How to uninstall Zeplin on Mac

Zeplin keeps your projects, styleguides and comments in your Zeplin workspace online, so removing the Mac app does not delete any design you published. What stays on this Mac is the app's own cache, logs and preferences, plus a Sketch plugin if you have Sketch. This guide covers the Mac app from zeplin.io and the Homebrew cask zeplin.

Before you remove it

Check that anything you exported locally, such as assets you downloaded from a screen, is saved where you keep your work; those are ordinary files and not part of the app. Removing the app does not cancel a Zeplin subscription or remove you from a workspace; manage both on the web.

If Sketch is installed, Zeplin's help says the Mac app installs the Zeplin plugin into Sketch automatically, and it appears as a Zeplin item in Sketch's Plugins menu. If you no longer use it, open Sketch › Plugins › Manage Plugins…, select Zeplin, then right-click it or use the gear menu and choose Uninstall Zeplin, following Sketch's plugin instructions. Unticking a plugin only disables it. Remove only Zeplin's plugin, leaving your other Sketch plugins intact.

Quit Zeplin and remove the app

  1. Quit Zeplin from the Zeplin menu.
  2. Search Activity Monitor for Zeplin and check that the app and its Helper processes have exited.
  3. Move Zeplin from Finder's Applications folder to the Trash.

The recorded tests found no login item, background item or launch agent from Zeplin.

Where Zeplin keeps its data

These paths come from the Homebrew cask's zap stanza and match what the tests found. Open each with Shift + Command + G in Finder and skip the ones that do not exist.

Location What it holds What to do
~/Library/Application Support/Zeplin App data and Chromium caches, about 6 MB after one launch Remove unless you plan to reinstall
~/Library/Caches/io.zeplin.osx and ~/Library/Caches/io.zeplin.osx.ShipIt Cache and the updater's download area Safe to remove
~/Library/HTTPStorages/io.zeplin.osx Network storage Safe to remove
~/Library/Logs/Zeplin Logs Safe to remove
~/Library/Preferences/io.zeplin.osx.plist App preferences Remove for a clean start

Check the result

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

pgrep -il zeplin
ls -d "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Zeplin" ~/Library/Logs/Zeplin
  • If pgrep runs without an error and prints nothing, no process name matched zeplin; differently named helpers are outside that match. Inspect a listed PID and executable path in Activity Monitor, then quit only a process confirmed to belong to this app before deleting its data.
  • ls prints each folder that still exists and reports "No such file or directory" for the rest. Neither result says anything about your designs, which live in your Zeplin workspace.

If you installed it with Homebrew

The zeplin cask's zap list includes ~/Library/Application Support/Zeplin, the io.zeplin.osx caches and ShipIt cache, HTTP storage, ~/Library/Logs/Zeplin and the preferences file. Running brew uninstall --cask --zap zeplin yourself moves them all to the Trash, whatever you selected in Mole. To keep the app folder, remove only the app:

brew uninstall --cask zeplin

Mole checks Homebrew's full removal list and skips --zap when it reaches unchecked data, shared files or anything it cannot verify. It still removes the leftovers you selected. Leaving ~/Library/Application Support/Zeplin unchecked keeps --zap out, including when you uncheck a row preselected by the data setting.

What Mole lists

For Zeplin from zeplin.io:

  • ~/Library/Application Support/Zeplin is unchecked with Remove data and settings with apps off; enabling it can preselect eligible reviewed data. Uncheck it if you want to retain settings. The Chromium cache folders inside it, such as Cache, Code Cache and GPUCache, are separate rows selected by default.
  • The io.zeplin.osx caches, ShipIt cache, HTTP storage and preferences file, ~/Library/Logs/Zeplin, the recent-documents list and the temporary caches filed under the bundle ID are selected by default.
  • The Zeplin plugin inside Sketch is not listed; it belongs to Sketch.

What this test covered

On September 21, 2026, Zeplin was copied from the official download into Applications, opened without signing in, and uninstalled with a Preview build of Mole 1.15 with everything ticked; there was no Homebrew receipt. The app, its Application Support folder, about 6.3 MB, a small io.zeplin.sketchAdapterTool support folder and the ShipIt cache went to the Trash. On September 26, 2026, it was installed again from the same official download, opened once without signing in, and removed with a development build of Mole with every row ticked. Mole's Status view showed it as one row of 7 processes, about 337 MB. All 16 items went to the Trash and nothing from the list, no process and no startup item was left. Signing in, the Sketch plugin and the Homebrew cask were not tested.