchTool for a web browser, because it registers http and https links, and kept 7.1 MB of its Application Support, WebKit and HTTP storage as protected browser data. Mole was changed after the test so a menu bar app is no longer treated that way. group.com.folivora.BTTShared stayed on disk. The record includes no preset export or license activation, and the Homebrew cask was not tested.