How to fully uninstall Slack on Mac
Slack is built on Electron and leaves behind over a gigabyte of workspace cache and app data. Dragging it to Trash barely makes a dent. Here's how to remove everything.
10+
Leftover locations
1–2+ GB
Typical leftover size
Electron (heavy)
Built on
Why Slack leaves so much behind
Slack is built on Electron — a framework that bundles a full Chromium web browser inside every app. This means Slack stores web-style caches: HTML, JavaScript, images, and SQLite databases for every workspace you're in.
On top of that, Slack stores your workspace messages, downloaded files, and preferences across multiple Library directories. Heavy Slack users often see 2–4 GB of leftover data after a normal uninstall.
What Slack leaves behind
| Location | Contents |
|---|---|
| ~/Library/Application Support/Slack/ | Workspace data, message cache, downloads |
| ~/Library/Caches/com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap/ | Electron app cache, images, web content |
| ~/Library/Caches/Slack/ | Additional Slack cache data |
| ~/Library/Preferences/com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap.plist | User settings and preferences |
| ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap.savedState/ | Window and channel state |
| ~/Library/Logs/Slack/ | Slack diagnostic and crash logs |
| ~/Library/Containers/com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap/ | Sandboxed app container |
| ~/Library/HTTPStorages/com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap/ | HTTP cache and cookies |
| ~/Library/WebKit/com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap/ | WebKit data from Electron |
| ~/Library/Group Containers/ | Slack group container (shared data) |
Manual removal (step-by-step)
- 1. Quit Slack completelyPress ⌘Q in Slack or right-click the Dock icon → Quit.
- 2. Delete the appOpen /Applications in Finder → drag Slack.app to Trash.
- 3. Open LibraryIn Finder, press ⌘ Shift G → type
~/Library. - 4. Delete Application Support data (biggest folder)Navigate to
Application Support/Slack/→ move to Trash. This is usually the largest leftover (500 MB–2 GB). - 5. Clear Electron cachesDelete
Caches/com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap/andCaches/Slack/. - 6. Remove preferences and stateDelete
Preferences/com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap.plistandSaved Application State/com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap.savedState/. - 7. Check Containers and Group ContainersLook for any
com.tinyspeck.slackmacgapfolder inContainers/andGroup Containers/. - 8. Empty TrashOnce you're confident, empty the Trash to reclaim disk space.
Automated removal with Zapper
Zapper automates the entire process and is especially useful for Electron apps like Slack where files are spread across many directories:
- Drop
Slack.apponto Zapper's window (before or after deleting it). - Zapper scans all 11 Library directories concurrently and shows every leftover file with its size.
- Review the list — you'll see Application Support data, all Electron caches, containers, and more.
- Click Zap — everything moves to Trash safely. Undo with ⌘Z if needed.