Help · Mac apps

How to uninstall Adobe Creative Cloud on a Mac.

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

Adobe's apps install background services, fonts, plug-ins and a desktop app that manages them all. Dragging Photoshop to the Trash leaves most of that behind. Adobe's own uninstallers know about all of it, so use them, in this order.

Before you start: make sure Creative Cloud has finished syncing your files, and save any custom presets, brushes or plug-ins you'd want again. Removing preferences is permanent.

1. Uninstall each Adobe app

Save your work and quit the Adobe app.
Open the Creative Cloud desktop app and go to Apps › All Apps.
Click the … (More actions) next to the app and choose Uninstall.
Adobe asks about preferences: Remove deletes settings, plug-ins and other preferences; Keep leaves them for a reinstall.
Repeat for every Adobe app.

Can't open Creative Cloud? Open the app's folder in Applications (for example Adobe Photoshop 2026) and run the Uninstall shortcut inside it.

2. Uninstall the Creative Cloud desktop app

This works only once every Adobe app is gone.

Download Adobe's Creative Cloud Uninstaller for macOS from Adobe's help page on uninstalling the Creative Cloud desktop app, and unzip it.
Open Creative Cloud Uninstaller. If macOS asks, choose Open.
Click Uninstall, then Close.

3. Still broken? The Cleaner Tool

Adobe's Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool is a troubleshooting tool for when uninstalling or reinstalling fails, not an everyday uninstaller. Before you run it, Adobe asks you to:

quit every Adobe app, and quit Creative Cloud Core Service and Adobe Content Synchronizer in Activity Monitor
let file sync finish, and back up anything in Adobe's folders you want to keep, including ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CoreSync

Then open the tool, select the product and click Cleanup Selected, and restart when it's done.

Adobe doesn't publish a full list of the folders its apps leave in your Library. Folders named Adobe in ~/Library/Application Support, ~/Library/Caches and ~/Library/Preferences are the usual places, but check you have no other Adobe app (such as Acrobat Reader) still using them before removing anything by hand.

Based on the developer's own instructions, checked October 2026. Menu names can change between versions.

Then check for anything Adobe left behind.

Once the app is gone, Pangalin Uninstaller's free Leftovers scan lists files left behind by apps that are no longer installed, by name and size. Apple's files are never included. It also shows where each one is and moves the ones you choose to the Trash in one go, with Undo.

Download free for Mac See the guide

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