How to uninstall UPDF on Mac
UPDF is a PDF editor and reader from Superace, at updf.com. Your PDFs are not inside the app; they stay wherever you saved them, so removing UPDF does not touch them. What the app keeps in your home folder is small: preferences, caches and a tiny Application Support folder. Its license and any UPDF cloud files belong to your UPDF account, not to this Mac, and uninstalling does not cancel a subscription or delete the account. UPDF's FAQ describes a limit on how many devices one license can be used on; if you plan to use it on another Mac, read that page or ask UPDF support before you remove the app. This guide covers the disk image from updf.com and the Homebrew cask updf.
Quit and remove the app
- Save and close any PDF you were editing, and export anything you still need from UPDF's cloud to a folder of your own.
- Quit UPDF with Command + Q. In the test it ran as a single process and registered no login item or launch agent.
- Open Finder, go to Applications and drag
UPDF.appto the Trash, as described in Apple's Delete or uninstall apps on Mac. UPDF's own uninstall article is a general Mac guide and names no UPDF-specific files.
Where the data lives
Press Shift + Command + G in Finder to open each path. Skip any path that is not on your Mac.
| Location | What it holds | What to do |
|---|---|---|
~/Library/Preferences/com.superace.updf.mac.plist |
Preferences | Remove. Selected by default. |
~/Library/Preferences/com.superace.updf.mac.file.plist |
A 42-byte empty file the app writes when it quits | Remove if present, after the app has quit. Mole does not list it. |
~/Library/Application Support/com.superace.updf.mac |
App state, 8 KB in the test | Remove. Selected by default. |
~/Library/Caches/com.superace.updf.mac, ~/Library/Caches/UPDF and ~/Library/Caches/com.crashlytics.data/com.superace.updf.mac |
Caches and crash-report queue | Remove these three only; com.crashlytics.data is shared with other apps. Selected by default. |
~/Library/HTTPStorages/com.superace.updf.mac |
Network storage | Remove. Selected by default. |
The folder that getconf DARWIN_USER_CACHE_DIR prints, then com.superace.updf.mac |
Mole's temporary cache row, empty in the test | Remove. Selected by default. |
Your PDFs, and any copies you exported, are outside all of these folders and are never touched.
Check the result
pgrep -il updf
ls -d /Applications/UPDF.app ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.superace.updf.mac ~/Library/Caches/com.superace.updf.mac ~/Library/Preferences/com.superace.updf.mac*.plist
- No output from
pgrepmeans UPDF is not running. A printed line is a process still alive; quit it and run the command again. - For
ls -d, "No such file or directory" means that path is gone. A printed path is still on disk;com.superace.updf.mac.file.plistsurviving is expected and harmless.
If you installed it with Homebrew
brew uninstall --cask updf
The cask has no uninstall stanza, so this removes the app only. The cask currently installs UPDF 3.0.0, a newer version than the one tested. brew uninstall --cask --zap updf also trashes the paths in its zap list: the Application Support, cache, HTTPStorages and WebKit folders and the preferences files above, plus com.superace.updf.installer entries and Saved Application State/com.superace.updf.mac.savedState. Every one of them is app state in ~/Library, and no PDF is among them. A direct brew command runs the whole zap list and does not read Mole's checkboxes. Mole adds --zap only when its whole removal scope passes its zap gate: unchecked or shared paths, paths outside the reviewed boundary, unknown stanzas and unsupported directives suppress it, and Mole then removes the rows you selected itself. The Homebrew install was not tested.
What Mole lists
Mole selects the app, the preferences file, ~/Library/Application Support/com.superace.updf.mac, the three cache folders, ~/Library/HTTPStorages/com.superace.updf.mac and its temporary cache row. It does not list com.superace.updf.mac.file.plist. Before removing, Mole asks UPDF to quit.
What this test covered
On November 9, 2026, the test downloaded UPDF 1.8.11 for Apple silicon as a disk image from updf.com, copied the app to Applications without running brew install, launched it once and quit it. The Homebrew cask is not pinned to a checksum, so the download's SHA-256 was recorded but could not be matched to one. A source-built Mole with the review rows ticked moved the app and 7 rows to the Trash and removed the preference domain; no row failed. The preferences file came back after the uninstall and Mole moved it again. A 42-byte com.superace.updf.mac.file.plist was written when the app quit and remained afterwards. Status showed one UPDF row with 1 process. Mole found a Sparkle updater in the app but no update feed, and no update was run. No account was signed in, no license was activated, and no PDF editing, cloud, Homebrew-managed uninstall or Mole notarized release build was tested.