How to uninstall WhatCable on Mac

WhatCable is a free, open-source menu bar app that shows what a USB-C cable and port can really do, from whatcable.uk and its GitHub project. Its bundle ID is uk.whatcable.whatcable, and it ships a desktop widget and a whatcable command line tool inside the app. It reads hardware state from your Mac and keeps little: per its README, the only things you build up in it are settings and, with the paid WhatCable Pro, a history of cables you saved and a stored licence. If you use Pro, deactivate the licence before you remove the app. This guide covers the zip from the project's GitHub release and the Homebrew cask whatcable.

Deactivate, quit and remove the app

1. If you activated WhatCable Pro, run whatcable --deactivate before removing the app, or use Licence… in the menu bar icon's right-click menu. The README says the command removes the stored licence. Saved Cables is part of Pro; take screenshots or notes of anything you want from it.
2. Remove the widget from your desktop or Notification Center if you added it.
3. Quit WhatCable from its menu bar icon.
4. Open Finder, go to Applications and drag WhatCable to the Trash.
5. If you put the command line tool on your path by hand, as in the README with ln -s /Applications/WhatCable.app/Contents/Helpers/whatcable /usr/local/bin/whatcable, remove that link. The Homebrew cask makes its own link and removes it again.

If you turned on Launch at login in Settings, check System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions after the app is gone. The app registered no login item or launch agent in the test, where that setting was off.

Where the data lives

Press Shift + Command + G in Finder to open each path. Skip any path that is not on your Mac.

Check the result

pgrep -il whatcable
command -v whatcable
ls -d "$HOME/Library/Application Support/WhatCable" "$HOME/Library/Containers/uk.whatcable.whatcable.widget" "$HOME/Library/Preferences/uk.whatcable.whatcable.plist" "$HOME/Library/Caches/uk.whatcable.whatcable"

• No output from pgrep means WhatCable is not running. A printed line is a process still alive; quit it.
• No output from command -v means no whatcable command is on your path. A printed path is a link or copy; ls -l on it shows whether it points into WhatCable.app, and a link to a missing app is safe to remove.
• A path printed by ls still exists. No such file or directory means that path is gone. The widget container is the one most likely to survive, see the test record below.

If the widget container survives, quit the app first. In Finder press Shift + Command + G, open ~/Library/Containers, and drag the folder to the Trash. macOS can refuse to move sandboxed data; if it does, give Mole Full Disk Access in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Full Disk Access and let it move the row, or remove the folder yourself later.

If you installed it with Homebrew

brew uninstall --cask whatcable

The cask quits the app, removes it and removes the whatcable link it created. Its zap list deletes the Application Scripts folders, ~/Library/Application Support/WhatCable, the caches, web storage and preferences for both uk.whatcable.whatcable and com.bitmoor.whatcable, the widget container and the group container. Running brew uninstall --cask --zap whatcable therefore deletes everything listed above, including ~/Library/Application Support/WhatCable, and does not read Mole's checkboxes. Every zap path is inside ~/Library, but Mole adds --zap only when its whole removal scope passes its zap gate; a path the scan never listed, an unchecked row or a path another installed app claims keeps it off, and Mole then removes the rows you selected itself. The project's README also names its own tap, darrylmorley/whatcable, which was not tested.

Account and subscription

The free app has no account. WhatCable Pro is a paid licence: removing the app does not cancel or refund it, and deactivating only removes the stored licence from this Mac. Questions about the licence itself go to the project, through whatcable.uk/pro.

What Mole lists

Mole selects the app, the cache, the web storage, the widget container and the temporary cache row. It lists ~/Library/Application Support/WhatCable for review and selects it by default. Before removing, Mole asks the app to quit. A container needs Full Disk Access to move; without it Mole's report names Full Disk Access and offers a retry.

What this test covered

On November 9, 2026, the test downloaded the WhatCable 1.5.0 zip archive (Universal) from the project's GitHub release, whose checksum matched the Homebrew cask, copied the app to Applications without running brew install, launched it once, quit it and removed it with a source-built Mole with every review row ticked. Mole moved the app and 4 rows to the Trash. The widget container stayed because the test build ran without Full Disk Access; macOS refused the move. Status showed one WhatCable row with 1 process. The package carries no Sparkle feed or Electron updater, so Mole showed no update channel and no update was run; the README says the app checks GitHub for new releases itself. WhatCable Pro, the widget, the command line tool, the Homebrew uninstall and Mole's notarized release build were not tested.