How to uninstall Krita on Mac

Krita keeps your brush presets, workspaces and custom settings in one Application Support folder, separate from the .kra files you paint and save yourself. Back up that folder first if you might reinstall or switch machines. These steps cover the official signed DMG from krita.org; the Homebrew cask krita is a separate path with its own risk, described below.

Quit Krita and remove the app

  1. Save your open documents, then choose Krita › Quit Krita.
  2. Search for Krita in Activity Monitor and confirm the process has exited.
  3. Find Krita in Finder's Applications folder and move it to the Trash. If macOS says it is in use, return to the previous step.
  4. Open System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions and turn off any Krita entry that is still listed.

Where Krita keeps local data

Location What it holds What to do
~/Library/Application Support/krita Brush presets, resource bundles, workspace layouts and custom settings Back up before deleting presets, resources or settings
~/Library/Preferences/kritarc Krita's main preferences file, written under a plain name rather than a reverse-DNS one Back up if you want to restore these preferences, then remove if unwanted
~/Library/Preferences/kritadisplayrc Display and canvas preferences Back up if you want to restore these preferences, then remove if unwanted
Krita's log files (krita.log, krita-sysinfo.log) Diagnostic logs from recent runs Safe to remove with the app
~/Library/Containers/org.krita.krita-preview and ~/Library/Containers/org.krita.krita-thumbnailer Sandbox containers for Krita's Finder preview and thumbnail extensions Safe to remove with the app; macOS can refuse to move them, see below

After backing up and quitting, press Shift + Command + G in Finder to open ~/Library/Application Support/krita, ~/Library/Preferences/kritarc and ~/Library/Preferences/kritadisplayrc. Move only the folder or files you chose to discard to the Trash. Your own .kra files stay wherever you saved them and are never part of this list.

Check the result

pgrep -il krita
ls -d ~/Library/Application\ Support/krita
ls -d ~/Library/Preferences/kritarc ~/Library/Preferences/kritadisplayrc
ls ~/Library/Containers | grep -i krita
  • No output from pgrep means this process-name pattern found no match, not that every Krita helper has exited. Check Activity Monitor and confirm the executable paths of any remaining Krita processes before touching its data.
  • ls -d printing the Application Support path means the folder remains; open it to check which presets and settings it contains. "No such file or directory" means it is gone.
  • The kritarc / kritadisplayrc line prints whichever of the two files still exist; both missing means both were removed.
  • The grep line lists names containing krita under ~/Library/Containers; the name alone does not prove which app owns them or what data they hold. Match only org.krita.krita-preview and org.krita.krita-thumbnailer to the removed app, inspect their contents, then use Finder Go to Folder to open the exact paths above and move only those confirmed unwanted folders to the Trash. macOS refused those moves in the test, and Finder can also refuse; if a move fails, the folder remains and removal is unverified.

If you installed it with Homebrew

Mole checks the zap list first: unchecked or shared data, or anything it cannot fully verify, keeps --zap out, and it still removes whatever you selected.

The krita cask's zap list reaches ~/Library/Application Support/krita*, ~/Library/Caches/krita, ~/Library/Preferences/kritarc and kritadisplayrc, ~/Library/Saved Application State/org.krita.savedState, and the two extension containers and their Application Scripts under org.krita.*. Running brew uninstall --cask --zap krita yourself moves all of that to the Trash, your presets and settings included, without looking at Mole's checkboxes. Homebrew Krita cask

Leaving the support or preference rows unchecked prevents Mole from using --zap. They can be selected manually or preselected by Remove data and settings with apps; Mole still checks the rest of the zap list before using it.

To remove only the app and keep your presets and settings:

brew uninstall --cask krita

What Mole lists

  • ~/Library/Application Support/krita, ~/Library/Preferences/kritarc and ~/Library/Preferences/kritadisplayrc are review rows, unchecked when Remove data and settings with apps in General > Cleaning is off. Turning it on can preselect these eligible data rows. Back up wanted presets and preferences before removal, or leave their rows unchecked to keep them.
  • Krita's two log files, krita.log and krita-sysinfo.log, are listed.
  • The preview and thumbnail extension containers, org.krita.krita-preview and org.krita.krita-thumbnailer, and their Application Scripts folders are selected, because both extension IDs continue Krita's own org.krita ID. The temporary cache under /var/folders named after org.krita is selected too.

What this test covered

On September 21, 2026, Krita 5.3.4 was copied from the official signed DMG into Applications, opened once, then removed with Mole 1.15.0 Preview (build 282) and Full Disk Access granted. Everything listed was ticked. The 1.01 GB app, the 109.8 MB Application Support folder, both log files, the Application Scripts folders and the temporary cache went to the Trash. The two extension containers were listed but macOS refused to move them (error 513), so they stayed on disk. ~/Library/Preferences/kritarc and kritadisplayrc also stayed, because that build did not list them; the rows that list them were added to Mole after this test, and no official build has uninstalled Krita since. No .kra documents were involved, and the Homebrew cask was not tested.