How to uninstall Navicat Premium on Mac
Navicat Premium keeps your saved database connections on this Mac. Before removing it, open Navicat and choose File › Export Connections to save them as an .ncx file, and if you plan to install Navicat on another Mac, choose Navicat Premium › Registration and deactivate your license first so the same key can activate elsewhere (Navicat's connection migration guide, license deactivation on macOS). This guide covers the Mac app downloaded from navicat.com and the Homebrew cask navicat-premium.
Export Connections saves connection settings, not every query, backup or task profile. Before quitting, Control-click each connection and choose Edit Connection › Advanced › Settings Location, then back up wanted files from that location and the Profiles folder described below. Open the copies to confirm they are usable.
Deactivate the license, then quit and remove the app
- If you plan to reuse this license on another machine, open Navicat Premium › Registration and choose Deactivate first.
- Quit Navicat Premium from its application menu, then check Activity Monitor for a remaining Navicat process.
- Find Navicat Premium in Finder's Applications folder and move it to the Trash.
Where Navicat Premium keeps its data
After confirming backups and quitting Navicat, press Shift + Command + G in Finder to open each existing location. Move only Navicat Premium’s own leaf folders and files you no longer need to the Trash, leaving the vendor and Navicat CC parents in place.
| Location | What it holds | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| ~/Library/Application Support/PremiumSoft CyberTech/Navicat CC/Navicat Premium | Navicat Premium's own folder; its Profiles subfolder holds your saved profiles, per Navicat, and Homebrew's zap list names this folder. |
Export your connections first, then remove only this folder if you want it gone. |
| ~/Library/Application Support/PremiumSoft CyberTech | Navicat's vendor folder, which other Navicat products on the same Mac can also use. | Leave the folder itself in place if you use another Navicat product. |
| ~/Library/Preferences/com.navicat.NavicatPremium.plist | App preferences. | Remove for a clean start. |
| ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.navicat.NavicatPremium.savedState | Saved window state. | Remove after quitting. |
Navicat also creates a small VH7G2MRF27.com.prect.Navicat.launcherGroup folder under both ~/Library/Group Containers and ~/Library/Application Scripts; it is Navicat's launcher group, not your connection data.
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 navicat-premium cask's zap list includes ~/Library/Application Support/PremiumSoft CyberTech/Navicat CC/Navicat Premium, the help-book caches macOS generated under ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.helpd/Generated, the preferences file and saved window state. When Mole lists that Navicat Premium folder and you leave it unticked, Mole's Homebrew removal drops --zap and removes only the rows you left ticked. Running brew uninstall --cask --zap navicat-premium yourself moves that folder to the Trash regardless of what you ticked in Mole; back up connection settings, queries, backups and profiles first, or remove only the app:
brew uninstall --cask navicat-premium
Check the result
pgrep -il navicat
ls -d "$HOME/Library/Application Support/PremiumSoft CyberTech/Navicat CC/Navicat Premium" "$HOME/Library/Preferences/com.navicat.NavicatPremium.plist"
No output from pgrep means no Navicat process is running. ls -d prints each path that still exists and reports "No such file or directory" for the rest; a printed Navicat Premium folder is one you kept on purpose or have not removed yet.
What Mole lists
For a Navicat Premium app installed from navicat.com's own download:
~/Library/Preferences/com.navicat.NavicatPremium.plistand~/Library/Saved Application State/com.navicat.NavicatPremium.savedStateare selected by default when they exist.- Mole can also list
~/Library/Application Support/PremiumSoft CyberTech/Navicat CC/Navicat Premium, taken from Homebrew's zap list for this app, and it starts unchecked with Remove data and settings with apps off; turning it on can preselect eligible Navicat-owned data. Review it after checking your backups. ThePremiumSoft CyberTechandNavicat CCparents are never listed. ~/Library/Group Containers/VH7G2MRF27.com.prect.Navicat.launcherGroupand~/Library/Application Scripts/VH7G2MRF27.com.prect.Navicat.launcherGroupcan appear as review rows. Their names differ from Navicat Premium’s bundle ID, so removal requires a current signed ownership claim and confirmation that no installed app still uses them. If that cannot be verified, Mole keeps them even when selected; the historical run below recorded that refusal, not an unconditional rule for every version.
What this test covered
Navicat Premium 17.3.12 was copied into Applications from the navicat.com download and uninstalled on September 21, 2026, with Mole 1.15 Preview (build 282), with every row in the review list ticked; there was no Homebrew receipt and no database was connected. The app (1.26 GB), its preferences file and its temporary caches under /var/folders went to the Trash. The launcher group folder (4 KB) and its Application Scripts folder were ticked but refused as protected paths, so they stayed. ~/Library/Application Support/PremiumSoft CyberTech/Navicat CC (28 KB) was not listed. Exporting connections, deactivating the license and the Homebrew cask were not tested.
Navicat Premium · Migrating connections · Deactivating a license on macOS