How to uninstall Kodi on Mac
Back up anything you want to keep from Kodi's media library, sources, and addon settings before removing it; they sit in a folder Mole leaves for you to review, not one it deletes automatically. This covers the official Kodi download from kodi.tv and the Homebrew cask kodi, which install the same signed app.
Quit Kodi and remove the app
- Quit Kodi from its application menu or Cmd+Q. No menu bar helper or login item was found registered for Kodi in testing, so there is nothing else to stop first.
- Find Kodi in Finder's Applications folder and move it to Trash. If macOS says it is in use, quit any remaining Kodi process before deleting its data.
Where the data lives
| Location | What it holds | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| ~/Library/Application Support/Kodi | Your library database, addon settings, and skins | Listed but not selected by default. Review its contents and back up anything you want before removing it. |
| ~/.kodi | A Kodi folder in your home folder; it was empty in this test | Mole can also list ~/.kodi, taken from Homebrew's zap list for this app, but does not select it. |
| ~/Library/Preferences/org.xbmc.kodi.plist | App preferences | Selected by default. |
| ~/Library/Logs/kodi.log | Kodi's log file | Selected by default. |
| Kodi's per-session temporary cache | A cache macOS creates automatically each run, under the folder getconf DARWIN_USER_TEMP_DIR prints, inside a C/org.xbmc.kodi subfolder |
Selected by default. Safe to remove; macOS recreates it as needed. |
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 kodi cask's zap list includes ~/.kodi, ~/Library/Application Support/Kodi, ~/Library/Logs/kodi.log, ~/Library/Logs/kodi.old.log, ~/Library/Preferences/org.xbmc.kodi.plist, and ~/Library/Saved Application State/org.xbmc.kodi.savedState. Because ~/.kodi and the Application Support folder are listed but not ticked by default, Mole leaves --zap out and removes only what you selected through its own deletion step.
To keep your media library and addon settings, back them up first, or remove only the app:
brew uninstall --cask kodi
Running brew uninstall --cask --zap kodi yourself moves every path above to the Trash, whatever you ticked in Mole.
Check the result
pgrep -il kodi
ls -d ~/.kodi
ls -d ~/Library/Application\ Support/Kodi
ls -d ~/Library/Preferences/org.xbmc.kodi.plist
- No output from
pgrepmeans no Kodi process is running. ls -d ~/.kodiprinting the path means this folder is still there, expected if you left it unticked; "No such file or directory" means it is gone.ls -d ~/Library/Application\ Support/Kodiprinting the path means your library database and addon settings are still on disk, expected if you kept them for reuse.ls -don the preferences file returning "No such file or directory" confirms it was removed; a permission error is a different result worth investigating on its own.
What Mole lists
For a Kodi app installed from the official download or the Homebrew cask:
~/Library/Preferences/org.xbmc.kodi.plist,~/Library/Logs/kodi.log, and the per-session temporary cache are selected by default.~/Library/Application Support/Kodiis listed but not selected.- Mole can also list
~/.kodi, taken from Homebrew's zap list for this app, but does not select it.
What this test covered
On September 25, 2026, Kodi 21.3 was downloaded from kodi.tv's official mirror, the same address the Homebrew cask declares, copied into /Applications without running brew, opened once, and uninstalled with a development build of Mole on a Mac that had Homebrew's cask list cached. Mole listed five rows: the preferences file, kodi.log and the temporary cache as selected rows, and the 8 MB Application Support folder and an empty ~/.kodi as unselected rows. Every row was ticked for the test, all five went to the Trash with the app, and a check of everything Kodi wrote on its first run found nothing left. The test did not cover keeping the Application Support folder unmarked, which is its normal default state, nor addon installation, media playback, or remote-control pairing.