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The Setapp.app helper missed my first attempt to Trash the app (maybe an earlier version?). So I need to clean out it's various helpers and plugins manually.

Here's what I've found so far:

/Applications/Setapp.app
/Applications/Setapp/ <- if you have installed anything

~/Library/Application Support/Setapp/...
~/Library/Application Scripts/com.setapp.*
~/Library/Containers/com.setapp.*
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.setapp.*
~/Library/QuickLook/SetappQL.qlgenerator

If I delete all the above will that completely remove Setapp? If not, what else do I need to do?

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3
  • 1
    Do you ever use the locate command in Terminal ? It requires initialisation the first time you use it, but after that, it's a useful way to quickly locate files, e.g. locate -i setapp. You can use its output as a parameter in rm to delete everything in one go (just be sure the list doesn't contain items you don't intend to remove, such as NothingToDoWithSetapp.pkg. Also, look into using a program like AppCleaner to expunge apps more fully from your system.
    – CJK
    Dec 24, 2017 at 15:29
  • also /users/shared/setapp/
    – syabro
    Mar 17, 2018 at 6:33
  • I had a few zombie "Setapp" processes running in Activity Monitor. I manually deleted all the items you listed above and now I see none.
    – Gorb
    Aug 22, 2020 at 20:06

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
10

The correct way to uninstall it is :

enter image description here

If you did not undo it in this way, you must use the "Remove Setapp" tool that is delivered to you in the support.

enter image description here

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  • 2
    There is no "correct uninstall" for an app that leaves items littered around Shared and ~/Library and consequently transfers with a time machine recovery of a user account. This is either a badly written App or a deliberately difficult one. I suspect the latter.
    – nerak99
    Mar 10, 2020 at 13:18
5

Setapp is absolutely brutal to get rid of. Even if you think you've uninstalled it, lingering Setapp demons will continue to hijack independent processes and legitimately purchased apps (like Gemini 2, in my case) and try to subsume them under the Setapp environment which isn't even supposed to exist any longer.

In fact, I just had to create a new account with that company in order to

  1. re-install all of Setapp again

and then

  1. try a complete uninstall.

This is what worked. Finally. Finally...

Run this thing:

/Applications/Setapp.app/Contents/Resources/SetappUninstaller.app/Contents/MacOS/SetappUninstaller
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  • Welcome to Ask Different :) It would help if you can edit the answer and add some more details such as what does running the mentioned command does? What happens when you run it, etc.
    – Nimesh Neema ♦
    Apr 4, 2019 at 4:58
  • Sorry about that. From the human standpoint, after running this, all of the lurking troublesome Setapp interference stopped. From the technical perspective, this is everything that I captured from the echoed console diagnostics:
    – Infideluxe
    Apr 5, 2019 at 13:54
  • The solution really works for me.
    – Mitoxys
    Apr 13, 2019 at 16:09
  • 1
    On a fresh OSX install, setapp appears even if the only thing you restored from TimeMachine was your user account. Following the use of locate and the list provided in the first response to the OP worked for me. This is an awful application.
    – nerak99
    Mar 10, 2020 at 10:31
  • Could you explain what you mean by "run this thing"? Should I just copy-paste it in the terminal? Or are there some preliminary steps necessary?
    – Sha Vuklia
    Aug 22, 2020 at 19:06
2

Here's the list of left over SetApp files/folders taken from the Homebrew Cask for setapp.

~/Library/Application Scripts/com.setapp.DesktopClient.SetappAgent.FinderSyncExt
~/Library/Caches/com.setapp.DesktopClient
~/Library/Caches/com.setapp.DesktopClient.SetappAgent
~/Library/Logs/Setapp
~/Library/Preferences/com.setapp.DesktopClient.SetappAgent.plist
~/Library/Saved Application State/com.setapp.DesktopClient.savedState

As things change, the Cask is a good semi-up to date resource: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/blob/HEAD/Casks/setapp.rb#L21

Though if you're using Homebrew Casks, then uninstalling is as easy as brew zap setapp.

Also you can trigger the uninstall process with no-interaction from this script: /Applications/Setapp.app/Contents/Resources/SetappUninstaller.app/Contents/Resources/removeSetapp.sh

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1

The "Complete Uninstall" option does not remove SetappQL.qlgenerator or the com.setapp.DesktopClient.SetappAgent.FinderSyncExt folder. JUST went through the list in the first answer after doing a "fresh uninstall".

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1
  • Welcome to Ask Different! Could you please explain which "Complete Uninstall" option you're referring to (e.g. with screenshots)? I fear that this is more of a comment to this answer and not a solution on its own.
    – Glorfindel ♦
    Mar 15, 2019 at 8:04
0

I had to remove the following files to get rid of SetApp:

~/Library/Preferences/
   com.setapp.DesktopClient.plist
   com.setapp.DesktopClient.SetappUpdater.plist
   com.setapp.DesktopClient.SetappLauncher.plist
   com.setapp.DesktopClient.SetappAgent.plist
~/Library/Application Support/
   SetappVersions.sqlite-wal
   SetappVersions.sqlite-shm
   SetappVersions.sqlite
   Setapp
        Default
            Databases
                Apps.searchIndexes
                    primary.searchIndex 
                    secondary.searchIndex
                    quaternary.searchIndex
                    tertiary.searchIndex            
                RecommendationsMetadata.plist
                Apps.sqlite
                RemoteConfiguration.plist
                Apps.sqlite-shm
                SetappVersions.sqlite
                Apps.sqlite-wal
                SetappVersions.sqlite-shm
                AppsKnowledgeBase.plist
                SetappVersions.sqlite-wal
                Recommendations.plist
                suggestions
            Resources
                [Images of apps in the setup catalog]
        LaunchAgents
            Setapp.app
            SetappLauncher.app
            SetappUpdater.app 
~/Library/Application Support/
    SetappUpdater.app
~/Library/Caches/
    com.setapp.DesktopClient.SetappAgent
    com.setapp.DesktopClient
    com.mentalfaculty.studies-setapp
    com.wiheads.paste-setapp
~/Library/Logs/
    com.setapp.DesktopClient.SetappAgent
        Problem Reports 
    Setapp
        com.setapp 2020-04-25--15-50-25-752.log
~/Library/Cookies
    [clean]
~/Library/QuickLook/
    SetappQL.qlgenerator
~/Library/Containers
    com.setapp.DesktopClient.SetappAgent.FinderSyncExt
    Container.plist
       Data [AS OF THIS VERY MOMENT :]
           Desktop [ALL FILES ON MY DESKTOP!]
           Downloads [ALL MY DOWNLOADS!]
           Movies [DON'T HAVE ANY]
           Pictures [ALL MY LIGHTROOM CATALOGS!]
           Documents
               iChats [WHAT'S THAT?]
           Library [MY ENTIRE LIBRARY!]
           Music [ALL MY ITUNES LIBRARIES AND MUSIC]
~/Library/Application Scripts/
    com.setapp.DesktopClient.SetappAgent.FinderSyncExt
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  • 1
    I've edited your post to make it look more like an answer and less like a rant. To make the answer more useful, you could replace the list of files/directories with the rm commands required to remove them.
    – nohillside ♦
    Apr 26, 2020 at 12:05
0

I was migrating to a new mac, and don't care about files that stay behind. I just wanted to remove it so the popup's don't show again. ( Gonna whipe the mac completely later )

I did not want to make a new account with setapp so I used the following command line:

sudo rm -rf /Applications/Setapp.app

This triggerd an uninstall. ( As the help->uninstall menu was not available because I already logged out, and could not log in since I'm using it on my new mac )

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-1

I've used AppCleaner (https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/) for ages now with great results. You just open AppCleaner and then drop the app to be cleaned to the AppCleaner's window and it returns with a handy list of files related. From there trashing them is just a click away. Hope it helps.

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  • 1
    @alfwatt Did you try removing Setapp with AppCleaner. Please share your experience.
    – user303126
    Oct 15, 2018 at 11:57

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