Rectangle: how to uninstall it cleanly

Dragging an app to the Trash removes the app. It does not remove the preferences file, the support folders, the accessibility grant sitting in System Settings, or the login item entry. For a utility that runs constantly and drives other applications, all four of those outlive the icon in the Applications folder.

None of the leftovers cause harm. What they cause is confusion later: an entry for an app that no longer exists in the Privacy list, and old shortcut assignments springing back to life on reinstall as though nothing was ever removed. A complete uninstall has three layers. This covers each one, plus the decision worth making before starting.

Decide whether the configuration should survive

There is one question to answer before anything is deleted: is a reinstall likely.

If it is, export the configuration first. The settings tab has a button that writes the whole shortcut assignment to a JSON file, and the same tab reads it back. That file makes a future reinstall a thirty second job rather than an evening of rebuilding key bindings from memory.

If the reason for uninstalling is that the behaviour was wrong, do the opposite and make sure the preferences are cleared. Leaving them in place means a reinstall inherits every previous choice, including whichever setting caused the problem in the first place. Starting from defaults is only possible if the old defaults are gone.

There is a third thing worth capturing before the app disappears: the shortcut list itself. Those key combinations are released back to the system as soon as the app quits, and if the plan is to move window management to a different tool, having a record of what was bound to what makes the transition much shorter. A screenshot of the shortcuts tab is enough.

Layer one: quit the app, then remove it

The official instruction is short.

Rectangle can be uninstalled by quitting the app and moving it to the trash.

The order matters more than the wording suggests. Dragging the app out of the Applications folder while it is still running leaves the process alive: the menu bar icon stays, the shortcuts keep firing, and the app appears to be haunting the machine. Quit from the menu bar item first, then remove the application.

If the menu bar icon was hidden through the app's own setting, there is no visible quit command. Two routes work. Launch the app again from the Applications folder, which opens the settings window and restores normal access to quitting, or find the process in Activity Monitor and quit it there.

Shortcuts that still work after quitting mean the process is still running. Check Activity Monitor before assuming something is broken. It is also worth turning off launch at login before removing the app, otherwise a restart part way through the process brings it back.

If Homebrew installed it, let Homebrew remove it

An install through the Homebrew cask should be removed the same way, and the zap flag matters here:

brew uninstall --zap rectangle

Without zap, only the application bundle is removed and every preference file stays exactly where it was. With it, the support files are cleared out in the same step, which makes the next two sections unnecessary.

This flag solves one specific problem documented by the project: on some Homebrew installations, settings fail to persist across restarts of the app. The prescribed fix is to uninstall with zap and reinstall, which clears the stale preference entries that cause it. Anyone whose configuration keeps resetting to defaults should try that before concluding the app is broken.

Layer two: preferences and support folders

Settings are stored through the standard macOS defaults system, so one command removes them:

defaults delete com.knollsoft.Rectangle

That clears shortcut assignments, repeat behaviour, gap sizes and every other stored option. The file behind it is at ~/Library/Preferences/com.knollsoft.Rectangle.plist.

Doing this in Finder instead requires reaching a folder that macOS hides by default. Open the Go menu and hold the option key, and Library appears in the list.

Seven locations are involved in total. The list below matches the paths named in the Homebrew cask definition, which is the most reliable published inventory of what the app touches.

Path	What it holds
~/Library/Preferences/com.knollsoft.Rectangle.plist	Settings
~/Library/Application Support/Rectangle	Configuration file read at launch
~/Library/Caches/com.knollsoft.Rectangle	Temporary files
~/Library/HTTPStorages/com.knollsoft.Rectangle	Network state from update checks
~/Library/WebKit/com.knollsoft.Rectangle	Working data for embedded web views
~/Library/Application Scripts/com.knollsoft.RectangleLauncher	Legacy launch at login helper
~/Library/Containers/com.knollsoft.RectangleLauncher	Legacy launch at login helper

The last two relate to an older mechanism for starting at login and only exist on systems that have carried the app forward from earlier versions. Newer macOS releases register the main app itself as a login item instead.

Check names carefully before deleting anything in the Library. Other applications keep folders in the same directories, and the safe rule is to remove only entries beginning with com.knollsoft.Rectangle plus the folder named Rectangle. Anyone uncomfortable deleting outright can move the items to the Desktop, use the Mac normally for a few days, and empty them once nothing has complained.

One folder in that list is worth a second look before it goes. The configuration folder under Application Support is where an exported JSON file can be placed to have its contents loaded at the next launch. On a machine that is being decommissioned this is irrelevant, but on a machine where the app might return, copying that folder somewhere safe preserves a working setup at no cost. The app renames the file with a timestamp after reading it, so a copy kept outside the folder is the only version that survives untouched.

Total size across all seven is under a few megabytes. This is not a disk space exercise. The point is that a reinstall starts clean, and that the Library stays readable for the next person who has to audit it.

Layer three: the two records macOS keeps

This is the layer most guides skip. Rectangle was granted accessibility access in order to move other applications' windows, and that grant is held by macOS rather than by the app. Removing the app does not remove the grant.

Open System Settings, go to Privacy and Security, then Accessibility. The entry will still be listed. Select it and remove it with the minus button. The same thing can be done from the terminal, scoped to that one bundle identifier:

tccutil reset All com.knollsoft.Rectangle

This affects only the named app. Permissions granted to everything else are untouched. It is also useful during a reinstall, because a partially stale permission record is a common cause of an app that has permission on paper but cannot move a window.

Leaving old grants in place has a cost that is easy to underestimate. Accessibility access permits reading keystrokes and controlling other applications, which makes it one of the strongest permissions on the system. A list cluttered with apps that no longer exist makes it harder to spot the one entry that should not be there. Reviewing that list once a year, and removing anything unrecognised, is a habit worth keeping regardless of this particular app.

The second record is the login item. On macOS 13 and later, launching at login registers the app under System Settings, General, Login Items. If an entry remains after the app is gone, remove it there.

Confirming the removal actually worked

Three quick checks confirm the job is finished, and each takes a few seconds.

The first is a shortcut test. Press whichever combination used to send a window to the left half. Nothing should happen. If the window still moves, either the process is running or a second window manager is installed and was quietly handling the same key all along.

The second is the Privacy list. Reopen System Settings, Privacy and Security, Accessibility, and confirm the entry is gone rather than merely switched off. A toggled off entry is still a stored grant, and it will be waiting the next time the same app is installed.

The third is a restart. Log out and back in, or restart the Mac, and watch the menu bar as the desktop appears. A login item that was missed shows up here and nowhere else, because nothing else triggers it.

Rectangle Pro uses a different identifier

The paid application from the same developer follows the same three layers, but every command changes. Its bundle identifier is com.knollsoft.Hookshot rather than com.knollsoft.Rectangle, so the defaults command and the permission reset both need that substitution.

This trips up anyone who installed both to compare them. Removing one while the other remains produces symptoms that look like a failed uninstall: shortcuts that still fire, an icon still sitting in the menu bar. Before troubleshooting, confirm which of the two is actually still installed.

Licensing deserves one check too. A Pro licence can be active on a limited number of devices at once, so a Mac that is about to be sold or returned should have its activation released while it still boots. Recovering a slot afterwards is a support conversation rather than a click.

Removing an app is not the same as clearing the menu bar

Once everything is gone, look at the menu bar. One icon fewer. Whether that solved the actual problem depends on what the problem was.

Uninstalls of this kind usually have one of two motives. Either the tool behaved in a way that did not suit, in which case the next step is finding a different one. Or the tool was fine and the menu bar was simply too crowded, in which case removing a working utility is a strange way to reclaim thirty pixels. The features go with it.

Rectangle can hide its own icon from its settings, which keeps the functionality and removes the visual clutter. That works well for one app. It works much less well at eight or ten, where the routine becomes opening eight separate preference windows to find eight differently worded checkboxes, and where some apps offer no such option at all.

Managing the bar as a whole avoids that. The deciding factor between tools in that category is what happens after an icon is hidden: whether reaching it means expanding everything first, or whether it remains directly clickable. That distinction is described on Features and set against the alternatives on How it compares. Questions about which icons are worth keeping visible are collected on the FAQ.

What to do first

Separate the two questions before deleting anything: is the function unwanted, or is the icon unwanted. If the function is unwanted, work through all three layers above and finish the job properly. If only the icon is in the way, hide it instead, and if several apps are in the same position, hide all of them in one place with Koffret rather than uninstalling tools that were doing their job.