How to Uninstall BBEdit on Mac

Back up your documents and any custom BBEdit scripts, text filters, or support files before removing the editor. This guide covers the direct Mac download used in the recorded test; the App Store and Homebrew builds need their own installation-channel checks. BBEdit can use a support folder in iCloud Drive or Dropbox, so do not assume everything you made is inside the app bundle. Bare Bones explains the support-folder options.

Remove the app and review its files

  1. Save your open documents, then quit BBEdit. Keep your project and document folders wherever you saved them.
  2. If you installed command-line tools separately, locate bbedit, bbdiff, bbfind and bbresults with the read-only checks below before removing the app. Inspect each resolved path in Finder’s Get Info or with ls -l on that exact path; remove only a link confirmed to point inside this BBEdit installation, keeping other versions. Check any corresponding .1 manual-page links you installed in that same way. Homebrew-managed links are removed by ordinary cask uninstall. Then move BBEdit.app from Applications to the Trash.
  3. In Finder, use Go › Go to Folder to inspect ~/Library/Application Support/BBEdit and ~/Library/BBEdit. These can contain scripts, language modules, and other preferences worth keeping. Copy wanted items to a backup and open the copy before removing the originals.
  4. Inspect ~/Library/Preferences/com.barebones.bbedit.plist only if you want to reset BBEdit's settings. A missing path needs no action. Leave iCloud Drive and Dropbox folders alone unless you have checked the contents and sync state separately.

The BBEdit sandboxing notes apply to BBEdit 12.6 and later, including the direct download. In Finder also inspect ~/Library/Containers/com.barebones.bbedit and ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.barebones.bbedit, plus ~/Library/Caches/com.barebones.bbedit; back up wanted local settings and move only existing unwanted BBEdit leaves to the Trash after quitting. Do not remove a parent folder or another app’s data, and stop on a permission error.

Check what remains

These commands only inspect the current Mac:

pgrep -il BBEdit
ls -ld ~/Library/'Application Support'/BBEdit ~/Library/BBEdit
command -v bbedit
command -v bbdiff
command -v bbfind
command -v bbresults

No pgrep output means no matching process is running; a match means quit it before touching its files. ls prints paths that exist, reports “No such file or directory” for absent ones, and can report a permission error that needs investigation rather than a deletion. command -v shows only a command reachable through this shell's PATH; no output does not prove every link is gone. If it resolves, inspect its target and remove only a link you know belongs to this installation.

If you installed it with Homebrew

Ordinary Homebrew cask uninstall removes its four tool links from the bin directory under the actual Homebrew prefix and their manual-page links from share/man/man1. The BBEdit cask has a zap list covering Application Support/BBEdit, ~/Library/BBEdit, caches, and the BBEdit preferences file. To retain custom support files, use:

brew uninstall --cask bbedit

Running brew uninstall --cask --zap bbedit yourself processes the cask's whole zap list regardless of Mole's checkboxes. Mole omits --zap if a zap target is unchecked, shared, outside its reviewed boundary, or cannot be verified, and still handles selected remnants through its own removal flow. Neither uninstall command deletes your separately saved documents or cancels any purchase.

What Mole lists

Mole selects exact bundle-ID support, cache, and preferences rows by default. With Remove data and settings with apps off, Application Support/BBEdit is listed for review but not selected. With it on, an eligible unshared review row can be preselected; back up wanted scripts and uncheck it to keep them. A sandbox Container may also be listed, but system permission or ownership checks can keep it in place. Mole does not treat an iCloud or Dropbox support folder as disposable app residue.

What this test covered

On September 20, 2026, BBEdit 16.0.3 from the official package was installed and removed with every review item selected. The recorded Application Support/BBEdit folder, about 70 KB, was removed. A roughly 320 KB Container remained after a macOS Trash permission error. The test did not establish the contents of a user's documents or cloud support folder and was not a Homebrew or App Store uninstall.