How to uninstall Transmission on Mac

Your downloads are not part of Transmission. They sit in the folder you chose in its settings, ~/Downloads unless you changed it, and removing the app never touches them. What Transmission keeps for itself is a copy of each .torrent file and the resume data that records which pieces you already have. Keep that folder if you want to seed or finish those torrents later. These steps cover the official download from transmissionbt.com and the Homebrew cask transmission, which install the same app.

Stop transfers and quit Transmission

Let active downloads finish or pause them, then quit Transmission from its app menu. You do not need to remove transfers from the list before uninstalling, and avoid the remove option that also trashes the downloaded data unless deleting the files is what you want. Move Transmission from Applications to the Trash.

In the recorded test a Transmission entry stayed in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions after the app was removed. It points at an app that no longer exists and starts nothing; turn it off there if it bothers you.

Where Transmission keeps its data

Transmission's configuration documentation names the first two locations for the Mac app.

Location What it holds What to do
~/Library/Application Support/Transmission torrents (copies of your .torrent files) and resume (progress for each torrent) Keep it to resume or seed later; remove it only when you are done with those torrents
~/Library/Preferences/org.m0k.transmission.plist App settings, including your download folder and speed limits Remove for a clean start
~/Library/Caches/org.m0k.transmission Cache Safe to remove
~/Library/HTTPStorages/org.m0k.transmission, ~/Library/Cookies/org.m0k.transmission.binarycookies Stored web request data and cookies Safe to remove
~/Library/Saved Application State/org.m0k.transmission.savedState Saved window state Safe to remove
~/Library/Containers/org.m0k.transmission.*, ~/Library/Application Scripts/org.m0k.transmission.* The Quick Look extension that previews .torrent files in Finder Safe to remove once the app is gone

The download folder is deliberately missing from this table. Never delete it as part of an uninstall.

Check the result

Run these read-only commands in Terminal:

pgrep -il transmission
ls -d ~/Library/Application\ Support/Transmission
ls ~/Library/Containers | grep -i m0k.transmission
ls -d ~/Library/Preferences/org.m0k.transmission.plist
  • No output from pgrep means Transmission has quit.
  • The first ls -d printing the path means your torrent files and resume data are still there, which is expected if you kept them; "No such file or directory" means that folder is gone.
  • No output from the Containers line means no Quick Look extension container remains; a listed name is a few kilobytes you can move to the Trash in Finder.
  • The last line tells you whether the settings file survived.

Your download folder is not checked here because nothing in this guide removes it.

If you installed it with Homebrew

The transmission cask's zap list includes ~/Library/Application Support/Transmission (your .torrent copies and resume data), the preferences plist, caches, cookies, saved window state and a help-viewer cache. brew uninstall --cask --zap transmission moves all of them to the Trash whatever you selected in Mole. It does not list your download folder. To keep your torrents, remove only the app:

brew uninstall --cask transmission

Mole adds --zap only when everything in the zap list sits in your own ~/Library, is a row you left selected, and is not claimed by another installed app. Application Support/Transmission is listed but not selected, so unless you tick it Mole removes the app without --zap and moves only the rows you selected.

What Mole lists

When you remove it with Mole:

  • The preferences plist, cache, HTTP storage, cookies and saved window state, all named after org.m0k.transmission, are selected by default.
  • ~/Library/Application Support/Transmission is listed but not selected, because it is named after the app rather than its bundle identifier and holds your torrent data.
  • The Quick Look extension's container and Application Scripts folder are selected by default, since the extension ships inside the app.
  • The uninstall scan excludes ~/Downloads and does not search custom folders for downloaded files.
  • Mole does not remove entries from the Login Items & Extensions list.

What this test covered

Transmission was installed from the Homebrew cask transmission and uninstalled on September 17, 2026, with a Mole Preview build that still ran Homebrew's zap step and skipped the review list. The zap step removed the preferences; Mole removed the HTTP storage. The Quick Look extension's container and Application Scripts folder (4 KB) stayed, since they are review rows and the review list was not shown in that run, and a Login Items entry pointing at the removed app remained. No torrent activity is recorded, so the test does not show torrent files or resume data being kept, and the official download was not part of it.