Uninstall KeePassXC on Mac

KeePassXC databases live wherever you chose to save them. Before uninstalling, locate the .kdbx file and back up both the database and its key file, if used. Unlock the backup copy before continuing; a database without its required key file may be unusable. These steps cover the DMG from keepassxc.org and the Homebrew cask.

Save configuration and the database separately

The Mac test found configuration at ~/Library/Application Support/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini. Use Shift + Command + G in Finder to open its containing folder, quit KeePassXC, and copy the folder to your backup. Configuration is not the password database and cannot restore its contents.

~/.keepassxc is another possible location to inspect. It was not created in this test. If it is absent, skip it rather than searching for every similarly named file.

Remove the app, then decide about configuration

Save the database and quit KeePassXC. Move KeePassXC from Applications to the Trash, then remove configuration only if you no longer want it. Keep your .kdbx database and key file where you use them. KeePassXC documentation

If you used browser integration, KeePassXC wrote a connection file named org.keepassxc.keepassxc_browser.json into the NativeMessagingHosts folder of each browser you enabled, for example ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/NativeMessagingHosts or ~/Library/Application Support/Mozilla/NativeMessagingHosts (KeePassXC source). It holds no passwords. Remove that one file from each folder once the app is gone, and uninstall the KeePassXC-Browser extension separately in the browser.

Where KeePassXC keeps its files

Check the result

pgrep -il keepassxc
ls -d ~/Library/Application\ Support/KeePassXC ~/.keepassxc
find "$HOME/Library/Application Support" -type f -path '*/NativeMessagingHosts/org.keepassxc.keepassxc_browser.json' -print

No output from pgrep means KeePassXC has quit. For ls -d, No such file or directory means that folder is gone; a listed path is still on disk. The last command prints exact browser connection files still present. No output proves none were found only if the command completed without errors; permission errors leave affected folders unchecked. Inspect each JSON file's path and remove only a manifest pointing into the KeePassXC installation you removed, keeping the browser folder and other files. Finally, open your database with a compatible client you kept or on another device to verify access.

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 keepassxc yourself runs the zap list regardless of which rows you check in Mole. It trashes ~/.keepassxc and ~/Library/Application Support/keepassxc, the app settings, along with caches, preferences, crash reports, and saved state. It does not touch your .kdbx database, which lives wherever you saved it, or the browser connection files. Back up the settings folder first if you want to keep them, or run brew uninstall --cask keepassxc without zap.

If the database will not open

When a backup copy fails to unlock, first check whether the password, key file, and database belong together. Reinstalling KeePassXC or emptying keepassxc.ini is not a recovery method. That file stores app settings; the passwords remain in the .kdbx file you chose to save. For a database in a synced folder, verify that your copy contains the fully downloaded file.

A .kdbx file still visible in Finder after uninstalling is usually data to keep, not an app remnant to move to the Trash.

What Mole lists

With Remove data and settings with apps off, the default, the two user-data rows below stay unchecked. Enabling it can preselect eligible app-owned data; untick these rows to retain configuration.

Mole does not collect databases across the disk as leftovers. The org.keepassxc.keepassxc_browser.json connection files in the Chrome, Chromium, Edge, Firefox and Vivaldi folders are listed and selected by default when their path points into KeePassXC.app; the last check command above finds any left in other browsers' folders.

What this test covered

KeePassXC was installed from the Homebrew cask on September 17, 2026 and uninstalled through Mole, which ran the zap list. The zap step removed ~/Library/Application Support/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini. The app did not create ~/.keepassxc; Mole's row for it was added because the zap list names it. Opening a real database and browser integration were not tested.