Uninstall CleanMyMac on Mac

Keep any CleanMyMac exclusions and license details you may need again; its Agent and updater are separate background components. The September 17, 2026 record covers the Homebrew cask.

Quit and remove the app

Before self-uninstalling, stop any scan or cleanup and quit CleanMyMac and its menu app, then use Finder’s Shift + Command + G to copy the complete, confirmed app-owned ~/Library/Application Support/CleanMyMac_5 folder and wanted ~/Library/Preferences/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac5.plist to an independent private backup and inspect the copies. Reopen CleanMyMac and open Applications › Scan › Manage My Applications › Uninstaller, select CleanMyMac, and click Uninstall. Then review Login Items & Extensions for remaining MacPaw entries without touching other MacPaw products. The official page has more product information.

Review the app’s data

The cask lists ~/Library/Application Support/CleanMyMac_5, ~/Library/Caches/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac5, ~/Library/Preferences/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac5.plist and ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac5.Updater.plist. Its privileged Agent uses /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac5.Agent.plist and /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac5.Agent. Inspect these exact entries after the vendor's self-uninstall and verify the system files belong to this version before authorizing removal; a similar MacPaw name is not enough.

If you installed it with Homebrew

The Homebrew cask has its own --zap list. brew uninstall --cask cleanmymac removes the cask without that list; brew uninstall --cask --zap cleanmymac also acts on its listed data without consulting Mole’s checkboxes. Ordinary cask uninstall already unloads com.macpaw.CleanMyMac5.Menu and .HealthMonitor, quits those processes, removes the CleanMyMac 5 Menu login item and deletes /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac5.Agent, even without zap. Zap additionally removes the Agent plist, updater plist and listed user data. Verify their ownership before either route; omitting zap does not defer the ordinary helper actions. Mole also suppresses zap if its list would cross an unchecked, shared, unknown, or unsupported path; selected remnants still follow Mole’s own deletion path.

brew uninstall --cask cleanmymac

Check the result

These commands inspect the running process and one relevant location. They do not remove anything:

pgrep -il "CleanMyMac"
ls -ld "$HOME/Library/Application Support/CleanMyMac_5"

No pgrep match means no process with that name is running; a match needs identification before quitting anything. A listed path still exists, while an ls “No such file” error means only that exact path is absent. A permission error is inconclusive.

What Mole lists

Mole selects exact app cache and preference rows by default. A display-name Application Support folder is for review, unchecked while Remove data and settings with apps is off, the default. Enabling it can preselect eligible app-owned data; untick settings you want to keep; system helper paths require their own guarded removal.

What this test covered

The September 17, 2026 test used the official cask. During Mole uninstall, six entitled group or script rows were skipped as protected and the FinderSync container failed with error 513. Finder later moved those files to Trash. The Homebrew receipt hung after a sudo launchctl print check and was removed separately. This is not a complete Mole-only removal result.