Uninstall BetterDisplay on Mac

Back up your display setup before removing BetterDisplay: virtual screens, HiDPI overrides, and your Pro license activation state all live in one folder whose checkbox you should review before uninstalling. These steps cover the official download from betterdisplay.pro (also on GitHub) and the Homebrew cask betterdisplay, which install the same app.

Quit BetterDisplay and remove the app

Quit BetterDisplay from its menu bar icon, then move BetterDisplay from Applications to the Trash. Any virtual screens it created disappear as soon as it quits; reconnect real displays and confirm your layout before removing anything else. If you turned on "Launch at login," check System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions afterward. In testing, Mole could not toggle this entry directly and routed it to System Settings instead, so confirm it there rather than assuming Mole cleared it.

Where BetterDisplay keeps its data

If a much older ~/Library/Application Support/BetterDummy folder exists on your Mac, it is data from BetterDummy, BetterDisplay's discontinued predecessor; Mole does not recognize it as belonging to BetterDisplay, since it uses a different display name, so it is not offered for review or removal through the app's own uninstall flow.

Optional permissions

BetterDisplay does not require Accessibility or Screen Recording to run; it asks for them only when you use specific features. BetterDisplay's own discussion of what each permission unlocks explains that Accessibility enables keyboard media-key control for brightness and volume, and Screen Recording is needed for virtual-display mirroring, Picture-in-Picture, and local streaming. If you granted either, remove them under System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility and › Screen Recording with the − button after you delete the app.

Check the result

Run these read-only commands in Terminal:

pgrep -il betterdisplay
ls -d ~/Library/Application\ Support/BetterDisplay

No output from pgrep means BetterDisplay has quit. The ls -d command shows only whether this data folder exists; a printed path does not prove that virtual-screen settings or license data remain inside. Inspect its contents and check any wanted backup before deleting it. "No such file or directory" means this exact folder is absent, not that every license or activation record has been removed; read errors leave its state unknown.

If you installed it with Homebrew

Ordinary Homebrew removal also removes the betterdisplaycli command wrapper and its BetterDisplay login item, without needing zap.

Mole skips --zap when its list reaches unchecked or shared data, or cannot be fully checked, and still cleans the leftovers you selected.

The betterdisplay cask's zap list includes ~/Library/Application Support/BetterDisplay (your virtual screens, display arrangements, and Pro license state), plus the older ~/Library/Application Support/BetterDummy folder if it exists, both caches, HTTPStorages, and the preferences file. brew uninstall --cask --zap betterdisplay moves all of that to the Trash whatever you have selected in Mole, unlike a direct removal where Mole leaves the Application Support folder for you to review. Back up your license and display configuration first, or skip zap:

brew uninstall --cask betterdisplay

Account and subscription

BetterDisplay Pro is a one-time purchase through Paddle, not a subscription; a license key activates it under the app's Settings › Pro. Uninstalling does not deactivate or refund your license. Save your license key somewhere outside ~/Library/Application Support/BetterDisplay before removing that folder, since it is the only place the app stores your activation locally.

What Mole lists

When you remove it with Mole:

• ~/Library/Application Support/BetterDisplay is listed for review; its default selection depends on the app-data option described below.
• ~/Library/Caches/pro.betterdisplay.BetterDisplay, ~/Library/Caches/SentryCrash/BetterDisplay, and ~/Library/Preferences/pro.betterdisplay.BetterDisplay.plist are selected by default.
• For a Homebrew install, Mole uses zap only when its complete scope can be checked and no unchecked, shared or outside-boundary path blocks it. The support folder is unselected with Remove data and settings with apps off (the default); turning it on can preselect eligible BetterDisplay-owned data. Leaving the folder unchecked suppresses zap, while Mole still removes your selected rows.
• Mole does not manage the Accessibility or Screen Recording permission entries.

What this test covered

BetterDisplay was installed through the Homebrew cask and uninstalled on September 17, 2026, with a development build of Mole. That test was the second time Mole's leftover scan had seen this exact Sentry crash-reporter cache shape (a product-named folder under a shared vendor cache parent), and the rule that lists the exact folder without touching the shared parent was generalized from it. BetterDisplay had registered a login item; Mole could not toggle it directly in that test and routed the row to System Settings, and it no longer appeared there after the uninstall. The official direct download, virtual-screen configuration, a Pro license activation, and the legacy BetterDummy folder were not part of this test.