Rectangle: how to uninstall it cleanly

To uninstall Rectangle on a Mac, quit it first, then move Rectangle.app from the Applications folder to the Trash. The developer's README says exactly that, and adds one Terminal command to remove the saved settings: defaults delete com.knollsoft.Rectangle. If Rectangle was installed with Homebrew, the developer recommends brew uninstall --zap rectangle instead, so the settings files go too. Most failed uninstalls come from skipping the first step. Rectangle keeps running in the background, and when its menu bar icon has been hidden there is no obvious way to quit it. The sections below cover that case, the leftover permission and login item, and what to keep before deleting anything.

Before deleting: keep the settings or not

Rectangle stores its shortcuts and snap areas in one place, and the developer documents both where it is and how to export it. Deciding first saves rebuilding them later.

The Rectangle README on GitHub states that the configuration is stored with NSUserDefaults at ~/Library/Preferences/com.knollsoft.Rectangle.plist, and that this file can be backed up or moved to another Mac. Since version 0.44 there is also an Export Config button in the settings window that saves everything, including keyboard shortcuts, as a JSON file. Import Config reads it back.

Three common situations:

• Reinstalling to fix a problem. Export the config, uninstall fully, reinstall, then import. The README notes that a Homebrew install with settings that do not persist after restart needs a reinstall with the zap option.
• Moving to Rectangle Pro. The Rectangle Pro page lists "Load your shortcuts from Rectangle" as a feature, so keep Rectangle installed until Pro has read them.
• Leaving for good. Nothing needs to be kept. Skip straight to quitting.

The exported JSON is small and readable. Saving a copy in a documents folder costs nothing and means the shortcut layout can be restored if the decision changes.

Step 1: quit Rectangle, even if its icon is hidden

A running app cannot be deleted cleanly. Apple's guide to deleting or uninstalling apps on Mac puts this first: if the app is open, quit it before continuing, and if the Mac says an app is in use, make sure it is not open.

With the menu bar icon visible, click it and choose Quit Rectangle at the bottom of the menu.

The harder case is when the icon is gone. Rectangle has a "Hide menu bar icon" option in its settings, and the app's own help text says that when the icon is hidden, relaunching Rectangle from Finder opens the settings window. So:

1. Open the Applications folder in Finder.
2. Double-click Rectangle. Because it is already running, this opens its settings window instead of starting a second copy.
3. Turn the menu bar icon back on, then quit from the menu.

Two other ways work without the settings window:

• Open Activity Monitor, search for Rectangle, select it, and click the stop button at the top of the window, then choose Quit.
• In Terminal, run osascript -e 'quit app "Rectangle"'.

To confirm it has stopped, look for Rectangle in Activity Monitor once more. If it reappears after a few seconds, it was relaunched by a login item, covered in step 4.

Step 2: remove the app

For a copy downloaded from rectangleapp.com or the GitHub releases page, drag Rectangle from the Applications folder to the Trash, or select it and choose File > Move to Trash. Enter an administrator name and password if asked, then empty the Trash.

Rectangle does not ship a separate uninstaller app. Apple's page explains that when an app has no uninstaller, dragging it to the Trash is the method, and that documents created with the app are not removed. Rectangle does not create documents, so the only things left behind are settings and system records, handled in the next steps.

Two leftovers from the download itself are worth clearing:

• The disk image. If Rectangle was installed from a .dmg, the mounted "Rectangle" volume may still appear in the Finder sidebar under Locations. Click the eject button next to it.
• The installer file. Delete Rectangle.dmg from the Downloads folder. If the Trash refuses to empty because the file is in use, the disk image is still mounted, so eject it first.

The Rectangle README currently lists macOS 14 or later as the supported system, with older builds such as v1.100 for macOS 10.15 to 13. The removal steps are the same on every version.

Step 3: delete the saved settings

Dragging the app to the Trash leaves its preferences file behind. That is deliberate: reinstalling picks up where it left off. For a clean removal, run the command from the README's Uninstallation section in Terminal:

defaults delete com.knollsoft.Rectangle

This deletes the stored defaults for Rectangle. Run it only after Rectangle has quit, so the app is not running while its settings are removed.

Homebrew's cask definition gives a fuller list of what Rectangle can leave on disk. The Homebrew listing for Rectangle shows version 2.0.3 and a requirement of macOS 14 or later, and its zap section moves these paths to the Trash:

• ~/Library/Preferences/com.knollsoft.Rectangle.plist (the settings file named in the README)
• ~/Library/Application Support/Rectangle (where the README says Rectangle looks for a config file to load)
• ~/Library/Caches/com.knollsoft.Rectangle
• ~/Library/HTTPStorages/com.knollsoft.Rectangle
• ~/Library/WebKit/com.knollsoft.Rectangle
• ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.knollsoft.RectangleLauncher
• ~/Library/Containers/com.knollsoft.RectangleLauncher

To reach these in Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder, paste a path, and press Return. Delete whichever exist. Not every Mac will have all of them, depending on version and use.

Step 4: clear the login item and the Accessibility permission

Rectangle has a "Launch on login" option, and Homebrew's uninstall step removes a login item named Rectangle. A manual removal should do the same.

Open Apple menu > System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions. Apple's guide to Login Items & Extensions settings describes the Open at Login list; select Rectangle if it appears and click the minus button. An entry with a warning symbol points to an app that was moved or deleted and can be removed the same way.

Rectangle also needs Accessibility permission to move windows, and that entry stays in System Settings after the app is gone. The README gives two ways to reset it:

• In Terminal: tccutil reset All com.knollsoft.Rectangle
• In System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility: first turn Rectangle off, then remove it with the minus button. The README stresses doing both, in that order.

The README presents these steps as a fix for a Rectangle that stops responding, not only for removal. If the goal is a reinstall because windows stopped snapping, resetting the permission and then granting it again is often the actual fix, and the uninstall may not be needed at all.

The Homebrew route in one command

For Rectangle installed with brew install --cask rectangle, Homebrew does every step above in one go. The README's tip is to include the zap flag:

brew uninstall --zap rectangle

According to the cask definition on Homebrew's site, the uninstall quits the running app, removes the Rectangle login item, deletes the app from Applications, and with zap, moves the files in the table above to the Trash. The Accessibility entry is not part of the zap list, so remove it from Privacy & Security afterward.

Mixing methods causes the most confusing results. If Rectangle was installed with Homebrew and then deleted by dragging it to the Trash, Homebrew still believes it is installed. Running the uninstall command with zap afterward is the way to clear that record and the leftover files together.

Rectangle Pro is a separate app with its own license, sold through the reseller Paddle. Its page states one license can be active on three devices at a time. Uninstalling Rectangle does not touch Rectangle Pro, so if both are installed, Pro has to be quit and removed on its own.

On a Mac with more than one user

Every path in step 3 starts with a tilde, which means the current user's home folder. On a Mac shared between several accounts, each account that ran Rectangle has its own preferences file, its own login item, and its own entries under Library. Deleting the app from the main Applications folder removes it for everyone, but the settings in other accounts stay until each of those users runs the delete command or removes the files.

Apple's uninstall page also points out that some apps are installed in the Applications folder inside a home folder rather than the main one. If Rectangle was dragged into a personal Applications folder, other accounts never had it, and the removal only needs to happen in that one account. The Spotlight search in the next section shows which locations still hold a copy.

Checking that nothing is left

A few Terminal commands confirm the removal worked. None of them change anything; they only report.

pgrep -x Rectangle

No output means no Rectangle process is running. A number means it is still running, or was relaunched by a login item.

defaults read com.knollsoft.Rectangle

After the defaults have been deleted, this returns an error saying the domain does not exist. If it prints a list of settings instead, the preferences are still there, and the delete command from step 3 needs to be run again with Rectangle quit.

mdfind "kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier == 'com.knollsoft.Rectangle'"

This asks Spotlight for any copy of the app anywhere on the disk. A second copy in the Downloads folder, on a mounted disk image, or in a user's own Applications folder is a common reason Rectangle seems to come back after being deleted.

brew list --cask | grep -i rectangle

For Homebrew users, an empty result means Homebrew no longer tracks the app.

Finally, open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility and confirm Rectangle is not listed. If all of these come back clean, the uninstall is complete.

If the goal is fewer background apps

People often remove Rectangle because macOS now tiles windows on its own. Apple's page on Mac window tiling icons and keyboard shortcuts lists the built-in options under the green window button and Window > Move & Resize: Fill with Fn-Control-F, Left and Right halves with Fn-Control and the arrow keys, Return to Previous Size with Fn-Control-R, plus layouts for two to four windows. For halves and quarters, that covers the core of what many people used Rectangle for. Rectangle still adds thirds, sixths, repeated shortcuts that cycle sizes, and custom snap areas.

The README's troubleshooting section also warns against running more than one window manager at a time. If a second tool is being tried, quit Rectangle first.

Removing a background utility is also a good moment to look at the menu bar as a whole. Each tool of this kind adds an icon near the clock. The features page shows one way to keep the icons that remain without letting them crowd the bar.

What to change first

Quit Rectangle, using Finder or Activity Monitor if the icon is hidden, then run the Homebrew zap command or delete the app and its preferences by hand. If the menu bar is still crowded after the cleanup, Koffret hides the icons that are rarely used and brings them back on demand.