How to Troubleshoot, Uninstall, and Reinstall Wacom Drivers

When troubleshooting your device, or upgrading to a newer OS or Cintiq, it’s best to completely wipe and reinstall the Wacom drivers. This can be necessary to resolve any malfunctions your tablet, cintiq, or pen computer might be going through.

Below we'll show you how to correctly do this for both Mac OS and Windows/PC.

If you're troubleshooting your Driver, and reinstalling is only a last resort, you could try a few other methods listed in our blog of Wacom Tips. Other than simply restarting your computer, one method I'd suggest is to Restart Your Wacom Service Driver (Mac and Windows).

An alternate option is to uninstall the driver as usual, but create a new user and install the driver while logged in to that. Test the Device on this user to see if the issue might be your user prefs or something else within you original account.
(How-to manually uninstall user prefs.)

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NOTE:  You should back up your user preferences before starting this process, as it will remove any preferences you may have set up.
Also, a restart will be required after each step. This can sound tedious but is essential to make sure that everything is done correctly. You'd be surprised how many obscure decisions can determine whether your tablet works or not.

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For Mac OS:

1. Disconnect the Tablet or Cintiq from your computer. 
   (Does not apply to Wacom Pen Computers)
   
   • If you are using a Wireless Kit, remove the USB dongle from your computer.
   • If your tablet is connected via Bluetooth, check that the tablet and the Bluetooth on your computer are turned OFF.
     
     
2. In the Finder, open your Applications, access the Wacom Tablet folder. 
   
   
3. Open the Wacom Tablet Utility.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Under "Tablet Software", click Uninstall.
   OS X may ask you for an administrative user account credentials to complete this by clicking the unlock icon at the lower left of the menu.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Once the software has been removed, restart the computer.
   
   
6. Download and install the latest driver from Wacom's site here.
   
   
7. Open the downloaded DMG file, run the installer and follow the steps in the installation wizard.
   
   
8. Once the installation is complete, restart the system.
   Reconnect the tablet after you have logged back in.
   • Avoid using USB hubs, keyboard/monitor ports or docking stations, as they can cause inconsistent behavior.
     
     
9. Test your tablet by opening: Wacom Desktop Center > Pen Settings or Apple > System Preferences > Wacom Tablet 
   • Test all pen and button functionality before restoring any preferences that you may have backed up.
     
     
10. NOTE: If you notice any malfunction after reinstalling your user preferences, the old file could be corrupt, thus you need to uninstall the preferences again and recreate those settings from scratch.
    
    -OR-
    
    
11. Sometimes a thorough cleaning of all Wacom related files will do the trick. This isn't guaranteed to work, but you could try using CCleaner to find those pesky files related to the driver and trash them.
    
    -OR-
    
    
12. If you still have trouble, you could manually go in and try to remove some stubborn files that the uninstaller might have missed. You can usually find Wacom related files in the sub paths listed below.
    
    A restart and a repair of your disk permissions would also be good.
    
    Remove these at your own risk. Always take caution when deleting system files. 

• Applications/Wacom Tablet Library/Application Support/Tablet
• Library/Frameworks/WacomMultiTouch.framework Library/Internet
• Plugins/WacomTabletPlugin.plugin Library/Launch
• Agents/com.wacom.wacomtablet.plist
• Library/LaunchDaemons/com.wacom.displayhelper.plist
• Library/LaunchDaemons/com.wacom.RemoveTabletHelpter.plist
• Library/LaunchDaemons/com.wacom.TabletHelper.plist
• Library/PreferencePanes/WacomTablet.prefpane
• Library/Preferences/Tablet
• Library/PriveledgedHelperTools/com.wacom.RemoveTabletHelper
• Library/PriveledgedHelperTools/com.wacom.TabletHelper
• Users/<user>/Library/Preferences/com.wacom.ProfessionalTablet.plist
• Users/<user>/Library/Preferences/com.wacom.wacomtablet.prefs
• Users/<user>/Library/Preferences/com.wacom.wacomtouch.prefs

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For Windows PC:

1. Disconnect the Tablet or Cintiq from your computer. 
   (Does not apply to Wacom Pen Computers)
   
   • If you are using a Wireless Kit, remove the USB dongle from your computer.
   • If your tablet is connected via Bluetooth, check that the tablet and the Bluetooth on your computer are turned OFF.
     
     
2. Open the Control Panel, then Programs and Features. 
   
   
   
   
3. Uninstall any Tablet, Wacom Tablet or Bamboo entries from this list. 
   
   
   
   
4. Alternate: You could also try to uninstall the Drivers from your Device Manager, if the correct method above does not work.
   Otherwise, skip to Step 5.
   1) Run Device Manager from the start menu, and click View>Show Hidden Devices.
   2) Find any Wacom Drivers (Usually under 'Human Interface Devices') and uninstall them.
   
   
   
   
5. Follow these instructions to Remove the User Prefs.
   
   
6. Once the software has been removed, restart the computer.
   
   
7. Download and install the latest driver from Wacom's site here.
   
   
8. Run the downloaded installer and follow the steps.
   
   
9. Once the installation is complete, restart the system. 
   
   
10. Reconnect the Tablet/Cintiq after you have logged back in.
    • Avoid using USB hubs, keyboard/monitor ports or docking stations, as they can cause inconsistent behavior.
      
      
11. Test your tablet by opening: Wacom Desktop Center > Pen Settings, or /Programs/Tablet/Wacom/Wacom_tablet.exe 
    • Test all pen and button functionality before restoring any preferences that you may have backed up.
      
      
12. NOTE: If you notice any malfunction after reinstalling your user preferences, the old file could be corrupt, thus you need to uninstall the preferences again and recreate those settings from scratch.
    
    -OR-
    
    
13. If you still have trouble, test your tablet in Safe Mode. If the issue does not occur in safe mode, then the default settings and basic device drivers aren't causing the issue.
    
    
14. As a last resort, do both Steps 3 and 4. Look for Wacom Drivers under all sections within Device Manager.
    Now delete any folders/files from your system that have the word "Wacom" in it; plus the following (you'll need to Show Hidden Files in your finder).
    
    Remove these at your own risk. Always take caution when deleting system files.
    

• C:\Program Files\Tablet
• C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\WTablet
• C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp\wactemp
• C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Wacom
  
  The following files are in the folder C:\Windows\System32\
  
• WacDriverDLCoinst.dll
• Wacom_Tablet.dll
• Wacom_Touch_Tablet.dll
• WacomMT.dll
• WacomTabletUserDefaults.xml
• WacomTouchUserDefaults.xml
• Wacom_Tablet.dat

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Wacom Tips