How to uninstall Fantastical on Mac

Fantastical connects to your existing calendar and reminder accounts (iCloud, Google, Exchange, CalDAV), so your events themselves stay on those accounts rather than in one local file. What Fantastical keeps on your Mac is mostly settings and an offline cache, plus an App Group container that Cardhop, Flexibits' contacts app, also uses when it is installed. This guide covers the app downloaded from Flexibits and the Homebrew cask fantastical.

Quit Fantastical and remove it

  1. Quit Fantastical from its menu bar item or the Fantastical menu.
  2. Check Activity Monitor for any remaining Fantastical process, and confirm no calendar sync is still in progress.
  3. Move Fantastical from Finder's Applications folder to the Trash.
  4. Open System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions and turn off any Fantastical entry still listed there.

Removing the app does not remove or change your calendar and reminder accounts on the server side; it only stops this Mac from displaying them through Fantastical.

Where Fantastical keeps local data

Location What it holds What to do
~/Library/Containers/com.flexibits.fantastical2.mac The app's sandboxed settings and local calendar cache Remove with the app once you have quit it
~/Library/Group Containers/85C27NK92C.com.flexibits.fantastical2.mac App Group container for Fantastical and its extensions, also used by Cardhop Remove it only once Cardhop is gone too, with both apps quit
~/Library/Application Scripts/com.flexibits.fantastical2.mac* and ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.flexibits.fbcaldav.* Sandbox scripts used for calendar and CalDAV access Remove with the app
~/Library/Preferences/com.flexibits.fantastical.plist App preferences Remove with the app

Flexibits' own reset instructions list the Containers and Group Containers folders above for troubleshooting resets, and note that you should restart your Mac afterward so Fantastical does not try to keep writing to a folder you just removed. Cardhop, Flexibits' contacts app, keeps its own separate Group Container (85C27NK92C.com.flexibits.cardhop.mac); removing Fantastical does not touch it.

Check the result

Run these read-only commands in Terminal:

pgrep -il fantastical
launchctl list | grep -i flexibits
ls -d "$HOME/Library/Containers/com.flexibits.fantastical2.mac"
ls -d "$HOME/Library/Group Containers/85C27NK92C.com.flexibits.fantastical2.mac"
  • No output from pgrep means Fantastical is not running.
  • No output from launchctl list means no Fantastical login item is loaded in your session; a matching line means one is still registered.
  • "No such file or directory" from either ls means that folder is gone, and a printed path means it is still there. The Group Container staying is expected when Cardhop is still installed or when you left its row unticked in Mole; your events stay on your calendar accounts either way.

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 fantastical cask's zap list includes ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.flexibits.fantastical*, ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.flexibits.fbcaldav.*, ~/Library/Containers/com.flexibits.fantastical*, ~/Library/Containers/com.flexibits.fbcaldav.*, ~/Library/Group Containers/*.com.flexibits.fantastical*.mac and ~/Library/Preferences/com.flexibits.fantastical.plist. The Group Container on that list is an unticked row in Mole, and Cardhop also uses it, so Mole leaves --zap out while that row is unticked or Cardhop is installed. Running brew uninstall --cask --zap fantastical yourself moves all of them to the Trash, whatever you selected in Mole, including the Group Container Cardhop uses. None of these are documented as holding anything beyond settings and cache, but if you keep custom event templates or snippets you have not synced anywhere else, copy them out first.

To skip the zap step:

brew uninstall --cask fantastical

What Mole lists

For a Fantastical app downloaded directly from Flexibits:

  • ~/Library/Containers/com.flexibits.fantastical2.mac is named after Fantastical's bundle id, so it is selected by default.
  • The small containers of Fantastical's own extensions, such as its widget, are selected by default when their ids continue Fantastical's bundle id.
  • ~/Library/Group Containers/85C27NK92C.com.flexibits.fantastical2.mac is listed but not selected. If you tick it, Mole moves it to the Trash only when no other installed app claims the group; with Cardhop installed, Mole keeps it and the row reads "Kept: couldn't confirm no other app uses this group".
  • Cardhop's own Group Container, 85C27NK92C.com.flexibits.cardhop.mac, is not listed when you remove Fantastical.

What this test covered

Fantastical 4.2, downloaded from Flexibits' official 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. The reviewer expanded the review list and selected every row before removing. Fantastical was not signed into any calendar or reminder account during the test, so cloud sync was not part of what was verified. Fantastical's Container (about 272 KB) and its small widget container were selected but stayed on disk because macOS refused to move them to the Trash, the same result the batch's other sandboxed apps hit. The Group Container (about 960 KB) was selected and kept by Mole's App Group check. A background item for Fantastical appeared in System Settings after install, unchecked, and was no longer listed after the uninstall. Fantastical