How to Uninstall Lightroom Classic and Lightroom From Your Mac

Lightroom on Mac is two completely different apps with similar names. Lightroom Classic is the old desktop-first version photographers love (catalog-based, local files). Lightroom (no “Classic”) is the newer cloud-first version. They have different bundle IDs, different folder structures, different preview caches, and different uninstall procedures.

I’ve watched people uninstall Lightroom Classic and assume their massive preview caches went with it. They didn’t — the previews are next to your catalog, not in ~/Library. A photographer’s catalog with 100k images can have a 60GB preview file that just sits there forever after Lightroom Classic is gone.

Here’s how to clean up either version (or both) properly.

Lightroom Classic vs Lightroom: which do you have?

Open /Applications/ and check:

• Adobe Lightroom Classic — the catalog-based desktop app. Bundle ID com.adobe.LightroomClassicCC7
• Adobe Lightroom — the cloud-first app (formerly “Lightroom CC”). Bundle ID com.adobe.lightroomCC

You may have both. Their files don’t conflict but they’re independent — uninstalling one doesn’t touch the other.

Step 1: Quit Lightroom and Adobe processes

Open Activity Monitor. Search “Adobe” and “Lightroom”:

1. Adobe Lightroom Classic / Adobe Lightroom (whichever you have)
2. Adobe Crash Reporter
3. Core Sync
4. AdobeIPCBroker
5. AGSService
6. CCXProcess
7. CCLibrary

Lightroom (cloud) keeps a sync agent running called CoreSync that uploads your photos. Make sure it’s quit before you start deleting files.

Step 2: Use the Creative Cloud uninstaller

For each Lightroom you want to remove:

1. Open Creative Cloud Desktop
2. Find Lightroom Classic or Lightroom in installed apps
3. Click the three dots → Uninstall
4. Choose Yes when asked about preferences

This handles license deregistration. For Lightroom (cloud), the uninstaller also detaches your sync session — important if you’re moving to a new machine.

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Step 3: Lightroom Classic leftover files

After running the official uninstaller for Classic, check these paths:

User-level

• ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/ — develop presets, profiles, plugins
• ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom CC Settings/ — old version data, may exist
• ~/Library/Caches/com.adobe.LightroomClassicCC7/
• ~/Library/Caches/com.adobe.LightroomClassicCC/
• ~/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.LightroomClassicCC7.plist
• ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe Lightroom Classic CC 7 Preferences.agprefs
• ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.adobe.LightroomClassicCC7.savedState/
• ~/Library/Logs/Adobe/Lightroom Classic/

System-level (admin password required)

• /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom Classic CC/

Step 4: Find and delete the catalog and previews

This is where most space gets reclaimed. Lightroom Classic’s catalog is .lrcat and its previews are the giant siblings.

Default catalog location:

• ~/Pictures/Lightroom/

In there you’ll find:

• Lightroom Catalog.lrcat — the catalog database (usually 100MB-2GB)
• Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata — standard previews (often 5-30GB)
• Lightroom Catalog Smart Previews.lrdata — DNG-based smart previews (10-50GB if heavily used)
• Lightroom Catalog Helper.lrdata

The previews are huge. Don’t delete the catalog file (.lrcat) unless you’re sure you don’t need it. Catalogs contain all your edits, ratings, keywords, and stack info — losing it loses years of work. Back it up before deleting.

If you may want to reinstall Lightroom Classic later, keep the .lrcat file. You can recreate previews from it. Lose the catalog and your edits are gone.

Step 5: Lightroom (cloud) leftover files

If you’re removing Lightroom (the cloud version), it has a different bundle ID and different file locations.

User-level

• ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom CC/ — local sync data
• ~/Library/Caches/com.adobe.lightroomCC/
• ~/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.lightroomCC.plist
• ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.adobe.lightroomCC.savedState/
• ~/Library/Logs/Adobe/Lightroom CC/

The local sync folder (this can be huge)

• ~/Pictures/Lightroom Library.lrlibrary/ — original photos and edits synced from Adobe Cloud

A full sync can hit 1TB on a heavy user. Before deleting, verify your photos are backed up to Adobe’s cloud or to an external drive — once Lightroom Library.lrlibrary is gone, the local copies of your originals go with it (the cloud copies remain in your Adobe account).

Step 6: System-level Adobe cleanup

If you’re removing all Adobe apps:

• /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Lightroom Classic 13/
• /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.adobe.acc.installer.v2
• /Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist
• /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.adobe.acc.installer.v2.plist

Don’t delete these if you have other Adobe apps still installed.

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Step 7: Lightroom plugins

Third-party Lightroom Classic plugins live in:

• ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/Modules/
• ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/Plugins/

Common ones include:

1. Photolemur, Luminar plugins
2. Excire Search
3. Topaz plugins (DeNoise, Sharpen, Photo AI)
4. Nik Collection (DxO)
5. Helicon Focus
6. LR/Mogrify
7. Various Lightroom export plugins

Removing the modules folder removes all plugins at once. If you’ve licensed these plugins, the licenses stay with the plugin developer’s app, not in this folder.

Step 8: Develop presets and profiles

Custom develop presets and profiles live in:

• ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/Settings/
• ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles/

If you’ve built up a preset library over years, back this folder up before deleting. There’s no easy way to recover hand-tuned develop settings.

Step 9: Empty Trash and reboot

Mandatory step. Adobe daemons hold file handles that aren’t released until reboot. After login, verify Activity Monitor shows no Adobe or Lightroom processes.

Realistic space recovery

Lightroom Classic uninstall reclaims:

• 1.5GB from the app bundle
• 5-50GB from preview caches (.lrdata)
• 10-100GB+ from smart previews
• 1-2GB from app caches and preferences

Lightroom (cloud) uninstall reclaims:

• 1GB from app bundle
• However much your local sync used (can be 100GB+)

Total potential: anywhere from 8GB to 200GB depending on usage.

What if I want to reset Lightroom Classic without uninstalling?

If Lightroom Classic is misbehaving but you don’t want to lose your catalog:

1. Quit Lightroom Classic
2. Hold Option+Shift while launching
3. Pick Reset Preferences

This rebuilds preferences without touching the catalog or previews. Fixes most “Lightroom won’t open” or “preferences corrupted” issues.

Manual versus automated

Lightroom’s bundle IDs are confusing — com.adobe.LightroomClassicCC7, com.adobe.LightroomClassicCC, com.adobe.lightroomCC, plus older versions like com.adobe.lightroom6. Each variant has its own caches and preferences. Manual cleanup works but you have to be thorough.

Sweep’s app uninstaller catches every Lightroom-prefixed bundle, including the old versions you may have forgotten about. It also flags the catalog and previews as separate items so you can decide what to keep — useful if you want to remove the app but preserve your catalog for a future reinstall. Manual works for one-offs; an automated tool helps when you’ve got years of Adobe history layered up.