How to Uninstall Java on Mac

Uninstall Java on Mac by removing the .jdk bundle from /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/ and cleaning up any Homebrew formula. No official uninstaller is required.

Homebrew installs

brew uninstall openjdk@21
# Also remove the symlink:
sudo rm /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk-21.jdk

List what Homebrew has installed:

brew list | grep openjdk

Adoptium Temurin .pkg installs

# Find the bundle name:
ls /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/

# Remove it (replace temurin-21.jdk with your actual bundle name):
sudo rm -rf /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/temurin-21.jdk

Oracle JDK .pkg installs

Oracle does not include an uninstaller script, so remove manually:

# JDK bundle:
sudo rm -rf /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-21.jdk

# Oracle system files:
sudo rm -rf /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin
sudo rm -rf /Library/PreferencePanes/JavaControlPanel.prefPane
sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Oracle/Java

Verify removal

/usr/libexec/java_home -V

The uninstalled JDK should no longer appear. If no JDKs remain, the command exits with an error message.

java -version

Should say "No Java runtime present" if all versions were removed.

Clean up ~/.zshrc

If you added JAVA_HOME or PATH entries manually, remove them:

open -e ~/.zshrc   # opens in TextEdit

Delete lines containing JAVA_HOME or openjdk, save, and run source ~/.zshrc.