How to uninstall Sogou Input (搜狗输入法) on Mac

Sogou Input keeps its user data in ~/Library/Application Support/Sogou/InputMethod, 485 MB on the test Mac, so copy that folder somewhere outside ~/Library before you remove anything, and keep the copy if you might install Sogou again. This guide covers 搜狗输入法 installed with the official installer from Sogou's website, which puts the input method in /Library/Input Methods, two launch agents in /Library/LaunchAgents and a Quick Look previewer in /Library/QuickLook. The same steps work if you only copied SogouInput.app into an Input Methods folder yourself. For Sogou, Baidu and WeChat Input side by side, see How to Uninstall Sogou, Baidu and WeChat Input Methods on Mac.

Back up your data first

1. In Finder, press Shift + Command + G and open ~/Library/Application Support/Sogou/InputMethod.
2. Copy the whole folder to Documents, an external drive or anywhere else outside ~/Library, then open the copy and check that it is not empty.

Take it out of the input source list

1. Switch to another input source from the input menu in the menu bar, such as ABC. Removing the input method you are typing with can leave you briefly unable to type.
2. Open System Settings › Keyboard › Text Input › Input Sources › Edit, select 搜狗输入法 and click Remove. Apple describes this pane in Change Input Sources settings on Mac.

Removing it from the list deletes nothing. The app, its helpers and your data are still on the Mac.

Stop the helpers, then remove the files

The installer's two agents, com.sogou.SogouServices and com.sogou.SogouTaskManager, are set to KeepAlive, so the SogouServices and SogouTaskManager processes start again as soon as they quit. In the test, the first uninstall attempt was refused as "app is running" until both agents were stopped with these commands:

launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/com.sogou.SogouServices
launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/com.sogou.SogouTaskManager

They stop the agents for this login only. If launchctl prints an error, that agent was not loaded, and you can carry on. Then, in Finder:

1. Open /Library/LaunchAgents and move com.sogou.SogouServices.plist and com.sogou.SogouTaskManager.plist to the Trash. root owns them, so macOS asks for an administrator password.
2. Open /Library/Input Methods and move SogouInput.app to the Trash, again with an administrator password. If you copied the app into ~/Library/Input Methods yourself, remove it from there instead.
3. Open /Library/QuickLook and move SogouSkinFileQuickLook.qlgenerator to the Trash.
4. Log out and back in, so the input menu stops showing 搜狗输入法 and nothing keeps running from the Trash.

Where Sogou keeps its data

These locations come from the recorded test and Homebrew's sogouinput cask; Sogou does not publish a list of them.

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after logging back in:

pgrep -il sogou
ls /Library/LaunchAgents ~/Library/LaunchAgents | grep -i sogou
ls -d "/Library/Input Methods/SogouInput.app" /Library/QuickLook/SogouSkinFileQuickLook.qlgenerator
ls -d ~/Library/Application\ Support/Sogou/* ~/.sogouinput

• No output from pgrep means no Sogou process is running. A process that comes back seconds after you quit it means an agent is still loaded; check the next command.
• The grep line should print nothing. A com.sogou plist in its output is an agent that is still installed and will start again at the next login.
• For the third command, "No such file or directory" for both paths is what you want. A printed path is still on disk.
• The last command lists what is left of Sogou's data. InputMethod in the output is your data, and whether to keep it is up to you once the backup is safe. "No such file or directory" or "no matches found" means nothing is left there.

If you installed it with Homebrew

The sogouinput cask downloads Sogou's installer and asks you to run it yourself. brew uninstall --cask sogouinput removes the com.sogou.SogouServices launchd job and deletes /Library/Input Methods/SogouInput.app and the Quick Look previewer. It does not name the com.sogou.SogouTaskManager agent, so check /Library/LaunchAgents afterwards.

The cask's zap list adds ~/.sogouinput, ~/Library/Application Support/Sogou/InputMethod, ~/Library/Application Support/Sogou/EmojiPanel, several caches and cookies, the com.sogou.SogouPreference preferences and the installer's saved window state, then removes the Sogou folder if it is empty. brew uninstall --cask --zap sogouinput therefore takes your data folder with it, so back it up first or leave out --zap:

brew uninstall --cask sogouinput

Mole never adds --zap for this cask, because its zap list reaches ~/.sogouinput, outside ~/Library. The rows you select in Mole are still removed by Mole itself. Homebrew's sogouinput cask

What Mole lists

For 搜狗输入法 from the official installer:

• Mole finds input methods in both Input Methods folders. When you pick one, it reminds you to switch to another input source first. It shows no last-used date for input methods, because macOS keeps them running whether you type with them or not.
• The two agents in /Library/LaunchAgents are selected by default, because their programs sit inside SogouInput.app. Before it asks a running input method to quit, Mole unloads the launch items you selected, so KeepAlive cannot start the helpers again. Root-owned items, the app included, need your administrator password.
• The preferences, Application Support folder, caches, HTTPStorages, cookies and temporary folder named com.sogou.inputmethod.sogou are selected by default.
• ~/Library/Application Support/Sogou/InputMethod, ~/.sogouinput, Sogou/ResHub, Sogou/SkinShop, the caches, cookies and preferences of SogouServices, SogouHelper and the helper apps inside the bundle, and /Library/QuickLook/SogouSkinFileQuickLook.qlgenerator are listed but not selected.
• Mole can also list a few more paths, such as ~/Library/Application Support/Sogou/EmojiPanel, taken from Homebrew's zap list for this app, but does not select them.
• The Sogou parent folder, the shared com.tencent.bugly folder and the installer's own com.sogou.SogouInstaller files are not listed.
• After a batch that removed an input method, Mole restarts the input menu so the old entry disappears.

What this test covered

Two runs on September 22, 2026, both with a development build of Mole. In the first, only SogouInput.app 6.25.1.11973 was copied into ~/Library/Input Methods, without running the installer. The app, 543.1 MB, went to the Trash with its Application Support folder, caches, HTTPStorages, preferences and the ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.sogou.SogouTaskManager.plist its first launch had written, and nothing failed. Sogou/InputMethod and the empty ~/.sogouinput were not listed in that run and stayed; they are the unselected rows described above. Mole's Status page showed Sogou as one 搜狗输入法 row of about 135 MB.

In the second, the official 6.25.1.11973 installer from Sogou's website was run. The first uninstall attempt was refused as "app is running", because the two KeepAlive agents kept restarting the helpers; after both were booted out by hand, the 549 MB app went to the Trash through the administrator password, together with six user-level rows and the 485 MB Sogou/InputMethod, which was ticked. The two root-owned agents stayed, because that build could not yet move them, and were removed by hand afterwards. Unloading selected launch items before the quit, moving root-owned agents and the Quick Look row were added after this run and were not rerun against the installer. Nothing was signed in, no personal words were created, and the Homebrew cask was not tested.