Uninstall Notion on Mac

Open Notion in a browser and check that your recent page edits have synced. Keep the desktop app and its data while offline changes remain unsynced; the desktop app’s local data lives in ~/Library/Application Support/Notion. These steps cover the Mac app downloaded from Notion and the Homebrew cask notion. Removing the app does not cancel a paid Notion plan or delete your workspace.

Quit and remove the app

  1. Confirm on the web that recently edited pages show their latest text and attachments.
  2. Quit Notion from its app menu.
  3. Move Notion from Applications to the Trash.
  4. If Notion was set to open at login, check System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions. In the recorded test, the system still kept a Notion login-item record after the app was gone; turn off any Notion entry you find there.

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 notion cask’s zap list includes ~/Library/Application Support/Notion, the desktop app’s local data, together with its updater cache, caches, logs, preferences and web data. Running brew uninstall --cask --zap notion yourself moves all of them to the Trash, whatever you ticked in Mole. Let unsynced edits finish syncing first, or remove only the app (Homebrew’s notion cask):

brew uninstall --cask notion

Review local data

Use Shift + Command + G in Finder to open each path. Skip any that is missing.

Location What it holds What to do
~/Library/Application Support/Notion The desktop app’s local data Keep it until your edits are confirmed on the web
~/Library/Application Support/Caches/notion-updater Update downloads, not a backup of workspace pages Safe to remove once Notion has quit
~/Library/Logs/Notion Logs Safe to remove

Do not remove the parent ~/Library/Application Support/Caches, because other apps can use it.

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the app is in the Trash:

pgrep -il notion
ls -d "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Notion"
  • No output from pgrep means Notion has quit. A listed process means it is still running; quit it before touching its data.
  • The folder path printing back means the local data is still on this Mac, which is expected if you have not decided to remove it. “No such file or directory” means it is gone.

If the desktop app will not open

Open recently edited pages on the web and verify their text and attachments before deciding to reinstall. notion-updater is an update cache. Removing it does not prove that offline edits synced, nor does it replace a separate decision about application support data.

A workspace that remains accessible on the web belongs to the account. If a search result or browser shortcut still says Notion, check whether it opens the website or another installed app.

What Mole lists

The unselected data rows below assume Remove data and settings with apps is off, the default. Turning it on can select eligible app-owned review rows; keep wanted data unchecked. Shared stores and protected data retain individual review or protection.

For the app downloaded from Notion:

  • ~/Library/Application Support/Notion is listed but not selected. The cache folders inside it, such as Cache, Code Cache and GPUCache, are separate rows selected by default.
  • ~/Library/Application Support/Caches/notion-updater is selected by default, together with caches, logs, preferences and web data filed under notion.id.
  • The parent ~/Library/Application Support/Caches is not listed.
  • The com.notion.meeting_notes.json and com.notion.meeting_notes.v2.json files Notion writes into a browser's NativeMessagingHosts folder are listed when they point into this Notion.app.
  • Login items are not edited; turn a leftover entry off in System Settings.

What this test covered

Notion was installed from the Homebrew cask notion and uninstalled with Mole on September 17, 2026. Homebrew’s zap step ran; comparing it with Mole’s own list showed that an app downloaded from Notion would have kept notion-updater, so that row was added afterwards. After the uninstall, a Notion login item was still listed in Mole’s startup view with its app missing. On September 26, 2026, Notion 7.35.1 from Notion's official disk image was installed, opened once and removed with a development build of Mole with every row ticked. Mole's Status page showed Notion as one row of nine processes, about 813 MB. On first launch Notion added a login item, and it was gone after the uninstall. All 13 items, including the app and the 439 MB Application Support/Notion folder, went to the Trash; only the two com.notion.meeting_notes manifests in Chrome's NativeMessagingHosts folder stayed, which is the case the manifest row above covers. Neither record includes a signed-in workspace, so unsynced edits were not tested.