How to uninstall DEVONthink on Mac

DEVONthink stores your actual databases (.dtBase2 files) wherever you chose to keep them, commonly a ~/Databases folder DEVONtechnologies recommends and outside your Library folder entirely, so removing the app does not touch them. What does live inside the app's own folders is its global inbox database (for anything you filed there and never moved), custom templates, settings, and local sync bookkeeping. This guide covers the app downloaded from DEVONtechnologies and the Homebrew cask devonthink.

Back up the inbox first, then quit

  1. Open DEVONthink and check its global Inbox for anything you have not filed into a database yet; move those items into a database or export them, since the Inbox itself lives inside the app's own folder.
  2. If you use custom templates, note that DEVONtechnologies also recommends saving a copy of the Templates.noindex folder before a full uninstall. (How to Fully Uninstall DEVONthink)
  3. Quit DEVONthink from its menu.
  4. Move DEVONthink from Finder's Applications folder to the Trash.
  5. Open System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions and turn off a DEVONthink entry if one is listed.

DEVONtechnologies describes this level of removal as "a deep uninstallation" needed only in specific cases, not a routine troubleshooting step; if DEVONthink is misbehaving, contact their support before deleting anything.

Where DEVONthink keeps local data

Location What it holds What to do
Your own ~/Databases folder (or wherever you put your databases) Your actual DEVONthink databases and the documents inside them Not part of removing the app; leave it alone
~/Library/Application Support/DEVONthink* The global Inbox database, custom templates, and app settings Back up the Inbox and templates first, then remove
~/Library/Containers/com.devon-technologies.* Sandboxed helper data Remove with the app
~/Library/Group Containers/679S2QUWR8.think* Local bookkeeping DEVONthink uses for its own sync feature Removing it does not delete your databases, only local sync state
~/Library/Application Scripts/com.devon-technologies.* Sandbox automation scripts Remove with the app
~/Library/Preferences/com.devon-technologies.think* App preferences, plus a tiny internal marker file (see note below) Remove with the app
~/Library/Caches/com.devon-technologies.think* Cache Safe to remove

In the recorded test, both the Application Support folder and Preferences also contained a small (397-byte) file with a scrambled, unreadable name that DEVONthink writes internally; it is not user data, and Mole does not collect it or treat it as part of a pattern to look for elsewhere.

Check the result

Run these read-only commands in Terminal:

pgrep -il devonthink
launchctl list | grep -i devon-technologies
ls -d ~/Databases 2>/dev/null
ls -d "$HOME/Library/Application Support/DEVONthink"*
  • No output from pgrep means DEVONthink is not running.
  • No output from launchctl list means no DEVONthink login item is loaded in this session.
  • ls -d ~/Databases printing "No such file or directory" is normal if you never used that default location or already moved your databases elsewhere; a printed path means your databases may still be there, so check its contents before doing anything else with it.
  • For the Application Support line, "No such file or directory" means that folder is gone; a printed path means it is still there.

If you installed it with Homebrew

Mole skips --zap when its list reaches unchecked or shared data, or cannot be fully checked, and still cleans the leftovers you selected.

The devonthink cask's zap list reaches ~/Library/Application Support/DEVONthink*, ~/Library/Containers/com.devon-technologies.*, ~/Library/Group Containers/679S2QUWR8.think*, ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.devon-technologies.*, ~/Library/Preferences/com.devon-technologies.think*, ~/Library/Caches/com.devon-technologies.think*, plus a few smaller Cookies, Metadata, Saved Application State and Scripts entries. Running brew uninstall --cask --zap devonthink yourself moves all of them to the Trash, whatever you selected in Mole. The zap list does not reach ~/Databases or any other location outside your Library folder, so databases kept in DEVONtechnologies' recommended location are untouched; if you ever created or moved a database into the Application Support folder itself, back it up first, since the zap step would remove it regardless of what you selected in Mole.

To skip the zap step:

brew uninstall --cask devonthink

What Mole lists

For a DEVONthink app downloaded directly from DEVONtechnologies:

  • ~/Library/Application Support/DEVONthink is a display-name folder, so it is listed but not selected by default; it went to Trash in the recorded test because the reviewer selected every review row.
  • The small internally-generated marker file in Application Support and Preferences is not listed by Mole at all and was left in place in the recorded test.
  • The empty containers of DEVONthink's own extensions are selected by default when their ids continue DEVONthink's bundle id.
  • Mole does not list ~/Databases or any other folder where you keep your own .dtBase2 databases.

What this test covered

DEVONthink 4.4, downloaded from DEVONtechnologies' site, was installed and uninstalled on September 20, 2026 with Mole 1.15.0 (build 280) and Full Disk Access, as part of a ten-app batch. No database was created during the test. The reviewer expanded the review list and selected every row before removing. ~/Library/Application Support/DEVONthink (about 2.2 MB) went to the Trash; the two small marker files were left behind and were not offered for selection. The empty containers of DEVONthink's extensions were selected but stayed on disk because macOS refused to move them to the Trash. A background item for DEVONthink appeared in System Settings after install, unchecked, and was no longer listed after the uninstall. Sync, licensing, and database creation were not part of this test. DEVONthink