How to uninstall Razer Synapse on a Mac

If you’ve ever used a Razer gaming keyboard, mouse, or any other Razer peripheral with your Mac, you will have installed Razer Synapse. This tool allows you to configure settings on Razer devices, such as allocating functions to the buttons on mice, adjusting sensitivity, and creating macros from keyboard combinations. 

While Razer’s support for Windows versions of Synapse appears to be very good, that’s not necessarily the case with the Mac version, which tends to lag behind when it comes to new features and upgrades. Or you may have installed it and want to keep using it but have noticed that it’s causing problems for your Mac, maybe by crashing or hitting performance. It’s possible, then, that if you’ve downloaded Synapse for your Mac, you may have decided that it’s not worth using it, perhaps because you now use a Windows computer to configure your Razer devices. If that’s the case, you should uninstall it. The rest of this article will show you how to do that.

How to uninstall Razer Synapse on Mac

Below, we’ll show how to uninstall Razer Synapse on Mac manually and automatically. 

The easy way to uninstall Razer Synapse

You can uninstall apps easily and quickly using a dedicated uninstaller like the one in CleanMyMac X. It deletes all the files associated with an app with one click, removing the need to locate and remove files manually.

Here’s how it works:

1. Download and install CleanMyMac X (free trial available).
2. Double-click it in your Applications folder to open it.
3. Go to Uninstaller from the sidebar.
4. Locate the app you want to uninstall — in this case, Razer Synapse.
5. Check the box next to it and click Uninstall.

That’s it! CleanMyMac will now uninstall the app and remove all the files it placed on your Mac.

Another option, if you’re not sure you want to uninstall Razer Synapse, is to reset it. That may solve any problems you’re having with it and allow you to keep it. You can do that in CleanMyMac X using the Uninstaller tool. At step 5, above, when you’ve checked the Razer Synapse app, click the dropdown menu labeled ‘Uninstall’ and choose ‘Reset’. Then, click the Reset button at the bottom of the window.

Another easy way to uninstall Razer Synapse on a Mac is to use its own uninstaller if you have it. Here’s how:

1. Go to Applications and look for ‘Uninstall Razer Synapse.’
2. If you find it, double-click on it and follow the instructions when it launches. If it’s not there, check the Utilities folder or use the Finder search.

If you can’t find the uninstaller, you can uninstall the app manually.

How to uninstall Razer Synapse manually

The first thing you should do is quit any running processes — while you’re doing that, you can check whether Synapse is the cause of any performance issues your Mac is having.

1. Go to Applications > Utilities and double-click Activity Monitor to open it.

   

2. Look through the list of running processes for anything with ‘razer synapse’ in its name.
3. If you find one or more processes, take a look at their RAM and CPU usage and compare it with other processes — that will give you an idea if it’s hogging resources.
4. When you’re ready, select each Razer Synapse process and click the Quit Process button in the toolbar.
5. Quit Activity Monitor.

Once you’ve deleted running processes, you can move to the next stage and delete the application. It also includes the removal of leftover files:

1. Go to your Applications folder and look for the Razer Synapse app.
2. When you find it, drag it to the Trash.
3. Click the Finder icon in Dock and choose the Go menu.
4. Select Go to Folder and paste this path in the box: /Library/Application Support/Razer

   

5. Drag the Razer folder to the Trash.
6. Repeat step 4. This time, paste ~/Library/Cache
7. Locate the file ‘com.razerzone.RzUpdater’ and drag it to the Trash
8. Repeat step 4 again and navigate to /Library/FrameWorks
9. Remove the following files: 
   RzAudioSettings.framework
   RzSkinToolkit.framework
   RzStorageSDK.framework
10. Now, navigate to /Library/Extensions/
11. Remove RazerHid.kext

You will also need to remove launch agents that Razer Synapse installs:

1. In the Finder, click on the Go menu and choose ‘Go to menu’.
2. Paste the following into the text box: /Library/Launch Agents
3. Look for the two files listed below and drag them to the Trash
   com.razer.rzupdater.plist file
   com.razerzone.rzdeviceengine.plist
4. Empty the Trash.

Tip:

CleanMyMac X can also remove launch agents quickly and easily. It works like this:

• Open CleanMyMac X.
• Choose Optimization in the sidebar.
• Select Launch Agents.
• Locate the launch agents you want to remove and check the box next to them. Click Remove.
• Type in your user password if prompted.

The last step is to remove the certificate Razer Synapse leaves in your Keychain.

1. Go to Applications > Utilities.
2. Open Keychain Access.
3. Choose My Certificates.
4. Look for anything with ‘Razer’ in its name.
5. Press the Delete key.
6. Quit Keychain Access.

If you prefer to be really hardcore and use the Terminal to uninstall apps, you can do that, too. However, as with doing anything with Terminal, you should only do it if you know how to use Terminal commands and know what each one does. Use these commands:

1. Go to Applications > Utilities and open Terminal.
2. Type the following commands to remove Synapse launch agents. Press Return at the end of each line:
   launchctl remove com.razer.rzupdater
launchctl remove com.razerzone.rzdeviceengine
sudo rm /Library/LaunchAgents/com.razer.rzupdater.plist
sudo rm /Library/LaunchAgents/com.razerzone.rzdeviceengine.plist
3. Remove the kernel extensions with this command:
   sudo rm -rf /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext
4. Drag the Razer Synapse app from the Applications folder to the Trash.
5. Remove files from the Application Support with the following commands:
   sudo rm -rf /Library/Application\ Support/Razer/
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Razer/
6. Remove files from the Library Frameworks folder with these commands:
   sudo rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/RzAudioSettings.framework/
sudo rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/RzSkinToolkit.framework/
sudo rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/RzStorageSDK.framework/
7. Restart your Mac.
   

Razer Synapse is a utility application for Razer’s range of gaming peripherals, including mice and keyboards, and allows them to be configured on your Mac. However, Mac support lags behind that on Windows, and you may decide you want to uninstall it, especially if you no longer use it. There are several ways to uninstall Razer Synapse on a Mac, but the easiest is to use CleanMyMac X.