How to Fully Uninstall Microsoft Office on Mac in 2026

Dragging Microsoft Word or Excel to the Trash does not fully uninstall Microsoft Office on Mac. Office leaves behind license files, Microsoft AutoUpdate, cached data, fonts, and a scattered collection of com.microsoft.* preference files across your user Library — all of which can block a clean reinstall or cause activation errors on a new installation. This guide walks through a complete, manual removal and shows where common leftovers hide.

Why a Simple Drag-to-Trash Removal Fails

macOS applications can store data in up to six separate locations outside their .app bundle. Microsoft Office is one of the worst offenders here. A typical Office 365 installation touches:

• Application Support — license tokens, OneDrive state, Teams databases
• Caches — per-app disk caches that can run into gigabytes for Teams alone
• Preferences — dozens of com.microsoft.* plist files controlling activation and UI state
• Containers — sandboxed data for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook
• LaunchAgents — Microsoft AutoUpdate's background daemon
• Internet Plug-Ins and Fonts — Office-specific fonts installed system-wide

If any of these survive a reinstall, Office can pick up a stale or corrupted license state and refuse to activate, or AutoUpdate can continue running even though the apps are gone.

Step 1 — Quit All Microsoft Processes

Before deleting anything, make sure no Microsoft process is running. Open Activity Monitor (Applications → Utilities → Activity Monitor), search for "Microsoft", and force-quit every match. You should also stop the AutoUpdate daemon:

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist 2>/dev/null
launchctl unload /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist 2>/dev/null

These commands are safe to run even if the files do not exist — the 2>/dev/null suppresses the "No such file" error.

Step 2 — Remove the Application Bundles

Drag each of the following from /Applications to the Trash (or use Terminal):

• Microsoft Word.app
• Microsoft Excel.app
• Microsoft PowerPoint.app
• Microsoft Outlook.app
• Microsoft OneNote.app
• Microsoft Teams.app
• OneDrive.app
• Microsoft AutoUpdate.app

sudo rm -rf /Applications/Microsoft\ Word.app \
  /Applications/Microsoft\ Excel.app \
  /Applications/Microsoft\ PowerPoint.app \
  /Applications/Microsoft\ Outlook.app \
  /Applications/Microsoft\ OneNote.app \
  /Applications/Microsoft\ Teams.app \
  /Applications/OneDrive.app \
  "/Applications/Microsoft AutoUpdate.app"

Note: sudo rm -rf is permanent — there is no Trash safety net. Double-check the paths before pressing Return.

Step 3 — Delete Leftover Files in Your User Library

The paths below are the most common sources of Office debris. Tilde (~) means your home folder.

Application Support

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.microsoft.errorreporting
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/MicrosoftEdge   # if Edge is installed

Caches

rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.Word
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.Excel
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.Powerpoint
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.Outlook
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.OneDrive
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.teams

Teams caches in particular can occupy several gigabytes and are completely safe to delete.

Containers (sandboxed data)

rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word
rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel
rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Powerpoint
rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Outlook
rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.onenote.mac

Caution: Outlook's container holds your local mail database. If you have locally stored emails that have never been synced to the server, back them up before deleting this folder.

Preferences

rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Word.plist
rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Excel.plist
rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Powerpoint.plist
rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Outlook.plist
rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist
rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office.plist

Or use a glob to catch everything at once:

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.*.plist

LaunchAgents (AutoUpdate daemon)

rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist 2>/dev/null
sudo rm /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist 2>/dev/null
sudo rm /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist 2>/dev/null

Step 4 — Remove System-Level Leftovers

Some Office components write to system directories and require sudo:

Fonts

sudo rm -rf /Library/Fonts/Microsoft

These are Office-specific fonts (Calibri, Cambria, etc.). Removing them is safe if you are fully uninstalling Office; other applications will fall back to system fonts.

Microsoft-managed directories

sudo rm -rf /Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft
sudo rm -rf /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist

Quick Reference: What Each Path Contains

Using Crumb to Find Every Office Leftover

If you would rather not track down each path manually, Crumb can do this for you. Open the Uninstall tab, find any Microsoft application in the list, and Crumb will show every associated leftover file — containers, caches, preferences, and LaunchAgents — with checkboxes so you decide exactly what gets removed. It is a straightforward way to confirm nothing has been missed before you reinstall. You can download Crumb and run one cleanup for free.

After Removal: Reinstall or Reactivate

1. Empty the Trash to free disk space immediately.
2. Restart your Mac so any in-memory daemons are cleared.
3. Download a fresh installer from Microsoft's website or from the Mac App Store.
4. Sign in with your Microsoft account during first launch to activate.

A clean removal is the most reliable fix for activation loops, "Office needs to be updated" errors that never resolve, and AutoUpdate appearing in your menu bar long after you thought Office was gone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does uninstalling Office delete my documents?

No. Documents saved to your Desktop, Documents folder, or OneDrive are not touched by any of the steps above. Only application data and caches are removed.

Is Microsoft AutoUpdate safe to remove?

Yes. Microsoft AutoUpdate is a standalone background process. Removing it stops automatic Office updates, but it does not affect any documents or activation state. It will be reinstalled automatically when you install Office again.

I removed everything and Office still won't activate. What next?

Sign out of all Microsoft accounts in System Settings → Internet Accounts, restart, then install Office fresh. If the problem persists, Microsoft's own uninstall support page has a removal tool for edge cases.