How to Uninstall R Completely from Os X

How to uninstall R completely from OS X

Use which R. It will give you the location where R is running so that you can remove it from there.

How to uninstall R and RStudio with all packages, settings and everything else?

I have further issues with the previous answer. For that reason, I have extended the answer with further steps (which I experienced currently) as below:

  1. Run .libPaths() and save the listed directories shown on the RStudio console. In my case, it looks like:
.libPaths()

"C:/Users/%USERNAME%/Documents/R/win-library/3.6"
"C:/Program Files/R/R-3.6.3/library"

  1. Uninstall R for Windows, RStudio and RTools from Windows "Programs and Features" menu. You might navigate there through: Add or remove programs > App & features > On search box

  2. Delete everything in folders that was shown after running .libPaths() instruction in R to know where R packages are installed.

Therefore, I have manually deleted following files and folders (they remain there after full uninstallation of R, RStudio and RTools) as well:

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\R\
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\.Rhistory
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Temp > only specific ones mentioned below.

Specific ones can be various files and folders which can be deleted under this directory related with R and RStudio sessions. In my case, Rtmpcx1qAZ, Rtmpk7UXWj, Rscript3d2438240e1, ... are only example files or folder names to give you rough idea.


  1. Delete everything inside those listed folders or completely delete those listed folders as well:
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\R
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\rstudio
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\RStudio-Desktop
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\r-miniconda
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\r-reticulate
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\??? (!!!might be some others in your case!!!)
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\R
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\RStudio

Then you can move on the re-installation side for R as below (after suggested reboot of Windows). In order (please):
Download R for Windows, (download RTools if you need) and RStudio Desktop.

  • Install R (R for Windows)
  • Install RTools (if you need)
  • Install RStudio (RStudio Desktop)

Complete remove and reinstall R, including all packages

In R, you can use the .libPaths() instruction (or R -e '.libPaths()' in terminal) to know where your packages are installed. Delete those folders and reinstall.

R: Packrat will not completely uninstall

The issue was indeed that .Rprofile wanted to initialize packrat() on starting R. To fix this, use the below.

Removing Packrat from .Rprofile

  1. Open Terminal
  2. Type on a new command line: open ~/.Rprofile
  3. Delete the lines related to packrat (these should be clearly labelled because they contain the word packrat)
  4. Save the file
  5. Restart R/Rstudio


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