Uninstall draw.io on Mac

Check where your diagrams are actually saved before removing draw.io Desktop. draw.io can save .drawio files to a folder on this Mac or to a connected account (Google Drive, OneDrive, GitHub, GitLab and others), so there is no single default location to back up. These steps cover draw.io installed from the official disk image and from the Homebrew cask drawio; the recorded test used the Homebrew cask.

Your diagrams are not application data

Open File › Recent in draw.io and check where each diagram you care about is actually stored. A diagram saved to a device folder is an ordinary file wherever you put it; one saved to a connected cloud account lives there, not inside draw.io itself, so removing the app never touches it either way. draw.io keeps no separate local copy of cloud-stored diagrams beyond your desktop's own file-provider sync.

Quit and remove the app

Quit draw.io from its app menu, then move draw.io from Applications to the Trash (official download), or let Homebrew remove it (see below).

Where draw.io keeps its data

Check the result

Run these read-only commands in Terminal:

pgrep -ilf draw.io
launchctl list | grep -i jgraph
ls -d ~/Library/Application\ Support/draw.io
pluginkit -m | grep -i drawio

No output from pgrep means draw.io is not running. No output from launchctl list means draw.io never registered a background job. ls -d on the Application Support folder either lists it or reports "No such file or directory". The pluginkit line shows whether the Quick Look preview extension is still registered with the system; it clears itself once draw.io.app and its leftover container are both gone.

If you installed it with Homebrew

The next Mole update will skip --zap when its list reaches unchecked or shared data, or cannot be fully checked. Mole will still clean the leftovers you selected. Preview 290 does not include this protection.

Mole Preview 290 removes a Homebrew cask the same way as brew uninstall --cask --zap drawio. The cask's zap list is long, but almost every path in it is one Mole's own uninstall list already selects by default: the app's caches, preferences, saved state, HTTPStorages, WebKit data and logs. Only the Application Support folder and the two Preview Extension rows above are listed but not selected, and the zap step removes those too, whatever you have ticked in Mole. Since none of this is your diagram content, there is little reason to skip the zap step here; run the app-only removal below only if you want to keep app-level settings such as connected-account state. Homebrew draw.io cask

brew uninstall --cask drawio

Connected cloud accounts

Removing draw.io does not disconnect or sign you out of a Google Drive, OneDrive, GitHub or GitLab account you connected to it; those stay managed on that service's own side, independent of anything on this Mac.

What Mole lists

This describes Mole 1.15 (currently in Preview) for draw.io installed from the official download:

• ~/Library/Application Support/draw.io, the Preview Extension's container, and its Application Scripts folder are listed but not selected.
• Every other row above, including both updater caches and the ShipIt-related Preferences file, is selected by default.
• Your diagrams, wherever you saved them, are never listed or touched.

What this test covered

draw.io was installed and removed through the Homebrew cask drawio on September 17, 2026, with a development build of Mole; Mole reported it as already covered by its existing rules, so nothing new was added for this app. Homebrew's zap step moved ~/Library/Application Support/draw.io to the Trash before Mole's own scan ran; the Preview Extension's container and Application Scripts folder were confirmed as review-only rows. The official disk-image install, and diagrams stored in a connected cloud account, were not part of this uninstall test.