Uninstall Sublime Text on Mac

Back up Packages/User before removing Sublime Text: it is where your own settings, key bindings, snippets, and installed packages live, and updates never touch it, but uninstalling the app does. If you bought a license, its key file lives in the same folder and is worth saving too. These steps cover the official download and the Homebrew cask sublime-text, which install the same app.

Quit Sublime Text and remove the app

Save open files, quit Sublime Text from its app menu, then move Sublime Text from Applications to the Trash. Sublime Text runs no login item or background helper, so nothing needs to be stopped first.

Where Sublime Text keeps its files

Location	What it holds	What to do
`~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text/Packages/User`	Your settings, key bindings, snippets, macros, and installed package configuration; never overwritten by updates	Back up before removing the app
`~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text/Local/License.sublime_license`	Your purchased license key, if you registered one	Back up if you plan to reinstall later
`~/Library/Preferences/com.sublimetext.4.plist`	App preferences	Safe to remove
`~/Library/Caches/com.sublimetext.4`	Regenerable cache	Safe to remove
`~/Library/Saved Application State/com.sublimetext.4.savedState`	Saved window state	Safe to remove
`~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 3`, `~/Library/Caches/com.sublimetext.3`	Data from an older Sublime Text 3 install, if this Mac ever had one	Review before removing; back up `Packages/User` inside it the same way

Sublime Text keeps its "Sublime Text 3" folder and bundle ID (com.sublimetext.3) separate from Sublime Text 4's com.sublimetext.4, so a Mac that ran both has both sets of folders side by side.

The `subl` command line tool

If you added the subl command to your shell (Sublime Text's own instructions have you symlink it yourself with ln -s "/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl" /usr/local/bin/subl), removing the app leaves that symlink pointing at nothing. Delete it yourself: rm /usr/local/bin/subl (or wherever you linked it). The Homebrew cask creates and removes this symlink automatically, so Homebrew users do not need this step. Command line docs

Check the result

Run these read-only commands in Terminal:

pgrep -il sublime
ls -d ~/Library/Application\ Support/Sublime\ Text
ls -l /usr/local/bin/subl

No output from pgrep means Sublime Text has quit. The first ls shows whether your settings and license folder is still on disk. The second ls shows whether a subl symlink remains; No such file or directory means it is already gone, and a broken symlink (pointing at a path that no longer exists) is safe to delete manually.

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.

The sublime-text cask quits Sublime Text for you during removal. In Preview 290, Mole removes a Homebrew-installed Sublime Text with brew uninstall --cask --zap sublime-text, and the zap list covers Application Support, Caches, HTTPStorages, preferences, and saved window state for both com.sublimetext.4 and the older com.sublimetext.3, plus a Sublime Text (Safe Mode) variant, removed whatever you select in Mole, including your Packages/User settings and license file. Back those up first, or skip zap to keep everything but the app:

brew uninstall --cask sublime-text

Homebrew Sublime Text cask

What Mole lists

This describes Mole 1.15 (currently in Preview):

~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text (which holds Packages/User and your license file) is 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, so back it up or tick it yourself if you want it removed. ~/Library/Preferences/com.sublimetext.4.plist, ~/Library/Caches/com.sublimetext.4, and saved window state are separate rows and are selected by default.
A subl symlink you created yourself is not part of any app bundle Mole scans; remove it as described above.

What this test covered

Sublime Text was installed from Homebrew and removed with a development build of Mole on September 17, 2026, as part of an 8-app cluster. Sublime Text's own row showed its Application Support, Caches, and preferences paths all removed with no new leaf types found. This Mac had no Sublime Text 3 data and no manually created subl symlink, so neither was exercised in this run; the official direct download was not uninstalled in this test.