Uninstall CleanMyMac on Mac

Keep any CleanMyMac exclusions and license details you may need again; its Agent and updater are separate background components. The September 17, 2026 record covers the Homebrew cask.

Quit and remove the app

While CleanMyMac is still installed, open Applications › Scan › Manage My Applications › Uninstaller, select CleanMyMac, and click Uninstall. Then review Login Items & Extensions for remaining MacPaw entries without touching other MacPaw products. The official page has more product information.

Review the app’s data

The cask lists ~/Library/Application Support/CleanMyMac_5, exact version-5 caches and preferences, an updater Launch Agent, and a privileged Agent. The system Agent needs its own verified owner and authorization; a similarly named MacPaw file is insufficient evidence.

If you installed it with Homebrew

The Homebrew cask has its own --zap list. brew uninstall --cask cleanmymac removes the cask without that list; brew uninstall --cask --zap cleanmymac also acts on its listed data without consulting Mole’s checkboxes. Its zap list includes the Agent and updater as well as user settings; leave zap off until their ownership is clear. Mole also suppresses zap if its list would cross an unchecked, shared, unknown, or unsupported path; selected remnants still follow Mole’s own deletion path.

brew uninstall --cask cleanmymac

Check the result

These commands inspect the running process and one relevant location. They do not remove anything:

pgrep -il "CleanMyMac"
ls -ld "$HOME/Library/Application Support/CleanMyMac_5"

No pgrep match means no process with that name is running; a match needs identification before quitting anything. A listed path still exists, while an ls “No such file” error means only that exact path is absent. A permission error is inconclusive.

What Mole lists

Mole selects exact app cache and preference rows by default. A display-name Application Support folder is for review and starts unchecked; system helper paths require their own guarded removal.

What this test covered

The September 17, 2026 test used the official cask. During Mole uninstall, six entitled group or script rows were skipped as protected and the FinderSync container failed with error 513. Finder later moved those files to Trash. The Homebrew receipt hung after a sudo launchctl print check and was removed separately. This is not a complete Mole-only removal result.