How to fully uninstall Adobe Creative Cloud on Mac
Adobe is one of the most aggressive installers on macOS — it installs LaunchDaemons, privileged helper tools, system-level services, and scattered preferences across both your user Library and the system /Library. Here's how to remove all of it.
9+
Leftover locations
1–5 GB
Typical leftover size
Yes — LaunchDaemons
Background processes
Why Adobe is different from other apps
Most Mac apps store data only in your user's ~/Library folder. Adobe goes further — it installs files at the system level in /Library(no tilde), which requires administrator privileges to remove.
Adobe also installs LaunchDaemons — background services that run as root, independently of whether Creative Cloud is open. These keep running after you think you've uninstalled the app.
The good news: Adobe provides its own uninstaller tool that handles the privileged system-level components. Use that first, then clean up what remains.
What Adobe leaves behind
| Location | Contents |
|---|---|
| ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/ | Creative Cloud app data, fonts, sync data, plugins |
| ~/Library/Caches/Adobe/ | App caches, downloaded content |
| ~/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.*.plist | Preferences for each Adobe app |
| ~/Library/Logs/Adobe/ | Creative Cloud and app logs |
| ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.*.plist | Background Adobe update and helper agents |
| /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.adobe.*.plist | System-level Adobe daemons (require sudo) |
| /Library/Application Support/Adobe/ | System-wide Adobe shared data |
| /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.adobe.* | Privileged helper tools (require sudo) |
| ~/Library/Containers/com.adobe.* | Sandboxed app containers |
Paths starting with /Library (no ~) are system-level and require sudo to remove. Zapper covers paths in ~/Library.
Complete removal (step-by-step)
Important: Always use Adobe's own uninstaller first for each app, before manual cleanup. It handles the privileged system-level components that require root access.
- 1. Uninstall each Adobe app via Creative CloudOpen Creative Cloud → click the three-dot menu next to each installed app → Uninstall.
- 2. Uninstall Creative Cloud itselfDownload the Adobe Creative Cloud Uninstaller from Adobe's support page. Run it — this removes the main CC app and most system-level components.
- 3. Remove ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Press ⌘ Shift G →
~/Library/Application Support→ delete the Adobe folder. - 4. Clear Adobe cachesDelete
~/Library/Caches/Adobe/. - 5. Remove Adobe LaunchAgentsGo to
~/Library/LaunchAgents/and delete any file starting withcom.adobe.. - 6. Remove Adobe preferencesGo to
~/Library/Preferences/and delete allcom.adobe.*.plistfiles. - 7. Remove system-level LaunchDaemons (Terminal, requires sudo)
sudo rm -rf /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.adobe.* sudo rm -rf /Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/ sudo rm -rf /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.adobe.*
What Zapper handles automatically
Zapper scans all 11 ~/Library directories and finds every Adobe file in your home folder — including LaunchAgents, Caches, Application Support, Preferences, and Containers.
The system-level /Library paths (no tilde) require sudo privileges in Terminal. For those, use Adobe's official uninstaller or the Terminal commands above.