How to uninstall Spark Desktop on Mac

This guide covers Readdle's Spark Desktop email client (bundle id com.readdle.SparkDesktop), downloaded from sparkmailapp.com. It is not Shadow Lab's Spark, a keyboard-shortcut manager that happens to share the name. In Homebrew, spark resolves to the spark-app cask, which is Shadow Lab's app; Readdle's Spark Desktop is the readdle-spark cask. Your email itself stays on your mail server either way; removing accounts from Spark or removing the app does not delete anything from your inbox.

Remove your accounts, then quit

  1. Save wanted local attachments outside Spark and confirm mail and drafts are available on your mail provider. Open Spark Settings › Accounts, choose the account, scroll down to Remove Account and confirm Remove. Repeat for accounts you no longer want connected. Removing the Email for Sync also signs out the other added accounts, so read that warning before confirming. This does not delete server mail. (Current account-removal instructions)
  2. Quit Spark from its menu.
  3. Check Activity Monitor for any remaining Spark process.
  4. Move Spark from Finder's Applications folder to the Trash.
  5. Open System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions and turn off a Spark entry if one is listed. In the recorded test, no Spark Desktop login item was registered at all.

Readdle’s current clean-install instructions distinguish the website version’s Application Support/Spark Desktop from the App Store version’s Spark Desktop container. Use the location for your installed channel; the test below covered the website version.

Where Spark Desktop keeps local data

After quitting, copy wanted local data to a separate private backup and verify it. In Finder press Shift + Command + G to open each path or its parent, then move existing unwanted Spark Desktop leaves to the Trash. Skip missing items and leave parent folders intact.

Location What it holds What to do
~/Library/Application Support/Spark Desktop, ~/Library/Application Support/com.readdle.SparkDesktop.helper Local app and helper data Back up wanted data first, then move unwanted folders to the Trash
~/Library/Caches/Spark Desktop, ~/Library/Caches/com.readdle.SparkDesktop.helper, ~/Library/Logs/Spark Desktop, ~/Library/Logs/SparkMacDesktop Cache and logs Remove existing unwanted leaves after quitting
~/Library/Preferences/com.readdle.SparkDesktop.plist, ~/Library/Preferences/com.readdle.SparkDesktop.helper.plist, ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.readdle.SparkDesktop.savedState Settings and window state Keep a settings backup, then remove for a clean start
~/Library/Containers/com.readdle.SparkDesktop.share, ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.readdle.SparkDesktop.share The app’s share extension data Back up wanted state, then remove the app-owned leaves
~/Library/HTTPStorages Product HTTP storage Inspect only entries matching com.readdle.SparkDesktop* and confirmed as Spark Desktop’s; leave other entries
~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist/com.apple.LSSharedFileList.ApplicationRecentDocuments App-specific recent-document records Remove only existing com.readdle.sparkdesktop.sfl* files, keeping this shared parent

Check the result

Run these read-only commands in Terminal:

pgrep -il spark
launchctl list | grep -i readdle
ls -d "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Spark Desktop"
ls -d "$HOME/Library/Logs/SparkMacDesktop"
  • No output from pgrep means Spark is not running.
  • The launchctl filter lists only jobs whose names contain Readdle; identify any match and also check Spark’s entry in System Settings. No match does not rule out differently named background items.
  • "No such file or directory" from either ls means that folder is gone; a printed path means it is still there.

If you installed it with Homebrew

Readdle's Spark Desktop is the readdle-spark cask. Do not use spark or spark-app for it: that cask installs Shadow Lab's Spark, a different app with its own zap list.

Mole skips --zap when its list reaches unchecked or shared data, or cannot be fully checked, and still cleans the leftovers you selected.

The readdle-spark cask's zap list includes ~/Library/Application Support/Spark Desktop, ~/Library/Application Support/com.readdle.SparkDesktop.helper, ~/Library/Caches/Spark Desktop, ~/Library/Caches/com.readdle.SparkDesktop.helper, ~/Library/Logs/Spark Desktop, ~/Library/Containers/com.readdle.SparkDesktop.share, ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.readdle.SparkDesktop.share, ~/Library/HTTPStorages/com.readdle.SparkDesktop*, the Spark preference files, its saved window state and its recent-documents list. With Remove data and settings with apps off, Application Support/Spark Desktop is unticked; with it on, an eligible unshared review row can be preselected. Uncheck it to keep local data, which also prevents zap from crossing that choice. Running brew uninstall --cask --zap readdle-spark yourself moves everything on that list to the Trash, whatever you selected in Mole.

To skip the zap step:

brew uninstall --cask readdle-spark

What Mole lists

For a Spark Desktop app downloaded from Readdle:

  • With Remove data and settings with apps off, the display-name folder ~/Library/Application Support/Spark Desktop is listed but not selected. With it on, the eligible unshared review row can be preselected; inspect wanted data and uncheck it to keep it. In the recorded test it went to the Trash after the reviewer selected every row.
  • ~/Library/Logs/SparkMacDesktop is a name-variant folder that Mole treats as selected by default.

What this test covered

Spark Desktop 3.31.0, downloaded from Readdle's site (not Shadow Lab's Spark), was installed and uninstalled on September 20, 2026 with Mole 1.15.0 (build 280) and Full Disk Access, as part of a ten-app batch, with the reviewer selecting every review row. The account was not signed in during the test, so mail sync and account removal through Spark's own UI were not verified in this run. ~/Library/Application Support/Spark Desktop (about 9.6 MB) went to the Trash; the run did not list ~/Library/Logs/SparkMacDesktop, a later full-disk rescan of the same Mac found it, and it was added to Mole as a selected-by-default row. No login item was found registered for Spark Desktop either before or after removal. Spark Desktop