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How to uninstall VLC on a Mac

Remove VLC from Applications and the few small files it leaves: preferences, a media library cache and saved state. The whole job takes a minute.

3 min read

How do I uninstall VLC on a Mac?

  1. Quit VLC and move it from Applications to the Trash. Ours, version 3.0.23, was 245 MB.
  2. In Finder press ⌘ ⇧ G and remove these, if present: ~/Library/Preferences/org.videolan.vlc (a folder), ~/Library/Preferences/org.videolan.vlc.plist, ~/Library/Application Support/org.videolan.vlc, ~/Library/Caches/org.videolan.vlc and ~/Library/HTTPStorages/org.videolan.vlc.

On our Mac those leftovers came to under 150 KB together.

How do I reset VLC without uninstalling?

Remove only the preferences folder and plist above, with VLC quit. VLC starts with its default settings next time. In VLC, Preferences, Reset All does the same from inside the app.

Why dragging to the Trash is not always enough: delete versus uninstall.

Common questions

How do I completely remove VLC from my Mac?

Move VLC to the Trash, then remove the org.videolan.vlc folders and plist in ~/Library/Preferences, Application Support and Caches.

How do I reset VLC settings on Mac?

Use Reset All in VLC's Preferences, or delete ~/Library/Preferences/org.videolan.vlc with VLC quit.

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