How to Fully Uninstall Microsoft Office on Mac

In short: Dragging the Office apps to the Trash is only half the job. This guide walks you through how to uninstall Microsoft Office on Mac cleanly, including the containers, license files, and preferences most people leave behind. Every step is reversible.

Microsoft 365 and standalone Office installs are useful, but they leave a wide footprint on macOS. When you drag Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook to the Trash, the apps disappear, yet their support files, caches, activation data, and preferences often stay behind. That leftover clutter can cause a reinstall to inherit an old, broken license or a corrupted profile. This guide shows you how to uninstall Microsoft Office on Mac fully and safely on macOS 14 (Sonoma) and macOS 15 (Sequoia), then verify nothing important remains.

Before You Start: Sign Out and Back Up

Two quick steps save you headaches later. First, open any Office app and sign out of your account under Word > (menu) > Sign Out so your license deactivates cleanly on this Mac. Second, if you use Outlook, remember that your local mail, calendar, and contacts live in Outlook's data files. If you rely on POP accounts or local-only data, export or note it first. Most modern Exchange and IMAP accounts re-sync from the server, so a fresh install pulls your mail back down.

Then close every Office app completely. If Outlook or the Microsoft AutoUpdate helper is still running, quit it from the Dock or press Command-Option-Escape to force quit lingering processes so files aren't locked when you remove them.

Step 1: Remove the Office Applications

Open Finder, go to your Applications folder, and select the Office apps: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft OneNote if present. Drag them to the Trash, or right-click and choose Move to Trash. This handles the apps themselves, but not the support data tucked into your Library folder.

Step 2: Clear the Containers and Group Containers

Office stores most of its data in sandboxed containers under your user Library. To reach it, open Finder, press Command-Shift-G, and paste ~/Library/Containers. Look for folders that begin with com.microsoft, such as com.microsoft.Word, com.microsoft.Excel, com.microsoft.Powerpoint, com.microsoft.Outlook, and com.microsoft.onenote.mac. Move those to the Trash.

Next, go to ~/Library/Group Containers and remove the shared Office folders, typically UBF8T346G9.ms, UBF8T346G9.Office, and UBF8T346G9.OfficeOsfWebHost. These hold shared settings and, importantly, the parts of your activation state that a plain app delete leaves untouched.

Step 3: Delete Preferences, Caches, and License Leftovers

A few more locations hold Office remnants. In each, remove only the items whose names start with com.microsoft:

• ~/Library/Preferences — files like com.microsoft.Word.plist and com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist.
• ~/Library/Caches — folders such as com.microsoft.Word and com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.
• ~/Library/Application Scripts — matching com.microsoft script folders.

The activation token that tells macOS your copy is licensed lives in your login keychain. Open Keychain Access (in Applications > Utilities), select the login keychain, and search for Microsoft Office. Delete the entry named Microsoft Office Identities Cache and any com.microsoft credentials. Removing this is what clears a stale license so a future install activates fresh.

Step 4: Remove AutoUpdate and Verify

Microsoft AutoUpdate runs quietly in the background. Delete Microsoft AutoUpdate.app from /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0 (this one lives in the system-level Library, so you'll be asked for your password). You can also remove the /Library/Application Support/Microsoft folder if it only contains Office components. Never touch anything inside /System — macOS protects those files, and Office does not install there.

To confirm the cleanup, open Finder, press Command-Shift-G, and spot-check ~/Library/Containers and ~/Library/Group Containers again for any com.microsoft stragglers. A quick search of your keychain for microsoft should now come up empty.

A Note on Reversibility and Privacy

Everything above goes to the Trash, which means it is reversible. If you delete the wrong folder or realize you needed an Outlook data file, open the Trash and choose Put Back before you empty it. That safety margin is the whole point of previewing what you're about to remove and sending it to the Trash rather than permanently erasing it. It's also worth knowing that a good cleaner has no reason to phone home about what you delete; if you want to confirm that, a firewall like Little Snitch will show you exactly what does and doesn't make outbound connections.

Let a Cleaner Handle the Leftovers

Hunting through the Library folder by hand works, but a dedicated uninstaller finds the containers, caches, and preference files for you and shows a preview before anything moves. If you want that, CoreSweep is a solid free pick: it's free forever with an optional one-time Pro upgrade ($49), sends removals to the Trash so they stay reversible, and keeps zero telemetry. As a best-value runner-up, SkoonMac is also free, with a one-time Pro at just $19. Either way, preview first, keep deletions in the Trash, and you can undo any mistake before you commit.

Frequently asked questions

Does dragging the Office apps to the Trash fully uninstall Microsoft Office on Mac?

No. Dragging Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook to the Trash removes the apps, but their sandboxed containers, group containers, caches, preferences, and activation data stay behind in your Library folder. Those leftovers can even cause a reinstall to inherit an old, broken license. A full uninstall means clearing those support files too, then verifying nothing important remains.

Will I lose my emails if I uninstall Outlook on Mac?

Most modern Exchange and IMAP accounts re-sync from the server, so a fresh install pulls your mail back down automatically. However, POP accounts and any local-only mail, calendar, or contacts live in Outlook's data files, so export or note those before you remove anything. Because every step sends files to the Trash rather than erasing them, you can use Put Back to recover an Outlook data file if you realize you still needed it.

Why does my reinstalled Office still show an old or broken license?

The activation token that tells macOS your copy is licensed lives in your login keychain, not in the app itself, so a plain app delete leaves it untouched. Open Keychain Access, select the login keychain, and delete the Microsoft Office Identities Cache entry along with any com.microsoft credentials. Removing this, plus the shared Group Containers, is what clears a stale license so a future install activates fresh.

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