How to uninstall Syncthing on Mac

Syncthing keeps your device's sync identity, the certificate and private key that your other Syncthing devices trust, in ~/Library/Application Support/Syncthing next to config.xml and the index database. Copy that folder somewhere safe before you remove anything if you might reconnect this Mac with the same device ID later; without it, your other devices see a reinstalled Syncthing as a new device and every folder share has to be accepted again. This covers the official build from syncthing-macos's GitHub Releases and the Homebrew cask syncthing-app.

Back up the device identity first

  1. Open Syncthing from its menu bar icon and let any in-progress sync finish.
  2. In Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder, enter ~/Library/Application Support/Syncthing, and copy the whole folder to a backup location. cert.pem and key.pem are the device identity, config.xml holds your folders and paired devices.

Quit Syncthing and remove the app

  1. Quit Syncthing from its menu bar menu. It runs as a menu bar utility with no Dock icon.
  2. If you also installed the syncthing command-line service through Homebrew (brew services start syncthing), that is a separate installation with its own background job, homebrew.mxcl.syncthing. Removing the menu bar app does not stop or remove that service, and Mole does not treat that job as this app's login item. Syncthing's documentation gives the same default folder for every Syncthing on macOS, so if that service runs with default settings, the folder above is its identity too.
  3. Find Syncthing in Finder's Applications folder and move it to the Trash.

Where the data lives

Location What it holds What to do
~/Library/Application Support/Syncthing config.xml, the device certificate and private key (cert.pem, key.pem), the GUI's HTTPS certificate and the index database Listed but not selected by default. Back it up before ticking it.
~/Library/Application Support/Syncthing-macOS Named in Homebrew's zap list for this app; it was not seen in this test Only remove it if you know what it holds.
~/Library/Caches/com.github.xor-gate.syncthing-macosx App cache Safe to remove.
~/Library/Preferences/com.github.xor-gate.syncthing-macosx.plist Menu bar app preferences Safe to remove if you are not reinstalling.

The folders you sync are ordinary folders you picked yourself; nothing here touches them.

If you installed it with Homebrew

Mole checks the zap list first: unchecked or shared data, or anything it cannot fully verify, keeps --zap out, and it still removes whatever you selected.

The syncthing-app cask's zap list reaches ~/Library/Application Support/Syncthing-macOS, ~/Library/Caches/com.github.xor-gate.syncthing-macosx, ~/Library/Cookies/com.github.xor-gate.syncthing-macosx.binarycookies and ~/Library/Preferences/com.github.xor-gate.syncthing-macosx.plist. It does not name ~/Library/Application Support/Syncthing, so neither Mole nor a user-run brew uninstall --cask --zap syncthing-app removes the device identity through Homebrew; that folder goes only if you tick it in Mole or delete it yourself. A user-run --zap still removes every path in the list without looking at Mole's checkboxes.

To remove only the app:

brew uninstall --cask syncthing-app

Check the result

pgrep -il syncthing
launchctl list | grep -i syncthing
ls ~/Library/Application\ Support/Syncthing
  • No output from pgrep means no Syncthing process is running. A line means the menu bar app or a separate command-line Syncthing is still open.
  • A homebrew.mxcl.syncthing line belongs to the separate Homebrew service, not to this app. No output means no Syncthing job is loaded.
  • ls listing cert.pem, key.pem and config.xml means the device identity is still on disk, expected if you kept that row unticked. "No such file or directory" means the folder is gone.

What Mole lists

  • ~/Library/Application Support/Syncthing is listed but not selected, because it holds the device certificate, key and configuration.
  • Rows named after the bundle ID com.github.xor-gate.syncthing-macosx, such as its cache and preferences file, are selected by default.
  • Mole can also list ~/Library/Application Support/Syncthing-macOS and ~/Library/Cookies/com.github.xor-gate.syncthing-macosx.binarycookies, taken from Homebrew's zap list for this app, but does not select them.
  • The Homebrew syncthing service's homebrew.mxcl.syncthing job is never treated as this app's launch item.

What this test covered

On September 19, 2026, Syncthing 2.1.5-1 from the official GitHub Releases download was copied into Applications, opened once, and uninstalled with Mole Preview build 277 with Full Disk Access granted, in a batch of ten apps. ~/Library/Application Support/Syncthing, holding config.xml and the certificate and key, was listed as an unticked review row and stayed on disk. The app ran from the menu bar and used too little memory to get its own row on Mole's Status page. No folders were shared, no remote devices were paired, and neither the Homebrew cask nor the command-line service was tested.