How to Reset a Mac App Without Reinstalling It

Apps misbehave. Photoshop crashes on launch. Slack won’t connect. A menu bar tool insists you’re not signed in even though you are. The first instinct is to reinstall, but reinstalling rarely fixes things — because the bug isn’t in the app, it’s in the preferences and caches the app reads when it starts up.

Resetting an app to its first-run state — without reinstalling — is faster and usually more effective. Here’s how.

Why reinstalling often doesn’t help

When you trash an app and reinstall it, macOS keeps your preferences and saved data on disk. The new app reads them on first launch, and you’re right back where you were — bug included.

This is by design. Apple wants reinstalling to feel continuous: drag back the same app, your settings persist. The downside: if your settings are the problem, the new install inherits them.

To actually reset an app, you need to remove the support files separately, then either reinstall or just relaunch.

What “reset” actually means

A full reset means removing:

• Preference files (.plist files in ~/Library/Preferences)
• Saved state (~/Library/Saved Application State/<bundle-id>.savedState/)
• Caches (~/Library/Caches/<bundle-id>/)
• Sometimes: Application Support, if the app stores corrupted state there
• Sometimes: Containers, for sandboxed apps

Not all of these need to go for every reset. The right minimum depends on what’s broken.

The minimum reset

Start with this. It fixes 70% of misbehaving apps and doesn’t touch your saved data.

1. Quit the app completely (Cmd+Q, not just close window).
2. Open Finder, hit Cmd+Shift+G, go to ~/Library/Preferences.
3. Find the file matching the app’s bundle ID — for Slack, it’s com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap.plist.
4. Move it to the desktop (don’t trash yet — easier to restore if needed).
5. Open Finder again, go to ~/Library/Saved Application State.
6. Find the matching folder — com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap.savedState/.
7. Move it to the desktop too.
8. Relaunch the app.

If the bug is gone, trash the files on the desktop. If not, restore them and try the next level of reset.

Finding the bundle ID

If you don’t know the app’s bundle ID:

osascript -e 'id of app "AppName"'

That command in Terminal returns the bundle ID. Or, in Finder, right-click the .app, choose Show Package Contents, open Contents/Info.plist, look for CFBundleIdentifier.

When the minimum reset isn’t enough

If clearing preferences didn’t help, the issue is probably in the cache or a deeper data file.

The next level:

1. Quit the app.
2. Move ~/Library/Caches/<bundle-id>/ to the desktop.
3. Relaunch.

Cache resets fix:

• Authentication issues (stale tokens)
• Sync issues (corrupted local index)
• Visual glitches (corrupted thumbnail or preview cache)
• Slow launch (huge cache the app is trying to read at startup)

When you need to nuke saved data

The most aggressive reset short of reinstalling. Save anything important first.

1. Quit the app.
2. Move ~/Library/Application Support/<App>/ to the desktop.
3. For sandboxed apps, also move ~/Library/Containers/<bundle-id>/ to the desktop.
4. Relaunch.

This treats the app as a fresh install — you’ll need to log in again, recreate any local settings, possibly re-sync data. But if the bug is rooted in the app’s own data store (a corrupted database, a malformed config file), this is what fixes it.

There’s a faster waySweep does the same hunt in seconds, with a preview before anything is removed. Try Sweep free →

A worked example: resetting Slack

Slack misbehaves often enough that this comes up regularly.

If Slack won’t connect or sign in:

1. Quit Slack completely (menu bar → Quit Slack).
2. Move ~/Library/Application Support/Slack/ to the desktop.
3. Move ~/Library/Caches/com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap/ to the desktop.
4. Relaunch Slack.
5. Sign in fresh.

If only the visual UI is broken (chat history not rendering, weird layout):

1. Quit Slack.
2. Move only the cache folder.
3. Relaunch.

If you just need to forget a workspace:

1. Use the in-app option (Settings → Sign out of all workspaces).

The point: pick the smallest hammer that fixes the problem.

Apps that have built-in reset options

Some apps offer a reset from inside the app itself. Worth checking before you start moving files:

• Visual Studio Code: Cmd+Shift+P → “Developer: Reset User Settings”
• Chrome: chrome://settings/reset
• Safari: Develop menu → Empty Caches (for cache reset only)
• Many Adobe apps: Hold Cmd+Shift+Option while launching, prompts to reset preferences

These are often less destructive than a full file-level reset because they preserve some categories of data the developer thought you’d want kept.

Apps that resist reset

A few categories of apps make reset trickier:

• License-managed apps. Resetting may unregister the app and require re-entering a license key. Save your key before nuking Application Support.
• Cloud-synced apps with local state. Sometimes the local state is the only copy of certain things — local-only notes in a notes app, unsaved changes in a project. Check before resetting.
• System-level apps. Anything that installs in /Applications/Utilities and writes to /Library may need reset of system-level files (admin password required).

Resetting App Store apps

App Store apps are sandboxed, so most of their data lives in ~/Library/Containers/<bundle-id>/.

To reset:

1. Quit the app.
2. Move ~/Library/Containers/<bundle-id>/ to the desktop.
3. Optionally, move ~/Library/Group Containers/<group-id>/ if the app uses extensions.
4. Relaunch.

Be aware: this resets the app entirely. App Store apps usually re-download any cloud-stored data on next launch.

Doing it with Sweep

Sweep’s app uninstaller has a “reset” mode that removes preferences and caches without removing the app itself. The list looks like a normal uninstall preview but with the .app bundle and Application Support optionally excluded.

Useful when:

• You’re troubleshooting and want to start fresh without re-downloading the app
• You’re handing off a Mac and want to clear app state without wiping the apps
• You’re prepping a known-good baseline before starting a project

The advantage over manual reset is that Sweep handles bundle-ID discovery, finds Containers and Group Containers automatically, and lets you confirm exactly what’s being removed before anything happens.

Make this one clickSweep handles all of this automatically and lets you approve before anything is deleted. Free for macOS →

When to actually reinstall

Reinstall is the right move when:

• The .app bundle itself is corrupted (rare but happens, especially after failed updates)
• Code-signing has broken (macOS refuses to launch it)
• You want a specific older or newer version
• Reset hasn’t worked and you suspect the install is broken

For everything else, reset before reinstall. Faster, less network usage, and often more effective.

Quick reset reference

A short cheat sheet:

1. Settings reset only → trash ~/Library/Preferences/<bundle-id>.plist
2. Cache reset only → trash ~/Library/Caches/<bundle-id>/
3. Soft reset → both of the above
4. Full reset (sandboxed) → trash ~/Library/Containers/<bundle-id>/
5. Full reset (non-sandboxed) → trash ~/Library/Application Support/<App>/ plus prefs and caches
6. Nuclear → all of the above plus ~/Library/Group Containers/<group-id>/

Always quit the app first. Always back up to desktop before trashing. Always relaunch after to confirm the fix.

When reset doesn’t work

If you’ve reset everything and the app is still broken, the issue is probably:

• A corrupted .app bundle → reinstall
• A macOS-level issue → check Console.app for errors
• An external dependency → printer driver, codec, kernel extension that the app needs
• Hardware → run Apple Diagnostics with Cmd+D at boot

Reset is the cheap first try. Reinstall is the second. System-level troubleshooting is the third.

For most app misbehavior, the first try is enough.