uninstall-mila

name	uninstall-mila
description	Use when uninstalling, removing, or deleting the Mila transcription app from a Mac — clearing the app bundle, Dock tile, and system caches/preferences while protecting the user's recordings and transcripts. Covers "uninstall Mila", "remove Mila", "delete Mila but keep my recordings".

Uninstall Mila

Overview

Mila stores user recordings/transcripts and large regenerable assets in the SAME folder (~/Library/Application Support/Mila). A naive "delete everything Mila" destroys irreplaceable transcripts. This skill removes the app cleanly while protecting user data by default and never deleting the keep-by-default assets without explicit user confirmation.

Mila's bundle identifier is io.island.whisper.IslandWhisper (Island.io origin) — system caches/prefs are filed under that ID, NOT under "Mila". A search for "Mila" alone misses them.

The Iron Rules

1. Back up recordings BEFORE deleting anything. Copy Recordings/ + recordings.json + folders.json to a safe location outside Application Support (e.g. ~/Desktop/Mila-Recordings-Backup-<date>). Verify file counts match before proceeding.
2. Use trash, never rm. Every removal must be reversible.
3. Keep-by-default items are NOT deleted unless the user says so. You MUST ASK the user about each one (see below). Default = keep. This includes the settings/preferences plist — never wipe the user's configuration as part of a routine uninstall; preserving it means a reinstall comes back with the same model, language, and settings.
4. Never touch the source repo (your mila checkout, wherever it lives) — only its build/ output is an app artifact.

What is what (map before you touch)

Path	Class	Default action
~/Library/Application Support/Mila/Recordings/	User data — irreplaceable	Always keep + back up
~/Library/Application Support/Mila/recordings.json	User data — the index	Always keep + back up
~/Library/Application Support/Mila/folders.json	User data — folder organization	Always keep + back up
~/Library/Application Support/Mila/Models/ (~6.8 GB)	Regenerable (whisper weights, re-downloaded)	Keep — ASK before deleting
~/Library/Application Support/Mila/torch-site-packages/ (~444 MB)	Regenerable (Python runtime, re-installed)	Keep — ASK before deleting
App bundle in /Applications/Mila.app	App	Remove
Repo build/ + ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Mila-*	Build artifacts (Dock dev build lives here)	Remove
~/Library/Preferences/io.island.whisper.IslandWhisper.plist	App settings / UserDefaults (selected model, language, diarization, LLM config, window state)	Keep — ASK before deleting
~/Library/Caches/io.island.whisper.IslandWhisper	Cache (no user settings)	Remove
~/Library/HTTPStorages/io.island.whisper.IslandWhisper	HTTP cache	Remove
~/Library/WebKit/io.island.whisper.IslandWhisper	WebKit data	Remove
TCC privacy grants (Screen & System Audio Recording, Microphone, Speech Recognition, Automation/AppleEvents)	System privacy DB (tccutil)	Remove (reset)
Dock tile pointing at any Mila.app	Dock entry	Remove

recordings.json is the index that ties the audio/transcript files together — it MUST be kept alongside Recordings/, or a reinstalled Mila shows an empty library.

MANDATORY: Ask before deleting keep-by-default items

Before removing the regenerable assets, ask the user explicitly. Default to KEEP if they don't clearly opt in. Recommended question:

"Mila keeps ~7.2 GB of regenerable data — Models/ (6.8 GB whisper weights) and torch-site-packages/ (444 MB Python runtime). Your recordings + recordings.json are kept either way. Delete the regenerable data to reclaim space, or keep it so a future reinstall is instant?"

Only delete Models/ / torch-site-packages/ if the user chooses to reclaim the space.

Settings/preferences are also keep-by-default. Do NOT delete the preferences plist as part of a routine uninstall — it holds the user's configuration (selected model, language, diarization, LLM settings). Only delete it if the user explicitly asks for a full reset / wipe everything. If they do, also run defaults delete io.island.whisper.IslandWhisper + killall cfprefsd, because cfprefsd caches prefs in memory and will rewrite the plist on next launch otherwise.

Procedure

# 0. Locate the app & confirm bundle id (sanity check before deleting)
mdfind -name "Mila.app" 2>/dev/null
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print :CFBundleIdentifier" /Applications/Mila.app/Contents/Info.plist   # -> io.island.whisper.IslandWhisper

# 1. BACK UP user data first (always). Fail fast: an incomplete backup must
#    NEVER let the uninstall proceed.
set -euo pipefail
SRC="$HOME/Library/Application Support/Mila"
DST="$HOME/Desktop/Mila-Recordings-Backup-$(date +%Y-%m-%d)"
mkdir -p "$DST"
cp -Rp "$SRC/Recordings" "$DST/"
cp -p "$SRC/recordings.json" "$DST/"
[[ -f "$SRC/folders.json" ]] && cp -p "$SRC/folders.json" "$DST/"   # folder map — optional, may not exist yet
# verify before continuing — counts must match, and the index (plus any
# existing folder map) must have copied, or the script aborts here:
echo "src=$(find "$SRC/Recordings" -type f | wc -l)  bak=$(find "$DST/Recordings" -type f | wc -l)"
test -f "$DST/recordings.json"
test ! -e "$SRC/folders.json" || test -f "$DST/folders.json"

# 2. Quit the app if running
pgrep -f "Mila.app/Contents/MacOS" && osascript -e 'quit app "Mila"' || true

# 3. Remove app bundles + build artifacts (to Trash)
trash /Applications/Mila.app 2>/dev/null || true
# Build artifacts — only relevant if Mila was built from source. Point REPO at
# your checkout (or `export MILA_REPO=...`); the project.yml check guards against
# trashing an unrelated build/ tree if REPO is wrong.
REPO="${MILA_REPO:-$HOME/ClonedProjects/mila}"
if [ -f "$REPO/project.yml" ]; then
  trash "$REPO/build" 2>/dev/null || true   # only the build/ output, NOT the repo itself
fi
for d in "$HOME/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/"Mila-*; do [ -d "$d" ] && trash "$d"; done

# 4. Remove system footprint (bundle id, NOT "Mila").
#    NOTE: the Preferences plist is intentionally EXCLUDED here — it holds the
#    user's settings/configuration and is keep-by-default. Caches/HTTPStorages/
#    WebKit hold no settings and are safe to remove.
BID="io.island.whisper.IslandWhisper"
for p in \
  "$HOME/Library/Caches/$BID" \
  "$HOME/Library/HTTPStorages/$BID" \
  "$HOME/Library/WebKit/$BID" ; do
  [ -e "$p" ] && trash "$p"
done
# NOTE: also reset cfprefsd's in-memory cache if you DID delete the plist, or it
# may be rewritten on next launch: `defaults delete $BID` + `killall cfprefsd`.

# 4b. Remove macOS privacy (TCC) grants. These are NOT files — they live in the
#     system TCC databases, so a file-based uninstall leaves them behind as orphan
#     entries. This is a STANDARD step (not user data): resetting just makes a
#     future reinstall re-prompt, exactly like a fresh install.
#     `tccutil reset` talks to the TCC daemon and works WITHOUT sudo, even for the
#     system-level ScreenCapture service. Verified: exits 0, "Successfully reset".
#
#     One command clears every grant Mila accumulated (Microphone, ScreenCapture,
#     SpeechRecognition, AppleEvents, Calendar, folder access, ...):
tccutil reset All "$BID"
#
#     If you want to reset ONLY the "Screen & System Audio Recording" permission
#     (Sequoia's new name for Screen Recording; TCC service is still ScreenCapture)
#     and leave the rest, use the per-service form instead:
# tccutil reset ScreenCapture "$BID"

# 5. (ONLY IF USER EXPLICITLY OPTED IN) reclaim regenerable data
# trash "$SRC/Models" "$SRC/torch-site-packages"

# 6. (ONLY IF USER WANTS A FULL RESET, incl. settings) remove preferences
# trash "$HOME/Library/Preferences/$BID.plist"
# defaults delete "$BID" 2>/dev/null; killall cfprefsd 2>/dev/null

Remove the Dock tile

dockutil is usually not installed; edit the Dock plist directly (filters out any tile whose label is "Mila" or whose URL contains Mila.app):

python3 - <<'PY'
import subprocess, plistlib
pl = plistlib.loads(subprocess.run(["defaults","export","com.apple.dock","-"],capture_output=True).stdout)
apps = pl.get("persistent-apps", [])
def is_mila(e):
    try:
        td = e["tile-data"]
        return td.get("file-label","") == "Mila" or "Mila.app" in td["file-data"].get("_CFURLString","")
    except Exception:
        return False
pl["persistent-apps"] = [e for e in apps if not is_mila(e)]
subprocess.run(["defaults","import","com.apple.dock","-"],input=plistlib.dumps(pl),check=True)
print(f"persistent-apps: {len(apps)} -> {len(pl['persistent-apps'])}")
PY
killall Dock

Verify

mdfind -name "Mila.app" 2>/dev/null | grep -v "/.Trash/" || echo "(no app outside Trash)"
# Removable footprint should be gone. The Preferences plist is kept by default,
# so it's checked separately below — don't list it here or a routine uninstall
# looks like it failed.
ls -d ~/Library/{Caches/io.island.whisper.IslandWhisper,HTTPStorages/io.island.whisper.IslandWhisper,WebKit/io.island.whisper.IslandWhisper} 2>/dev/null || echo "(removable footprint gone)"
# Preferences plist: present on a routine uninstall (kept), absent only after a full reset.
ls -d ~/Library/Preferences/io.island.whisper.IslandWhisper.plist 2>/dev/null && echo "(prefs kept — routine)" || echo "(prefs removed — full reset)"
defaults read com.apple.dock persistent-apps 2>/dev/null | grep -i mila || echo "(no Mila in Dock)"
# TCC privacy grants gone: the user DB is readable only if this terminal has Full
# Disk Access; ScreenCapture lives in the SIP-protected system DB (needs sudo).
# The authoritative signal is tccutil's own "Successfully reset" output above.
# Best-effort check of the user DB (Microphone/SpeechRecognition/AppleEvents):
sqlite3 "$HOME/Library/Application Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db" \
  "SELECT service,auth_value FROM access WHERE client='io.island.whisper.IslandWhisper';" \
  2>/dev/null || echo "(user TCC.db not readable — no FDA; rely on tccutil output)"
# user data intact:
ls "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Mila/Recordings" | wc -l

Common Mistakes

• Deleting the whole ~/Library/Application Support/Mila folder. It contains the irreplaceable Recordings/ + recordings.json. Never blanket-delete it.
• Searching only for "Mila". The prefs/caches are under io.island.whisper.IslandWhisper. Search the bundle id too.
• Forgetting recordings.json / folders.json. Backing up Recordings/ without the index leaves a reinstall with an empty library; dropping folders.json loses the user's folder organization.
• Using rm. Always trash so the user can recover.
• Deleting Models//torch-site-packages/ without asking. These are keep-by-default; deleting them forces multi-GB re-downloads on reinstall.
• Wiping the preferences plist on a routine uninstall. That destroys the user's settings (model, language, diarization, LLM config). Keep it unless the user explicitly wants a full reset — and if they do, clear cfprefsd too or it gets rewritten.
• Trashing the source repo. Only build/ inside your mila checkout is an artifact; the rest is source.
• Leaving TCC privacy grants behind. A file-based uninstall does NOT clear the "Screen & System Audio Recording", Microphone, etc. grants — they live in the system TCC databases, not in files, and linger as orphan entries. Run tccutil reset All io.island.whisper.IslandWhisper (no sudo needed) as a standard step.
• Trying to sqlite3-edit the system TCC.db directly. It's SIP-protected and needs Full Disk Access even to read. Use tccutil reset, which goes through the TCC daemon and works without sudo.