How to uninstall CapCut on Mac

Your CapCut drafts are your work, and they do not live inside the app. In the recorded test they sat in ~/Movies/CapCut, 284 MB after a short test, and real projects can make it far larger. Removing the app leaves that folder alone, and nothing in this guide asks you to delete it. If you want the drafts gone too, copy the folder to another drive first and open the copy to check it. This guide covers CapCut downloaded from capcut.com and the Homebrew cask capcut. 剪映专业版, the edition for mainland China, is a separate app with its own folders; see How to uninstall Jianying Pro (剪映专业版) on Mac.

Back up your drafts first

  1. Finish or export any project you still need. CapCut's help page Why Can't I Find My Exported Videos? explains how to open the folder an export went to.
  2. Open ~/Movies/CapCut in Finder with Shift + Command + G. If you pointed CapCut at another draft folder, use that folder instead.
  3. Copy the whole folder to an external drive or another location outside ~/Movies, then open the copy and check that your projects are there.

Drafts can reference video, audio and pictures you imported from elsewhere. Keep those source files too; a draft folder without them may open with missing media.

Removing the app does not cancel a CapCut subscription or delete your CapCut account.

Quit and remove the app

  1. Quit CapCut and check Activity Monitor for any CapCut process. In the test Mole's Status page showed it as one row of about 1.5 GB.
  2. Move CapCut from Applications to the Trash.

Where CapCut keeps its data

Location What it holds What to do
~/Movies/CapCut Drafts and their working files, 284 MB in the test Keep it; back it up before you ever delete it
~/Library/Containers/com.lemon.lvoverseas The app's sandbox container Remove with the app; macOS may refuse to move it
~/Library/Application Scripts/com.lemon.lvoverseas The app's scripts folder Remove with the app
~/Library/Group Containers/22MMUN2RN5.lv A group container named in Homebrew's zap list Leave it unless you know nothing else uses it; the test did not record what is inside or which apps share it

The container, scripts folder and group container are the three paths in Homebrew's zap list. The draft location is a verified local observation, not a path CapCut documents.

Check the result

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

pgrep -il capcut
ls -d ~/Movies/CapCut ~/Library/Containers/com.lemon.lvoverseas
du -sh ~/Movies/CapCut
  • No output from pgrep means CapCut is not running. A listed process means it is still open.
  • ls -d printing ~/Movies/CapCut means your drafts are still there, which is what you want. A surviving container means macOS refused to move it, as it did in the test; it is harmless to leave.
  • du -sh shows how much space the draft folder takes, so you can decide whether a backup elsewhere is worth it. "No such file or directory" means the folder is not at that path; check whether you moved your drafts before assuming they are gone.

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 capcut cask's zap list names ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.lemon.lvoverseas, ~/Library/Containers/com.lemon.lvoverseas and ~/Library/Group Containers/22MMUN2RN5.lv. It does not name ~/Movies/CapCut, so brew uninstall --cask --zap capcut leaves your drafts where they are, but it does take the group container. To remove only the app:

brew uninstall --cask capcut

Homebrew's capcut cask

What Mole lists

For CapCut downloaded from capcut.com:

  • ~/Library/Containers/com.lemon.lvoverseas and ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.lemon.lvoverseas are selected by default.
  • Mole can also list ~/Library/Group Containers/22MMUN2RN5.lv, taken from Homebrew's zap list for this app, but does not select it.
  • ~/Movies/CapCut is not listed during an uninstall. As part of an app uninstall, Mole refuses to remove anything inside Movies, Music, Pictures, Documents, Desktop or Downloads in your home folder. Unlike 剪映专业版, CapCut's draft folder has no cache folders in Mole's Clean tab either.

What this test covered

On September 20, 2026, CapCut 9.4.1 was copied from the official download at capcut.com into Applications, without Homebrew, run, and uninstalled with Mole 1.15 Preview build 280 using the default selection. While it ran, Status showed it at about 1.5 GB. The app went to the Trash, the container was listed but could not be moved for lack of permission, and the 284 MB ~/Movies/CapCut folder was not listed and stayed on disk. The record includes no real editing project or signed-in account, and the Homebrew cask was not tested.