Uninstall Karabiner-Elements on Mac

Karabiner-Elements installs a keyboard driver (a DriverKit system extension) and background components. Do not drag it straight to the Trash: if you ran its installer, use the built-in uninstaller, which deactivates the driver and removes the system files. Back up your key mappings first. These steps cover the installer package from karabiner-elements.pqrs.org and the Homebrew cask.

Save your keyboard configuration

In Finder, press Shift + Command + G and open ~/.config/karabiner. Copy the folder to a backup location to keep your mappings and complex modifications for a later installation. Skip this step if the folder does not exist.

If Homebrew manages this installation, use the driver-deactivation command below first, then the Homebrew removal route. Keep the installed scripts until that finishes; do not run the complete vendor uninstaller and then attempt to run Homebrew’s removal scripts from a deleted folder.

Run the built-in uninstaller

Open Karabiner-Elements Settings, select the Uninstall tab, and click Launch uninstaller. Follow the dialogs; the uninstaller asks for your administrator password to remove files and then asks you to restart macOS. Official uninstall instructions

If Settings will not open, the same guide gives a command-line alternative. It first deactivates the driver, then runs the uninstall script that the installer placed on disk:

bash '/Library/Application Support/org.pqrs/Karabiner-DriverKit-VirtualHIDDevice/scripts/uninstall/deactivate_driver.sh'
sudo '/Library/Application Support/org.pqrs/Karabiner-Elements/uninstall.sh'

The second command needs your administrator password. It removes Karabiner-Elements.app, Karabiner-EventViewer.app, the driver files, and /Library/Application Support/org.pqrs/Karabiner-Elements. Restart afterward. Do not delete driver or system-extension folders by hand to make an icon disappear.

Files the uninstaller leaves

Karabiner's guide says these remain and do not affect the system; delete them only if you want them gone:

Remove only the items listed here and leave the rest of /Library/Application Support/org.pqrs to the uninstaller.

Check the result

pgrep -il karabiner
systemextensionsctl list | grep -i karabiner
ls /Library/Application\ Support/org.pqrs

No output from pgrep means no Karabiner process is running. For systemextensionsctl, no output means no Karabiner driver is registered; a line ending in [activated enabled] means the driver is still active, so run the uninstaller or the deactivation command above; a line saying it is waiting to uninstall on reboot means a restart will finish the job. If ls still shows Karabiner-Elements or Karabiner-DriverKit-VirtualHIDDevice, the system files are still installed; No such file or directory means the folder is gone. Finally, check that your remappings no longer apply.

If you installed it with Homebrew

Ordinary Homebrew removal also removes its managed karabiner_cli link.

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 karabiner-elements yourself runs the zap list regardless of which rows you check in Mole. The cask runs Karabiner's own removal scripts and deletes /Library/Application Support/org.pqrs, but by design it does not uninstall the DriverKit system extension, so run the deactivate_driver.sh command above first, while that folder still exists. The zap list trashes ~/.config/karabiner, which holds your mappings, and ~/.local/share/karabiner, plus Karabiner's Application Support, containers, caches, and preferences. Back up ~/.config/karabiner first, or run brew uninstall --cask karabiner-elements without zap to keep it.

What Mole lists

The unchecked rows below describe the default with Remove data and settings with apps off. Enabling it can preselect eligible app-owned data; uncheck wanted mappings before uninstalling.

Mole does not list /Library/Application Support/org.pqrs, /var/log/karabiner, or the driver. Those belong to Karabiner's own uninstaller.

What this test covered

The installer package needs an administrator password, so on September 19, 2026 only the app was copied into Applications and uninstalled through Mole. The first launch wrote only the Settings app's preferences. The driver, system extension, and background components were never installed, so this test does not verify their removal.