How to fully uninstall Telegram on Mac

What Telegram leaves behind

Telegram stores all received photos, videos, and files locally on your Mac. The bulk of this data lives in the Group Containers folder, which can grow to several gigabytes. In total, Telegram scatters files across at least 7 Library directories:

Manual removal (step-by-step)

1. 1. Quit Telegram completelyRight-click the Telegram icon in the Dock and choose Quit, or press ⌘Q while Telegram is focused.
2. 2. Delete the app bundleOpen /Applications in Finder, drag Telegram.app to Trash.
3. 3. Open Library in FinderPress ⌘ Shift G in Finder and type ~/Library.
4. 4. Delete these folders/filesNavigate to each location in the table above and delete the Telegram files. Use ⌘ Delete to move to Trash.
5. 5. Delete the Group Container (important!)Navigate to ~/Library/Group Containers/6N38VWS5BX.ru.keepcoder.Telegram/ and delete it. This is where the bulk of cached media lives.
6. 6. Empty TrashOnce you're confident, empty the Trash to reclaim disk space.

Automated removal with Zapper

Instead of hunting through 7+ directories manually, Zapper finds everything in seconds:

1. Before deleting Telegram, drop Telegram.app onto Zapper's window.
2. Zapper scans all 11 Library directories and shows every leftover file with its path and size.
3. Review the list, check the files you want to remove, and click Zap.
4. Files move to Trash — including the large Group Containers folder. Restore with ⌘Z if needed.

Why Telegram uses so much space

Telegram caches all received photos, videos, and files locally in the Group Containers folder. If you're in media-heavy group chats, this folder can accumulate several gigabytes of data over time.

Telegram does offer a built-in cache clear option in Settings > Data and Storage > Storage Usage. However, this only clears cached media — it does not remove preferences, saved state, or other support files that remain after you uninstall the app.