How to uninstall Drafts on Mac

Drafts stores every draft, action and workspace in a database inside an App Group container. Mole lists that container but does not tick it, and it moves it to the Trash if you tick it. Back up first either way: open Drafts, go to its Backups setting and create a manual backup, which is saved to iCloud Drive under Drafts > Backups as a .draftsExport file you can import again later. This guide covers the Mac App Store build.

Back up, then quit and remove the app

  1. In Drafts, open Settings > Backups and create a backup, or confirm automatic backups are on.
  2. In Finder, check iCloud Drive > Drafts > Backups for a recent .draftsExport file.
  3. Quit Drafts, then remove it the usual Mac App Store way, from Launchpad or by dragging it out of Applications.

Where Drafts keeps its data

In Finder, press Shift + Command + G and open each location that exists.

Location What it holds What to do
~/Library/Containers/com.agiletortoise.Drafts-OSX Basic preferences and settings Selected by default, removed with the app
~/Library/Application Scripts/com.agiletortoise.Drafts-OSX Scripts folder tied to the container Selected by default, removed with the app
~/Library/Group Containers/GTFQ98J4YG.com.agiletortoise.Drafts The main drafts, actions and workspaces database, named in a Drafts community support thread Keep it unticked in Mole unless your backup is done and you want your drafts gone from this Mac
~/Library/Group Containers/GTFQ98J4YG.com.agiletortoise.Drafts-Dev A second App Group Drafts declares, a few KB in the test Remove it together with the main one
Share, Quick Look and widget extension containers (a few KB each) Small extension data Selected by default, removed with the app
iCloud Drive > Drafts > Backups Your manual and automatic backups Keep it; uninstalling does not touch it

Check the result

pgrep -il drafts
ls -d ~/Library/Group\ Containers/GTFQ98J4YG.com.agiletortoise.Drafts
ls ~/.Trash | grep -i agiletortoise

No output from pgrep means Drafts is not running. A printed path from the first ls means the drafts database is still in place, which is what you get when you leave its row unticked in Mole. "No such file or directory" means it is gone: if the last command then prints GTFQ98J4YG.com.agiletortoise.Drafts, it is sitting in the Trash and you can drag it back to ~/Library/Group Containers before you empty the Trash. No output from the last command means nothing from Drafts is in the Trash; "Operation not permitted" means Terminal has no Full Disk Access, so look in the Trash in Finder instead.

Account and subscription

Removing the app does not cancel a Drafts Pro subscription. Manage it from the App Store subscriptions page, since Drafts subscriptions are billed through Apple.

What Mole lists

For a Drafts app installed from the Mac App Store:

  • ~/Library/Containers/com.agiletortoise.Drafts-OSX, ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.agiletortoise.Drafts-OSX and ~/Library/Caches/CloudKit/com.agiletortoise.Drafts-OSX are named after the bundle id and selected by default.
  • The Share, Quick Look and widget extension containers and their scripts folders are selected by default, because those extensions ship inside Drafts and their ids continue Drafts' bundle id.
  • ~/Library/Group Containers/GTFQ98J4YG.com.agiletortoise.Drafts, which holds your drafts, and GTFQ98J4YG.com.agiletortoise.Drafts-Dev are listed with their Application Scripts folders but not selected. Drafts declares both groups, so if you tick them Mole moves them to the Trash, unless another installed app claims the group, in which case Mole keeps it and the row reads "Kept: couldn't confirm no other app uses this group".

What this test covered

Drafts was first tested on September 21, 2026 with Mole 1.15.0 (build 282) and Full Disk Access, without ticking the review rows: the app, its scripts folder and its temporary cache went to the Trash, the 700 KB container stayed because macOS refused to move it to the Trash, and the extension containers and the Group Containers were left unticked. Drafts 54.0.5 was reinstalled from the Mac App Store and uninstalled again on September 26, 2026, with a development build of Mole and every listed row ticked. All 15 rows went to the Trash, including the 1.4 MB drafts database GTFQ98J4YG.com.agiletortoise.Drafts, the -Dev group and both groups' scripts folders, and none of them was left on disk afterward. No new login item was found before or after either run, and the update channel was the Mac App Store. Backups | Drafts User Guide