How to uninstall QGIS on Mac

QGIS keeps each user profile, with your settings, installed plugins, saved styles, processing models and the authentication database that stores connection credentials, under ~/Library/Application Support/QGIS. Your projects and GIS data are separate files you saved yourself and are not touched by removing the app. Back up the profile folder before you delete anything if you want your plugins and credentials back. This guide covers the disk image from qgis.org and the Homebrew cask qgis.

Back up your profile first

The QGIS user manual describes a user profile as holding global settings, shortcuts, plugins and their settings, project templates, processing scripts and models, custom styles and color palettes, and the authentication database qgis-auth.db. In QGIS, choose Settings › User Profiles › Open Active Profile Folder to open the profile you use, then copy it outside the QGIS folder. The manual gives the macOS location as ~/Library/Application Support/QGIS/QGIS3/profiles/ for QGIS 3; newer major versions may use a different subfolder, which is why the menu is the reliable way to find yours.

qgis-auth.db holds credentials you saved for databases and web services, protected by your QGIS master password. A copy is only useful together with that password.

Projects (.qgz and .qgs files), GeoPackages, shapefiles and rasters live wherever you saved them. Keep them; they are not part of the app.

Quit QGIS and remove the app

  1. Save your projects and quit QGIS from the QGIS menu.
  2. Search Activity Monitor for QGIS and check that it has exited.
  3. Find QGIS in Finder's Applications folder and move it to the Trash. The official disk image names the app after its release, for example QGIS-final-4_2_2.app, so look for any app whose name starts with QGIS, and remove only the versions you no longer want.

The recorded tests found no login item, background item or launch agent from QGIS. The GDAL tools and the Python that come with QGIS live inside the app bundle and go with it.

Where QGIS keeps its data

Open each path with Shift + Command + G in Finder and skip the ones that do not exist.

Location What it holds What to do
~/Library/Application Support/QGIS User profiles: settings, plugins, styles, templates, processing models and qgis-auth.db Back up first; keep it for a reinstall
~/Library/Caches/QGIS Cache, about 1 MB after one launch in the test Safe to remove after quitting
~/Library/Saved Application State entries starting with org.qgis.qgis Saved window state, listed in the cask's zap stanza Safe to remove

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the app is in the Trash:

pgrep -il qgis
ls /Applications | grep -i qgis
ls "$HOME/Library/Application Support/QGIS"
  • No output from pgrep means QGIS is no longer running. A listed process means it is still open; quit it before copying the profile.
  • No output from the second command means no app with QGIS in its name is left in Applications. A listed name is another copy, often an older release, that you can keep or remove on its own.
  • The last ls listing a folder such as QGIS3 means your profiles are still there, which is what you want if you kept them. "No such file or directory" means the folder is gone.

If you installed it with Homebrew

The qgis cask's zap list includes ~/Library/Application Support/QGIS with every profile, ~/Library/Caches/QGIS and the saved window state. Running brew uninstall --cask --zap qgis yourself moves all of them to the Trash, plugins and saved credentials included, whatever you selected in Mole. To keep your profiles, remove only the app:

brew uninstall --cask qgis

Mole adds --zap only when every path on the zap list sits inside ~/Library, none of them touches a row you left unchecked, and no other installed app claims them. ~/Library/Application Support/QGIS is listed but unselected by default, so Mole leaves --zap out unless you tick that row yourself.

What Mole lists

For QGIS from qgis.org:

  • Mole recognises the release-named app as QGIS and lists its folders under that name.
  • ~/Library/Application Support/QGIS is listed but not selected, so your profiles stay unless you tick it.
  • ~/Library/Caches/QGIS and the temporary cache filed under the bundle ID are selected by default.
  • Your projects and data files are not listed.

What this test covered

On September 21, 2026, QGIS was copied from the official disk image into Applications under the name QGIS.app, opened without creating a project, and uninstalled with a Preview build of Mole 1.15 with everything ticked; there was no Homebrew receipt. Its Application Support folder, about 1 MB, and its cache went to the Trash. On September 26, 2026, it was installed again from the same official disk image, this time under its original name QGIS-final-4_2_2.app, opened once, and removed with a development build of Mole with every row ticked. Mole's Status view showed it as one row named QGIS, 3 processes, about 445 MB. All 4 items went to the Trash and nothing from the list, no process and no startup item was left. Plugins, saved credentials, projects and the Homebrew cask were not tested.