Uninstall Stats on Mac
Stats installs a privileged system helper for fan and SMC readings alongside the menu bar app itself, so a full removal needs an administrator password step that a plain drag-to-Trash does not trigger. Mole's recorded test uninstalled the Homebrew cask stats; the official direct download from Stats' GitHub releases installs the same app and the same helper, and the steps below apply to both, though only the Homebrew removal was directly exercised.
Quit Stats and remove it
Quit Stats from its menu bar icon, then move Stats.app from Applications to the Trash. Stats' own project ships a bundled uninstall script that removes the app, its privileged helper, and its data in one step, which is the most complete option if you plan to remove Stats for good:
sh /Applications/Stats.app/Contents/Resources/Scripts/uninstall.sh
If you already trashed Stats.app before running it, the same script is in the project's repository as Kit/scripts/uninstall.sh. Read it there, save it, and run the saved copy with sh; do not pipe a download straight into a shell.
The script asks for an administrator password, since the SMC helper below runs as root and needs that authorization to remove. Stats' project documentation covers this uninstall script along with the rest of the app.
Where Stats keeps its data
| Location | What it holds | What to do |
|---|---|---|
~/Library/Application Support/Stats |
App settings and state | Listed but not selected by default: Mole treats an app's exact-name Application Support folder as user data and leaves it for you to review |
~/Library/Caches/eu.exelban.Stats |
Regenerable cache | Selected by default |
~/Library/Containers/eu.exelban.Stats.Widgets and ~/Library/Group Containers/eu.exelban.Stats.widgets |
Desktop widget state, only used if you turned on macOS widgets in Stats' settings | Selected by default; empty if you never enabled widgets |
/Library/LaunchDaemons/eu.exelban.Stats.SMC.Helper.plist and /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/eu.exelban.Stats.SMC.Helper |
The privileged helper that reads fan speed and SMC sensors, installed with administrator authorization | Root-owned; only Stats' own uninstall script or an admin-authorized step in Mole can remove it, never a plain Trash move |
Check the result
Run these read-only commands in Terminal:
pgrep -il stats
launchctl list | grep -i exelban
ls -d ~/Library/Application\ Support/Stats
ls -d /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/eu.exelban.Stats.SMC.Helper
No output from pgrep means Stats has quit. No output from launchctl list means the SMC helper is not loaded; a eu.exelban.Stats.SMC.Helper line means it still is. ls on the Application Support path shows whether app data remains. ls on the PrivilegedHelperTools path shows whether the root-owned helper binary is still installed; "No such file or directory" means it, and the fan-reading capability it provides, are gone.
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.
In Preview 290, Mole removes a Homebrew-installed Stats like brew uninstall --cask --zap stats. The cask's own uninstall step unloads the SMC helper's LaunchDaemon and quits the app, but it does not delete the helper's files by itself: removing /Library/LaunchDaemons/eu.exelban.Stats.SMC.Helper.plist and /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/eu.exelban.Stats.SMC.Helper, with administrator rights, is part of the --zap step. The rest of the zap list covers Application Support, Caches, Cookies, HTTPStorages, preferences, the widget Containers and Group Containers, and the LaunchAtLogin and Widgets helpers' Application Scripts paths. In the recorded test, the widgets group, preferences and helper were all cleared, and the SMC helper's removal required Touch ID (or a password) authorization during the uninstall. Homebrew Stats cask
brew uninstall --cask stats
Without --zap, this still runs the cask's own uninstall step, so the SMC helper's LaunchDaemon is unloaded and the app quits, but the helper's plist and binary stay on disk under /Library, root-owned and no longer loaded; it also leaves Application Support, Caches and the widget containers behind. Run the uninstall script above, or --zap, if you want the helper files gone too.
What Mole lists
This describes Mole 1.15 (currently in Preview):
~/Library/Application Support/Statsis listed but not selected by default: Mole treats an app's exact-name Application Support folder as user data and leaves it for you to review yourself.~/Library/Caches/eu.exelban.Statsand the widget Containers and Group Containers rows are selected by default.- The SMC LaunchDaemon and privileged helper binary under
/Libraryrequire administrator authorization (Touch ID or a password) to remove, the same as any other root-owned helper; Mole asks for it as part of the uninstall. - The
LaunchAtLogin,SMCandHelperrows in Mole's Startup list are informational while Stats is installed and disappear from that list once Stats is uninstalled.
What this test covered
Stats was installed from the Homebrew cask stats and uninstalled through Mole on September 17, 2026, with the widgets Group Container, preferences, and the SMC helper all cleared, no leftover launchd job found afterward, and Touch ID authorization required to remove the SMC helper. The official direct download was not separately uninstalled in this test, and Stats' own bundled uninstall.sh script was not run directly in this test either; its command is included above from the project's own documentation.