How to Uninstall Blender From Your Mac (And Its Add-Ons)

Blender does something weird with its user data: every major version creates its own subfolder. So if you’ve been a Blender user for a few years, you probably have folders for 3.6, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3 sitting in ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/, each containing your add-ons, preferences, and cached data from that version. Uninstalling the current Blender app doesn’t touch any of these older versions’ folders. They just accumulate.

I’ve seen Blender artist Macs with 12GB in old Blender/ folders for versions they haven’t used in years. Here’s the full removal procedure.

What Blender installs

Bundle ID: org.blenderfoundation.blender. Files:

• App at /Applications/Blender.app/
• Application support at ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/
• Caches at ~/Library/Caches/org.blenderfoundation.blender/
• Preferences at ~/Library/Preferences/org.blenderfoundation.blender.plist
• Saved state at ~/Library/Saved Application State/org.blenderfoundation.blender.savedState/

Inside ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/ you’ll find a subfolder for each version you’ve installed (e.g., 4.2/, 4.1/). Each version folder contains:

1. config/ — preferences, keymaps, startup file
2. scripts/addons/ — installed add-ons
3. scripts/presets/ — user presets
4. datafiles/ — cached data files
5. extensions/ — Blender 4.2+ extensions

Blender doesn’t install daemons, helpers, or launch agents.

Step 1: Quit Blender

Quit Blender normally. In Activity Monitor, search “Blender” to confirm nothing’s running. If you have multiple Blender instances open, quit them all.

Step 2: Drag Blender.app to the Trash

Move /Applications/Blender.app/ to the Trash.

If you have multiple Blender versions installed (some artists keep 3.6 LTS alongside 4.x), you’ll need to drag each version’s .app to the Trash separately.

Don’t dig through ~/Library yourselfSweep hunts every leftover an uninstaller misses. Free download for Mac →

Step 3: Back up add-ons and presets (optional)

If you’ve spent time configuring add-ons or building custom presets, back them up before deletion:

• ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/<version>/scripts/addons/ — installed add-ons
• ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/<version>/scripts/presets/ — render presets, brush presets
• ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/<version>/config/userpref.blend — your user preferences
• ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/<version>/config/startup.blend — your custom startup file

These transfer cleanly to a new Blender install or another Mac. Copy to an external drive or git repo before deletion.

Step 4: Remove all Blender user data

In Finder, hit Cmd+Shift+G and visit:

• ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/ — every version’s user folder
• ~/Library/Caches/org.blenderfoundation.blender/
• ~/Library/Preferences/org.blenderfoundation.blender.plist
• ~/Library/Saved Application State/org.blenderfoundation.blender.savedState/
• ~/Library/Logs/Blender/ (if logging was enabled)

The Application Support folder is the big one. Inside, every version subfolder contains its own copy of every add-on you installed, every preset, every cached file. They don’t share between versions — Blender duplicates configuration across versions for compatibility.

Step 5: Remove Steam version (if installed)

If you installed Blender through Steam:

• ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/Blender/

Steam’s uninstaller handles this. Right-click Blender in your Steam library → Manage → Uninstall. Steam-installed Blender uses a different config folder than the standalone version (it’s inside the Steam app folder), so the standard cleanup doesn’t apply.

Step 6: Find render outputs

Blender renders to wherever you specified in your project’s output settings. Common locations:

• ~/Pictures/Blender/ — common default
• /tmp/ — Blender’s default if you didn’t change it
• Project-specific output folders

Render outputs aren’t part of the app’s data. Uninstalling Blender doesn’t touch them. If you have orphaned render frames eating disk space, hunt them manually.

Step 7: Empty Trash

No reboot needed. Blender doesn’t install background services or system components.

Realistic space recovery

A Blender uninstall reclaims:

1. 350-500MB per app version (multiple if you had several installed)
2. 500MB-2GB per version’s user folder
3. 50-200MB from caches
4. 0-5GB from cached extensions and bundled assets (Blender 4.2+ extensions can be large)

Total: 1-15GB depending on how many versions you’ve used. Long-time users with multiple versions and heavy add-on use can see 20GB+.

Steam version vs standalone

The Steam version of Blender uses the bundle ID org.blenderfoundation.blender but lives inside Steam’s app folder. Files are split:

• App: ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/Blender/Blender.app
• User data: ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/ (same as standalone)

Steam doesn’t isolate user preferences — Steam Blender and standalone Blender share the same ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/ folder. Removing one doesn’t affect the other’s app, but they share configuration.

Add-ons that install system-level files

Most Blender add-ons live entirely inside the user folder. A few install system-level helpers:

• Substance add-on: installs nothing system-level
• HDRI Hub add-on: installs nothing system-level
• MakeHuman MHX2 importer: caches in user folder only
• Auto-Rig Pro: user folder only
• BlenderKit: caches large asset libraries in ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/<version>/scripts/addons/blenderkit_data/

The BlenderKit cache can hit several GB if you’ve downloaded a lot of free assets. It’s part of the user folder cleanup in step 4.

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Common questions

Will I lose my .blend files? No. .blend files live wherever you saved them, not in the app’s data folders. Uninstalling Blender doesn’t touch them.

What about my custom shaders and node groups? These are saved inside .blend files (asset libraries) or in linked library files. They’re independent of the app. Uninstalling Blender preserves them, but you’ll need Blender (any version) to open them.

Can I keep my add-ons across installs? Yes. The user folder structure is consistent across Blender versions. Copy ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/<old version>/scripts/addons/ to a backup, install new Blender, and copy the addons folder into ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/<new version>/scripts/. Most add-ons just work.

Does this remove Cycles or Eevee shaders cache? Yes. Each version folder has a shader cache that gets removed with the user folder cleanup. Shader caches rebuild on first render after reinstall.

Manual versus automated

Blender’s user folder structure (one per version) makes manual cleanup tedious for long-term users. If you’ve been through 6 major versions, that’s 6 folders to navigate.

Sweep finds every Blender version’s data folder in one scan and shows you the size of each. If you’re keeping the current version but want to remove old version folders, Sweep flags those specifically. For one app’s uninstall, manual works. For long-term Blender users with multiple versions of accumulated data, automation is much faster.

Resetting Blender without uninstalling

If you need to reset Blender’s preferences without removing the app:

1. Quit Blender
2. Delete ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/<current version>/config/userpref.blend
3. Relaunch — Blender rebuilds preferences with defaults

For deeper resets including add-ons and caches:

1. Quit Blender
2. Delete the entire ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/<current version>/config/ folder
3. Relaunch

This clears keymaps, theme, and all preferences but preserves installed add-ons in the scripts/addons/ folder.

Reclaiming space without uninstalling

If you want to keep current Blender but free space:

1. Delete old version subfolders in ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/
2. Delete BlenderKit cache: ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/<current>/scripts/addons/blenderkit_data/
3. Clear cycles shader cache: ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/<current>/scripts/cycles_kernel_cache/

These three steps usually reclaim 5-15GB without affecting your current setup.