Uninstall Telegram on Mac

Save downloaded files you need, then quit Telegram and move it from Applications to the Trash. Cloud chats and Secret Chats are different: Secret Chats are device-specific and cannot be assumed to return after signing in again. Keep local downloads separately. Telegram’s explanation of Secret Chats

This guide covers Telegram’s native macOS app (bundle ID ru.keepcoder.Telegram), installed from the Mac App Store, from Telegram’s website or with the Homebrew cask telegram. Telegram Desktop is a different app with different folders; it is covered briefly at the end. Removing either app does not delete your Telegram account.

Check secret chats separately

Before removal, open any secret chats you need on the original device and save essential content through options the app provides. Ordinary cloud chats visible on another device do not prove secret chats moved there. Before clearing app data, check important conversations on a device that is still signed in. A working account alone does not establish that every conversation can be recovered.

Quit and remove the app

1. Quit Telegram from its app menu.
2. Open Activity Monitor and search for Telegram. In the recorded App Store test, Telegram was still running after a quit request, and the removal only went through once it had actually exited.
3. Move Telegram from Applications to the Trash.

Telegram still working on the web or another device is normal account behavior. If you also need to end this Mac's account session, review it in Telegram's device management separately; a missing app icon does not prove the session ended.

If you installed it with Homebrew

Mole skips --zap when its list reaches unchecked or shared data, or cannot be fully checked, and still cleans the leftovers you selected.

The telegram cask’s zap list includes ~/Library/Group Containers/*.ru.keepcoder.Telegram, ~/Library/Containers/ru.keepcoder.Telegram and ~/Library/Application Support/ru.keepcoder.Telegram, together with caches and preferences. Running brew uninstall --cask --zap telegram yourself moves them to the Trash, whatever you selected in Mole. Save downloads and Secret Chat content first, or remove only the app:

brew uninstall --cask telegram

Where Telegram keeps its data

Use Shift + Command + G in Finder to open each location, skipping any that is absent.

Leave the parent ~/Library/Caches/com.plausiblelabs.crashreporter.data in place, because other apps use that reporter.

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the app is in the Trash:

pgrep -il telegram
ls -d "$HOME/Library/Group Containers/6N38VWS5BX.ru.keepcoder.Telegram"
ls -d "$HOME/Library/Containers/ru.keepcoder.Telegram"

• No output from pgrep means Telegram has quit. A listed process means it is still running; quit it before moving any data.
• ls -d prints each folder that still exists. A surviving group folder is expected if you kept it. Each check reports only its exact path: “No such file or directory” means that path is absent; permission errors do not establish absence.

Telegram Desktop

Telegram Desktop is a separate app, installed from its website as Telegram Desktop.app, through the Homebrew cask telegram-desktop, or from the Mac App Store as Telegram Lite (org.telegram.desktop). Its downloaded version keeps data in ~/Library/Application Support/Telegram Desktop, which the telegram-desktop cask’s zap list removes; the App Store version uses the container ~/Library/Containers/org.telegram.desktop. Save what you need from those before removing it.

What Mole lists

For the native Telegram app:

• The crash-report folder and the caches, preferences and container filed under ru.keepcoder.Telegram are selected by default.
• The parent ~/Library/Caches/com.plausiblelabs.crashreporter.data is not listed.
• The group folder ~/Library/Group Containers/6N38VWS5BX.ru.keepcoder.Telegram, the share extension's group folder and the matching Application Scripts folders are listed but not selected. The share extension's own container ~/Library/Containers/ru.keepcoder.Telegram.TelegramShare is selected by default.

For Telegram Desktop downloaded from its website, ~/Library/Application Support/Telegram Desktop is listed but unselected while Remove data and settings with apps is off, the default. Enabling it can preselect eligible app-owned data; untick this row if you need to keep its local data.

What this test covered

The native Telegram app was installed from the Homebrew cask telegram and uninstalled with Mole on September 17, 2026; that run added the exact crash-report row. On September 21, the Mac App Store copy (version 12.10) was uninstalled with Mole 1.15 Preview build 282. Mole first skipped it because Telegram was still running; after Telegram was quit and the removal retried, the app went to the Trash, while its 232 KB container could not be moved and its 9.9 MB group folder was left in place. Telegram Desktop from the website and Telegram Lite from the App Store were tested separately on September 20 and 21. On September 26, 2026, Telegram 12.10 from Telegram's website was installed again and removed with a development build of Mole with every row ticked: the app and 10 listed items went to the Trash, including the 18 MB group folder, and nothing from the list remained. Signed-in chats and Secret Chats were not tested.