How to delete everything
Because nothing is stored anywhere but your machine, there is no server-side copy to request removal from. On your machine, each kind of delete removes a different set of things, listed below.
One meeting
Open it, click … at the top, and choose Delete meeting…. Its transcript segments, notes, action items, markers and search-index rows are removed from the database, and its audio folder is deleted from disk.
Its words are cleared from the database file and the search index at once, so they don’t stay behind on disk. A temporary database file can hold them a little longer, until the app next tidies it.
Just the audio
By default, audio is deleted 30 days after each meeting. To remove it sooner, Settings → Privacy → Keep audio files lets you choose 7 days or Delete right after transcription. Transcripts and notes stay.
All your meetings
Settings → Privacy → Delete all my data removes every meeting with its transcript, notes, action items and markers, every audio folder, the speaker names, the safety copies of the database, the exports in the data folder (diagnostics files and saved privacy receipts included) and the Privacy Ledger, and clears the deleted meetings’ words from the database and search index. Of the ledger, the app keeps only the date it was emptied. Your settings, templates, downloaded models, the notes engine, your licence, your API keys and the app’s log stay, and Recordist keeps running.
Copies of the database
Before an update changes the database’s format, Recordist saves a copy of it next to the original (a file ending in .before-v…). If it ever finds the database unreadable, it keeps that file aside for recovery (a file ending in .corrupt-…) and starts a new one. These copies don’t stay: a .before-v… copy goes 7 days after the update, or sooner if Delete meetings after in Settings → Privacy is shorter, and a .corrupt-… copy goes once it is older than that setting. Delete all my data removes both at once.
Everything, then quit
Settings → Privacy → Remove everything and quit does all of the above. It also removes your own templates, the downloaded speech models, the notes engine and its model, your settings with any copy the app set aside because it could not read them (files ending in .bad-…), the licence, the local API token, the Anthropic and OpenAI keys in the keychain and the app’s log files, switches off launch at login, and quits. Stop any recording and let transcription finish first; the button refuses while either is running.
What stays, and how to remove it
These remain after Remove everything and quit, and after you drag Recordist from Applications to the Trash:
- The data folder,
~/Library/Application Support/app.recordist.desktop/. It holds the emptied database, which keeps the built-in templates and the date the Privacy Ledger was emptied. Drag the folder to the Trash. - Small records in the keychain, such as when Recordist was installed, when its trial started and how many AI notes the Free plan has written this month, which the app keeps so that a new data folder does not start a second trial or reset that count. Open Keychain Access, search for
app.recordist.desktopand delete the entries it finds. - The log folder,
~/Library/Logs/app.recordist.desktop/. Remove everything deletes the app’s log files there; drag the folder to the Trash to be sure nothing is left. - Small folders macOS keeps for the app’s window:
~/Library/WebKit/app.recordist.desktop/,~/Library/Caches/app.recordist.desktop/and~/Library/Preferences/app.recordist.desktop.plist. Drag them to the Trash. - Permissions you granted. System Settings → Privacy & Security keeps Recordist’s entries under Microphone and Screen & System Audio Recording, and under Calendars or Accessibility if you allowed them. To clear them all, run
tccutil reset All app.recordist.desktopin Terminal, or turn each one off in System Settings. - Exports in a folder of your own. If you set an export folder in Settings → Privacy, or saved a file somewhere else, those files stay. Delete them yourself.
- The gateway, if you connected an AI assistant. npx keeps a copy of
@recordist/gatewayin~/.npm/_npx/and in npm’s download cache. Delete the~/.npm/_npx/folder and runnpm cache clean --force; npm downloads what it needs again the next time a tool asks for it. Remove therecordistentry from your assistant’s settings too: from its MCP configuration file (claude_desktop_config.jsonfor Claude Desktop), or withclaude mcp remove recordistfor Claude Code. - The Chrome extension, if you installed it. Remove it at
chrome://extensions.
Without opening the app
Quit Recordist, then delete the data folder, the log folder and the app itself:
~/Library/Application Support/app.recordist.desktop/
~/Library/Logs/app.recordist.desktop/Then open Keychain Access, search for app.recordist.desktop and delete the entries it finds: the app’s small records, such as when its trial started, and your Anthropic or OpenAI key, if you added one. The local API token and the licence are inside the data folder, so they go with it. The rest of the list above applies here too. On Windows the data folder is %APPDATA%\app.recordist.desktop\; on Linux ~/.local/share/app.recordist.desktop/.
What we hold, and how to delete that
If you bought a plan, we hold your email, the plan and the Stripe records; tax law requires keeping transaction records for a period. If you used a form on this site, we hold what you typed. Email privacy@recordist.app and we delete what we legally can within 30 days. Nothing from inside the app was ever with us to delete.