How to uninstall DEVONthink on Mac

DEVONthink stores your actual databases (.dtBase2 files) wherever you chose to keep them, commonly a ~/Databases folder DEVONtechnologies recommends and outside your Library folder entirely, so removing the app does not touch them. What does live inside the app's own folders is its global inbox database (for anything you filed there and never moved), custom templates, settings, and local sync bookkeeping. This guide covers the app downloaded from DEVONtechnologies and the Homebrew cask devonthink.

Back up the inbox first, then quit

1. Open DEVONthink and check its global Inbox for anything you have not filed into a database yet; move those items into a database or export them, since the Inbox itself lives inside the app's own folder.
2. If you use custom templates, note that DEVONtechnologies also recommends saving a copy of the Templates.noindex folder before a full uninstall. (How to Fully Uninstall DEVONthink)
3. Quit DEVONthink from its menu.
4. Move DEVONthink from Finder's Applications folder to the Trash.
5. Open System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions and turn off a DEVONthink entry if one is listed.

DEVONtechnologies describes this level of removal as "a deep uninstallation" needed only in specific cases, not a routine troubleshooting step; if DEVONthink is misbehaving, contact their support before deleting anything.

Where DEVONthink keeps local data

After saving the Inbox, templates and custom scripts, verify their copies outside these folders. In Finder press Shift + Command + G to open each parent and inspect the actual matching entries. The stars below are filename patterns, not folders to paste or permission to remove every DEVONtechnologies product. Move only unwanted items confirmed as this DEVONthink installation’s to the Trash; retain other installed versions, DEVONagent and shared groups still in use. The official 2022 instructions name think3 and DEVONthink 3, so apply those exact names only to that older version.

Two small files remained in Application Support and Preferences in the test. Their ownership and purpose were not established, so they were kept; do not remove files merely because their names look unusual.

Check the result

Run these read-only commands in Terminal:

pgrep -il devonthink
launchctl list | grep -i devon-technologies
ls -d "$HOME/Databases"
find "$HOME/Library/Application Support" -maxdepth 1 -name 'DEVONthink*' -print

• No output from pgrep means DEVONthink is not running.
• The launchctl filter checks only job names containing devon-technologies; identify matches and check DEVONthink in System Settings too.
• ls -d ~/Databases printing "No such file or directory" is normal if you never used that default location or already moved your databases elsewhere; a printed path means your databases may still be there, so check its contents before doing anything else with it.
• find prints matching Application Support paths. No output on a successful scan means no matching child was found; a permission error is inconclusive, and a surviving database or retained setting is not a failed uninstall.

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.

The devonthink cask's zap list reaches ~/Library/Application Support/DEVONthink*, ~/Library/Containers/com.devon-technologies.*, ~/Library/Group Containers/679S2QUWR8.think*, ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.devon-technologies.*, ~/Library/Preferences/com.devon-technologies.think*, ~/Library/Caches/com.devon-technologies.think*, plus the Cookies, Metadata, Saved Application State, folder-action scripts, WebKit, generated help and recent-document paths listed in the table above. That list also includes ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/DEVONagent, and its vendor-wide container and script patterns can reach other products. Avoid zap while those products or another DEVONthink version still need the matching data; manually remove only confirmed owned leaves. Running brew uninstall --cask --zap devonthink yourself ignores Mole’s selections. The zap list does not reach ~/Databases or any other location outside your Library folder, so databases kept in DEVONtechnologies' recommended location are untouched; if you ever created or moved a database into the Application Support folder itself, back it up first, since the zap step would remove it regardless of what you selected in Mole.

To skip the zap step:

brew uninstall --cask devonthink

What Mole lists

For a DEVONthink app downloaded directly from DEVONtechnologies:

• With Remove data and settings with apps off, ~/Library/Application Support/DEVONthink is listed but not selected. With it on, an eligible unshared review row can be preselected; back up wanted Inbox or settings and uncheck it to keep them. The historical test removed it after the reviewer selected every row.
• The two small files of unverified ownership were not listed and were kept in the recorded test.
• The empty containers of DEVONthink's own extensions are selected by default when their ids continue DEVONthink's bundle id.
• Mole does not list ~/Databases or any other folder where you keep your own .dtBase2 databases.

What this test covered

DEVONthink 4.4, downloaded from DEVONtechnologies' site, was installed and uninstalled on September 20, 2026 with a Preview build of Mole and Full Disk Access, as part of a ten-app batch. No database was created during the test. The reviewer expanded the review list and selected every row before removing. ~/Library/Application Support/DEVONthink (about 2.2 MB) went to the Trash; the two small files of unverified ownership were left behind and were not offered for selection. The empty containers of DEVONthink's extensions were selected but stayed on disk because macOS refused to move them to the Trash. A background item for DEVONthink appeared in System Settings after install, unchecked, and was no longer listed after the uninstall. Sync, licensing, and database creation were not part of this test. DEVONthink