How to uninstall Handy on Mac

Back up Handy transcriptions, recordings and any custom models before removing the app. The official repository's data guide says Settings › About shows the App Data Directory path to copy and open in Finder, typically ~/Library/Application Support/com.pais.handy on Mac.

Save history and stop startup

The History guide lets you copy wanted transcription text and open the recordings folder from the top of History. Finish transcription, save wanted text and locate those recordings first. In Settings › Advanced › App, turn off Launch on Startup if enabled, as described in the Advanced guide, then quit Handy.

Copy the entire existing app-data folder and any separate recording location outside all sync and removal roots, and verify wanted files. Its models subfolder holds downloaded speech model files. The repository also identifies ~/.cache/huggingface/hub as a shared model cache: keep that shared folder and other tools' models. After backing up, move Handy.app from Applications to the Trash in Finder.

If you installed it with Homebrew

The Mac cask declares no separate service uninstall step, and removes its managed app without zap:

brew uninstall --cask handy

Zap additionally removes ~/Library/Application Support/com.pais.handy, ~/Library/Caches/com.pais.handy, ~/Library/WebKit/com.pais.handy and ~/Library/LaunchAgents/Handy.plist. The support folder can contain history and models, so copy it before removal. A startup plist is a separate item; disable startup in Handy before quitting rather than assuming the no-zap command unloads it.

Direct brew uninstall --cask --zap handy ignores Mole's checkboxes. Mole uses zap only when the full scope passes selection, ownership and safety checks; selected remnants otherwise use Mole's own Trash flow. The shared Hugging Face cache is not in this cask's zap list.

Check the result

pgrep -ifl handy
ls -ld "$HOME/Library/Application Support/com.pais.handy" "$HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/Handy.plist"

No process match means no arguments matched this pattern. A printed folder or plist remains; that is expected for retained history, and a surviving plist needs ownership/startup review. Missing-path errors apply only to those exact entries; other errors are inconclusive and these checks do not validate transcription recovery.

What Mole lists

The exact app-ID support folder and WebKit rows are selected by default, including data inside that support folder, so back up and uncheck it to keep history or models. The cask-only startup item needs review, starting unchecked with Remove data and settings with apps off; enabling it can preselect eligible unshared app data. Shared model caches remain separate and should be kept.

What this test covered

On September 22, 2026, the official-download Handy 0.9.7 app was copied into Applications, launched and removed with its support folder and WebKit data. No app job remained in the recorded follow-up. Populated-history restoration, downloaded-model recovery and Homebrew were not tested.