How to Completely Uninstall Audacity and Preferences

Standard uninstallation of Audacity often leaves behind configuration files, custom plugins, macros, and temporary project data on your system. To perform a complete removal, you must remove the core application and manually delete these residual configuration folders. This guide provides the exact steps to completely eradicate Audacity and its associated preference files from Windows, macOS, and Linux systems.

Windows

1. Uninstall the Application

  1. Close Audacity if it is running.
  2. Open Settings (Win + I) and navigate to Apps > Installed apps (or Programs and Features in the classic Control Panel).
  3. Locate Audacity in the list, click the three-dot menu, and select Uninstall.
  4. Follow the on-screen prompts to finish the basic uninstallation.

2. Remove Residual Files and Preferences

  1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog box.
  2. Type %appdata% and press Enter.
  3. In the AppData\Roaming folder, locate the audacity folder (which stores your audacity.cfg preferences, plugin registries, and chains/macros) and delete it.
  4. Press Win + R again, type %localappdata%, and press Enter.
  5. Look for any remaining audacity folder in AppData\Local (which may contain temporary data) and delete it.
  6. Check C:\Program Files\Audacity or C:\Program Files (x86)\Audacity and delete the folder if it still exists.

macOS

1. Remove the Application

  1. Quit Audacity completely (Command + Q).
  2. Open Finder and navigate to the Applications folder.
  3. Drag the Audacity icon to the Trash (or right-click and choose Move to Trash).

2. Remove Residual Files and Preferences

  1. In Finder, click Go in the menu bar at the top of the screen and select Go to Folder... (or press Command + Shift + G).
  2. Type ~/Library/Application Support and press Enter.
  3. Locate the audacity folder and move it to the Trash.
  4. Open the Go to Folder... prompt again and navigate to ~/Library/Preferences.
  5. Locate any files named org.audacityteam.audacity.plist or similar Audacity preference files and move them to the Trash.
  6. Empty your Trash to finalize the deletion.

Linux

The method depends on how you originally installed Audacity.

APT (Ubuntu/Debian)

  1. Open a terminal.
  2. Purge the application and system-level configuration files: 
    sudo apt purge audacity
sudo apt autoremove

Flatpak or Snap

Delete User Preferences

Regardless of the installation package used, remove any user-level configuration folders remaining in your home directory:

rm -rf ~/.audacity-data
rm -rf ~/.config/audacity