How to Completely Reset a VS Code Extension (Clear Data & Cache)

If you've ever hit "Uninstall" on a glitchy VS Code extension, reinstalled it, and found the exact same bug waiting for you, you aren’t crazy. Hitting that uninstall button doesn’t actually wipe everything; it leaves behind a quiet trail of cached states, temporary session files, and stale auth tokens tucked away inside your globalStorage folder. Manually clearing out these leftover folders is pretty much the only reliable way to force a real factory reset on a broken tool and stop Settings Sync from instantly bringing old bugs back from the dead.

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Code\User\globalStorage
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/globalStorage
• Linux: ~/.config/Code/User/globalStorage
• VS Code Insiders: AppData\Local\Code - Insiders\User\globalStorage
• CLI Command: code --uninstall-extension publisher.extension-name

Why Just Uninstalling an Extension Rarely Works

Here’s the catch: VS Code deliberately keeps an extension’s application logic separate from your actual personal data. When you click uninstall in the UI, the editor only deletes the core source code folder. Everything else - your custom preferences, cached workspace sessions, and saved login tokens - stays completely untouched right inside globalStorage. The moment you reinstall that extension, it simply links right back up to those exact same broken files.

To make things trickier, the extension host process hangs onto these files pretty aggressively. Running the Developer: Reload Window command works fine as a gentle soft restart, but whenever you’re dealing with stubborn, corrupt configuration files that refuse to go away, you have to do a proper hard wipe of the storage folders by hand.

Step 1: Turn Off Settings Sync First

Whatever you do, don't skip this part. VS Code is built to quietly sync your settings and extension setups directly to the cloud. If you clear out your local cache while sync is running in the background, VS Code will just assume you’re missing files and pull that identical corrupt config right back down to your machine.

Pop open your Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P) and run Preferences: Settings Sync: Turn Off. When it prompts you, tell it to keep your data locally for the time being. This gives you a clean, isolated setup where you can safely trash the bad files. Once you finish the reset and verify the fix, turn sync back on and select the Replace Local option to overwrite the cloud copy with your fresh setup.

Step 2: Clear Out the Extension’s Folder in globalStorage

Every single extension you install gets its own dedicated sandbox folder inside globalStorage. Tossing this specific folder into the trash is what actually wipes away all of its saved preferences, cached states, and stubborn local settings.

To start, you need the extension's exact ID. Head to your Extensions tab, click on the one giving you grief, and look under the Identifier section in the details view. It always follows a pattern like publisher.extension-name.

Once you have that string, jump to your OS directory below and delete the folder matching that identifier name:

Windows: Hit Win + R, paste this in, and press Enter:

%APPDATA%\Code\User\globalStorage

macOS: Open Finder, press Cmd + Shift + G, and drop in:

~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/globalStorage

Linux: Open your file manager or terminal and head to:

Bash

~/.config/Code/User/globalStorage

If you're on Linux and aren't entirely sure where your home folder resolves, you can always find the exact directory path directly via terminal.

Step 3: Check workspaceStorage for Project-Only Bugs

Ever had an extension work like a charm across five projects, only to completely fall apart in one specific repository? That usually means the bad data isn't global - it's localized inside the workspaceStorage directory, which sits right alongside your globalStorage folder.

Instead of clean names, VS Code labels these workspace folders with long, random alphanumeric hashes. If you click into them, you'll see a small workspace.json file inside each one that spells out the actual project path it tracks. Just open those up, find the one tied to your problematic project, and delete the entire hash folder once you spot it.

Step 4: Trash the Extension Source Files

As a final cleanup sweep, you'll want to get rid of the raw downloaded source files. VS Code keeps these in an entirely separate directory from the configuration data we just touched.

Windows:

%USERPROFILE%\.vscode\extensions

macOS and Linux:

Bash

~/.vscode/extensions

Look through the list for the folder carrying the publisher identifier you noted earlier, then delete it. Once that's gone, your machine is finally 100% clean of any traces of that extension.

An Alternative Route: Cleaning Up via the Code CLI

If you find yourself stuck working on headless machines, remote environments, or just prefer the terminal, you don't actually need the GUI to get rid of an extension. You can strip it straight from your command line:

Bash

code --uninstall-extension publisher.extension-name

This trick is especially handy if a buggy extension is hard-crashing your editor on launch, or if you're managing VS Code on a remote Linux box without any desktop environment running.

Fixing Extensions on Remote SSH Connections

Keep in mind that working over a remote SSH connection changes the playing field. In those setups, the extension code and its cached states aren't running on your laptop - they live on the remote server itself.

To wipe them out, SSH into your server and make your way to this path:

Bash

~/.vscode-server/extensions

Delete the corrupted extension folder directly on the machine, then reload your local VS Code window to trigger a fresh connection. By the way, if you're just starting to mess around with remote setups, installing WSL2 on Windows follows a very similar workflow for local Linux environments.

Quick Reference: Common Extension Storage Folders

To save you some digging through cryptic folder names, here are the exact folder identifiers for a few tools that frequently need a reset inside globalStorage:

• Prettier: esbenp.prettier-vscode
• ESLint: dbaeumer.vscode-eslint
• GitLens: eamodio.gitlens
• Python: ms-python.python

Nuking just the folder you need lets you reset that specific tool back to zero without touching the rest of your daily editor setup.

How to Tell If the Reset Actually Worked

Go back to the marketplace and install the extension again. If the wipe was genuinely successful, the extension will treat you like a brand-new user - you'll see its default welcome tab, initial setup wizards, or auth prompts pop up. If it silently loads right into your old setup without saying a word, some cached config file managed to survive somewhere. Double-check that Settings Sync didn't sneak in and turn itself back on, then give those globalStorage paths one more pass.

That initial "Welcome" or onboarding splash screen is your best indicator. If you don't see it, there's still stale cache hanging around.