Uninstall Blender on Mac

Back up any .blend files, custom add-ons and preference tweaks you want to keep before removing Blender. These steps cover Blender installed from the official disk image and from the Homebrew cask blender; the recorded test used the Homebrew cask.

Your project files are not inside the app

.blend files live wherever you saved them (commonly ~/Documents or a project folder you chose), so removing Blender does not touch them. What does live inside Blender's own data is its per-version configuration: preferences, keymaps, and any add-ons you installed or enabled, all under ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/<version> (for example 4.5 or 5.2). If you customized add-ons or preferences you want in a future install, copy that version folder out yourself before you remove the app; Blender's own Edit › Preferences window only saves preferences back into this same folder, it does not export them anywhere else. Blender's directory layout reference

Quit and remove the app

Blender has no separate login state or background service to stop first: quit it from its app menu, then move Blender from Applications to the Trash (official download), or let Homebrew remove it (see below).

Where Blender keeps its data

~/Library/Application Support/Blender holds one subfolder per installed version, so if you keep an older Blender version installed side by side, only remove the version folder that matches the copy you are uninstalling.

Check the result

Run these read-only commands in Terminal:

pgrep -ilf blender
launchctl list | grep -i blenderfoundation
ls -d ~/Library/Application\ Support/Blender
pluginkit -m | grep -i blender

No output from pgrep means Blender is not running. No matching output from a successful launchctl list means no matching Blender job is loaded in this user session; it does not reconstruct past jobs or inspect the system domain. ls -d lists only the Application Support parent if it exists, or reports "No such file or directory" if it is absent; open that parent in Finder to check its per-version subfolders. The pluginkit line shows whether the QuickLook thumbnail extension is still registered with the system; a blenderfoundation.blender.thumbnailer line means it is, and it clears itself once Blender.app and its leftover container are both gone.

If you installed it with Homebrew

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

Running brew uninstall --cask --zap blender yourself runs the cask's zap list, which moves ~/Library/Application Support/Blender (every version's preferences and add-ons) and the saved-window-state file to the Trash, whatever you have ticked in Mole; it does not list the thumbnail-extension container, which stays behind either way. Back up any add-ons or preference tweaks first, or run the removal below without zap; Homebrew also removes its managed command wrapper. Homebrew Blender cask

brew uninstall --cask blender

What Mole lists

For Blender installed from the official download:

• ~/Library/Application Support/Blender is unselected with Remove data and settings with apps off (the default); turning it on can preselect eligible Blender-owned data. Untick it to keep add-ons, keymaps and preferences, and keep any version folder another installed Blender still uses.
• ~/Library/Saved Application State/org.blenderfoundation.blender.savedState is selected by default.
• The thumbnail extension's container and Application Scripts folder are selected by default, since the extension ships inside Blender.app.

What this test covered

Blender was installed and removed through the Homebrew cask blender on September 17, 2026, with a development build of Mole; Mole reported it as already covered by its existing rules, so nothing new was added for this app. The Homebrew removal in this batch ran without Full Disk Access, so Mole's residue review screen did not appear and the leftover rows were never shown to the user in this run. Afterward, the QuickLook thumbnail extension's container and Application Scripts folder were confirmed to remain on disk, unclaimed by the zap list. .blend file handling and the official disk-image install were not part of this uninstall test.