Uninstall Office on Mac without deleting Outlook mail

First decide whether you are removing one app, such as Word or Excel, or the whole Office suite. Keep the shared folders below when removing only one app. Before a full removal, save documents and quit every Office app. Check server-held mail on the web. Back up Outlook mail stored only on this Mac using an export method supported by your version, and verify that it can be imported; opening a copied folder does not prove that mail can be restored. Keep the original data when no working recovery method is available. These steps cover Office installed from Microsoft's installer package, from the Mac App Store, and from the Homebrew cask.

Removing the apps does not cancel a Microsoft 365 subscription. Manage the subscription and your installs in your Microsoft account.

Remove the Office apps

Microsoft's Uninstall Office for Mac steps need an administrator account:

1. Quit every Office app.
2. In Finder › Applications, select the Office apps you are removing and move them to the Trash.
3. Press Shift + Command + G, open ~/Library/Containers, and move each removed app's folder to the Trash, for example com.microsoft.Word, com.microsoft.Excel, com.microsoft.Powerpoint, com.microsoft.Outlook, and com.microsoft.onenote.mac. For the whole suite, Microsoft also lists com.microsoft.errorreporting, com.microsoft.netlib.shipassertprocess, and com.microsoft.Office365ServiceV2. Some may not exist.
4. Only for the whole suite, and only after the Outlook backup: open ~/Library/Group Containers and move the three shared folders in the table below to the Trash.
5. Restart the Mac.

The longer article is Remove Office for Mac Without Losing Outlook Mail.

Office apps from the Mac App Store are removed the same way and update through the App Store. Microsoft's installer package also installs Microsoft AutoUpdate and a licensing helper, covered below.

If you remove only one Office app

List the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook apps you still use on this Mac, then remove only the selected app and its own container. The group containers serve the suite. Office-named files remaining after one app is removed do not show that app failed to uninstall. For Outlook in particular, confirm that both server mail and any Mac-only data have recoverable copies. Afterward, open an Office app you kept and a real document to verify sign-in and files.

Microsoft AutoUpdate and the licensing helper

The installer package adds Microsoft AutoUpdate in /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0 and background items named com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper, com.microsoft.update.agent, and com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper. Removing the Office apps leaves them installed. AutoUpdate also serves other apps, including Teams, so review its actual app list and any managed installation before removing it. Current Edge uses EdgeUpdater from version 113, and OneDrive’s standalone sync client checks for updates independently; the presence or absence of a Microsoft-named app alone does not establish MAU ownership. Keep the updater or licensing helper while an installed app still needs it. Removing unneeded system components requires administrator authorization and stopping their loaded jobs first; ask the Mac’s administrator if their consumers are unclear.

Check the result

pgrep -il microsoft
ls /Applications | grep -i microsoft
ls ~/Library/Containers | grep -i com.microsoft
ls ~/Library/Group\ Containers | grep -i UBF8T346G9
ls /Library/LaunchDaemons /Library/LaunchAgents | grep -i com.microsoft

The first two commands only match names containing “microsoft” and the second only checks /Applications. No output cannot prove all Microsoft apps or MAU consumers are gone: OneDrive and apps in ~/Applications or custom folders can be missed. Check Activity Monitor, Finder’s other installation locations and AutoUpdate’s actual app list. A named updater or helper is not itself proof that Word remains. The third and fourth list containers and group folders still on disk; after removing one app, the shared UBF8T346G9 folders are supposed to remain. Lines from the last command are AutoUpdate and licensing items still installed.

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 microsoft-office yourself runs the zap list regardless of which rows you check in Mole. The microsoft-office cask's uninstall step also deletes OneDrive.app and the Microsoft Defender apps from Applications. Its zap list trashes every Office container and all four group folders, including UBF8T346G9.Office with Outlook's data and UBF8T346G9.OfficeOneDriveSyncIntegration. Finish the Outlook backup and check OneDrive and Defender first, or run brew uninstall --cask microsoft-office without zap to keep the Office data.

What Mole lists

• Each removed app's own container, such as ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word, and its Library items named after that app: selected by default.
• The shared group folders UBF8T346G9.ms, UBF8T346G9.Office, and UBF8T346G9.OfficeOsfWebHost: not listed. Remove them yourself only for a whole-suite removal.
• ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft and other shared Microsoft parent folders: not listed.
• Microsoft AutoUpdate, its background items, and the licensing helper: not listed. Mole's Clean also keeps the AutoUpdate helper out of its orphaned-service list, since it serves other Microsoft apps.

What this test covered

On September 19, 2026, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook 16.113 were installed from Microsoft's installer package, without OneDrive or the Defender shim, and uninstalled together through Mole. The apps were removed, but macOS refused to move eight app containers, so check ~/Library/Containers afterward. Microsoft AutoUpdate, two privileged helpers, three launch items, and the installer receipts stayed. Outlook accounts, mail export, and the App Store versions were not tested.