How to completely uninstall WhatsApp on Mac
Dragging WhatsApp to the Trash removes the app itself, but its support files, caches and settings stay on your Mac. Here is where they are and how to remove all of them.
WhatsApp for Mac is sandboxed. Its local copy of your chats and all received photos, videos and documents are in group containers under ~/Library/Group Containers, which is usually the largest part by far.
Your chat history lives on your phone, and this Mac is a linked device. Save any photos or files you want from chats before uninstalling, because the local copies are removed. You can also remove this Mac under Linked devices in WhatsApp on your phone.
net.whatsapp.WhatsAppRemove WhatsApp by hand
- Quit WhatsApp. If it has a menu bar icon or runs in the background, quit that too.
- Open the Applications folder and drag WhatsApp to the Trash.
- In Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder (Shift-Command-G), paste each location below, and move what you find to the Trash. Not every location exists for every version.
- Empty the Trash, then restart your Mac so nothing from WhatsApp is left running.
Where WhatsApp keeps its files
/Applications/WhatsApp.app~/Library/Application Support/net.whatsapp.WhatsApp~/Library/Caches/net.whatsapp.WhatsApp~/Library/Preferences/net.whatsapp.WhatsApp.plist~/Library/Saved Application State/net.whatsapp.WhatsApp.savedState~/Library/Containers/net.whatsapp.WhatsApp~/Library/HTTPStorages/net.whatsapp.WhatsApp~/Library/WebKit/net.whatsapp.WhatsApp~/Library/Logs/net.whatsapp.WhatsApp
Other places WhatsApp uses
~/Library/Containers/net.whatsapp.WhatsApp*Container~/Library/Group Containers/group.net.whatsapp*Container~/Library/Application Scripts/net.whatsapp.WhatsApp*Data~/Library/Application Scripts/group.net.whatsapp.WhatsApp.sharedData~/Library/Application Scripts/group.net.whatsapp.WhatsApp.privateData~/Library/Application Scripts/group.net.whatsapp.familyData
The quick way
Diskzy finds WhatsApp and the files listed here, shows the size of each one, and moves them to the Trash together. Files that another app also uses are left alone.
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