> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.reclaimtime.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Uninstall

> Removing the client from a machine, why deleting the files does not work, and why turning tracking off is usually the better answer.

## Consider turning tracking off instead

Before uninstalling, check whether you actually want the machine untracked rather than the software gone. On the user's record in **Workforce** there is a tracking switch. Turn it off and the client keeps running but uploads nothing at all: no applications, no websites, no times, no titles.

This is the right answer when somebody moves into a role that should not be tracked, such as a senior manager, and it takes seconds. Uninstalling means a helpdesk visit now and another one if they ever need tracking again. It also takes effect on its own: the client picks up the change the next time it signs in.

<Info>Tracking off stops the upload, not the recording of nothing. The client makes no cloud activity rows at all while it is off, so there is no hidden data being collected and held back.</Info>

## The uninstall password

Installations that were configured with uninstall protection ask for an **uninstall password** before they will remove themselves. It is issued per customer and it is not in this documentation on purpose.

* Administrators get it from us. Ask, and keep it with your other privileged credentials.
* **Do not give it to employees or to team leaders.** It exists so that a tracked person cannot remove tracking from their own machine, and it stops being worth anything the moment it is circulated. This was raised by a customer in 2023 and it is still the right instinct.
* If a machine needs the client gone and you do not want to hand the password out, use the non-admin route below, or have somebody with the password do it remotely.

Whether a given machine prompts for it depends on how that fleet was packaged, so if you are not sure, try the uninstall on one machine and see.

## Removing a standard installation

The standard installer needs local administrator rights, and so does its uninstaller.

1. Open **Settings**, then **Apps**, then **Installed apps**.
2. Find **ReclaimTime** and choose **Uninstall**.
3. Approve the User Account Control prompt. On a machine where the employee is not a local administrator, this asks for an administrator's credentials.

To uninstall from a remote session or a deployment tool, ask us for the uninstaller details.

Uninstalling removes the application and its files, the shortcuts and the registry entries.

<Warning>Confirm the background components have gone too. They are installed alongside the client, and one left behind trying to start an application that is no longer there is a confusing thing to inherit. If you want to verify a machine is completely clean before rebuilding or reissuing it, ask us for the check commands.</Warning>

## Removing a non-admin installation

A per-user installation appears in **Installed apps** for the user who installed it, and is removed from there.

This is the route to use when a machine needs the client gone and nobody available has administrator rights.

## Why deleting the files does not work

<Warning>Do not try to remove the client by deleting its folder or ending its process. The background components exist to restart it, so it comes back, and what is left behind is a half removed installation that is harder to clean up than the original. Use the uninstaller.</Warning>

If the client has already been partly removed by hand, the reliable fix is to run the matching installer again and then uninstall properly.

## What uninstalling does not do

Uninstalling removes the software from one computer. It does not touch anything on the server side.

* The person's **account still exists** and still counts as a seat. Delete or deactivate it in **Workforce** if they have left.
* Their **activity history is kept**. Uninstalling is not a deletion request. For that, see [Data collected and not collected](/it/data-collected).
* The account will still show on the **Versions** page, with its last seen date frozen at the point the client stopped reporting.

So after uninstalling for a leaver, finish the job on the account as well. Otherwise the fleet numbers slowly fill up with machines that will never report again.

## Related tasks

* [Stop tracking someone](/guides/stop-tracking-someone)
* [Someone has left](/guides/someone-has-left)

***

*Checked against ReclaimTime client 8.0.0.9 and dashboard V3 on 5 September 2026.*