Uninstall LocalSend on Mac

Files someone sent you through LocalSend land in an ordinary folder like any other download, so back up anything you received and still need before you remove the app; uninstalling LocalSend never touches those files. Mole tested both the Homebrew cask localsend and the Mac App Store build, which install to different locations but share the same sandbox container.

Save what you have received

By default LocalSend saves incoming files to your Downloads folder, though its own settings let you point received files at a different folder. Check that destination folder and copy out anything you still need before uninstalling; LocalSend's uninstall never deletes files it saved there; only your own cleanup does. LocalSend's project page covers its settings and source, since it is open source.

Quit LocalSend and remove the app

Quit LocalSend from its menu, then move LocalSend.app from Applications to the Trash (or, for the Mac App Store build, use the same Applications-folder removal, or delete it from Launchpad).

Where LocalSend keeps its data

LocalSend is sandboxed, so its settings and its Share-extension state live inside Containers named after its bundle id, org.localsend.localsendApp.

Neither location holds the files you received; those stay in the Downloads folder (or wherever you pointed them) after LocalSend is gone.

Check the result

Run these read-only commands in Terminal:

pgrep -il localsend
ls -d ~/Library/Containers/org.localsend.localsendApp

No output from pgrep means LocalSend has quit. ls printing the path means the container is still on this Mac; "No such file or directory" means it is gone. Neither command tells you anything about files you already received, which live outside this container.

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-installed LocalSend like brew uninstall --cask --zap localsend. The zap list runs regardless of which rows you check in Mole, and it covers the same container, Application Scripts path, preferences and saved state as above. In the recorded test, the container and scripts were cleared by the cask's zap step ahead of Mole's own review; the LocalSend login-item helper showed as a Startup row that Mole prunes once the app is uninstalled. Homebrew LocalSend cask

brew uninstall --cask localsend

What Mole lists

This describes Mole 1.15 (currently in Preview):

• ~/Library/Containers/org.localsend.localsendApp, its Application Scripts path, preferences and saved window state are all selected by default.
• The login-item helper (LaunchAtLoginHelper) shows in Mole's Startup list only while LocalSend is installed and is an informational row you confirm rather than toggle from Mole; it disappears from that list once LocalSend is uninstalled.
• LocalSend's Share-extension container is small (a few kilobytes) and holds no received files; it was left on disk in the recorded test alongside the App Group it belongs to, which Mole does not offer for deletion.

What this test covered

LocalSend was installed from the Homebrew cask localsend and uninstalled through Mole on September 17, 2026, with the container and Application Scripts path cleared by the cask's zap step and the login-item helper pruned from Startup after uninstall. It was separately installed from the Mac App Store and uninstalled again through Mole on a later date, with the same container, Application Scripts and saved-state paths trashed and the App Group and Share-extension container (a few kilobytes each) left on disk in both tests. Received files saved outside the default Downloads location were not tested.