Help · Guides · Pangalin Uninstaller

How to reset an app without reinstalling it.

By Grant and Brad, who make Pangalin's apps · Updated 10 October 2026

When an app keeps crashing, won't sign in or has muddled settings, starting fresh often fixes it. Resetting moves the app's settings, caches and support files to the Trash and keeps the app, so it opens as if newly installed. It's free.

Resetting removes the app's own data: preferences, saved windows and, for some apps, documents or libraries kept inside its support folder. Check the list carefully, and keep a backup of anything you'd miss.

Reset with Pangalin Uninstaller

1. Quit the app you want to reset.
2. In Pangalin Uninstaller, click Apps, find the app and click Uninstall…. This opens the review list; nothing happens yet.
3. Untick anything you want to keep. The app itself isn't touched by a reset, whether or not its row is ticked. Items in the Mac-wide /Library and the app's hidden folders in your home folder are included too, so check those as well.
4. Click Reset (keep app). The ticked files move to the Trash straight away; there's no second confirmation.
5. Open the app. It starts with its first-run settings.

Not what you wanted? Click Undo in the status line to put everything back (more about Undo).

Doing it by hand

1. Quit the app.
2. In Finder choose Go › Go to Folder… (⇧⌘G) and go to ~/Library.
3. Move the app's items to the Trash from Preferences (files like com.company.AppName.plist), Application Support, Caches and Saved Application State. For App Store apps, look in Containers.
4. Restart the Mac, or log out and back in, so macOS lets go of the old preferences, then open the app.

Related guides

• Uninstall an app completely
• Undo a removal

Checked against Pangalin Uninstaller 1.6.3, 10 October 2026.