How to uninstall Tencent Yuanbao (元宝) on Mac

Tencent Yuanbao, 元宝 on a Chinese Mac, keeps very little on the Mac that you cannot get back. When you sign in, your conversations sync with your Tencent account and the web version at yuanbao.tencent.com shows the same history, as Tencent described when it launched the desktop app. Removing the app deletes neither the account nor that history. What stays on the Mac is a handful of folders named after its bundle ID, com.tencent.yuanbao, the largest a container of about 78 MB after the first launch. This guide covers the app downloaded from yuanbao.tencent.com and the Homebrew cask yuanbao.

Quit and remove the app

1. Quit 元宝 with Command + Q. Status showed it as one row with nine processes, most of them the WebKit content processes that render its pages; they close with the app.
2. Move 元宝 from Applications to the Trash.

The recorded tests saw no login item, background item or launch agent from 元宝, so there is nothing to turn off in System Settings.

Where 元宝 keeps its data

Press Shift + Command + G in Finder and open each location, skipping any that is missing. Tencent does not document these paths; they come from Homebrew's zap list and the recorded tests.

Check the result

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

pgrep -il yuanbao
ls -d ~/Library/Containers/com.tencent.yuanbao ~/Library/WebKit/com.tencent.yuanbao "$HOME/Library/Application Support/com.tencent.yuanbao"

• No output from pgrep means 元宝 is not running. A listed yuanbao process means the app is still open; quit it before you delete anything.
• ls -d prints each folder that still exists. "No such file or directory" for all three means they are gone.

Folders in ~/Library/Group Containers that begin with 88L2Q4487U.WeWork or 88L2Q4487U.WeCom carry the same Tencent developer prefix but belong to WeCom (企业微信), not to 元宝. Leave them alone if you use WeCom.

If you installed it with Homebrew

When you remove a Homebrew install, Mole runs Homebrew's uninstall and adds --zap only when every path in the cask's zap list sits inside ~/Library, none of them is a row you left unticked, and no other installed app claims it. Otherwise it leaves --zap out and still removes the rows you ticked.

The yuanbao cask's zap list names the same seven locations as the table above: the container, the WebKit folder, both HTTPStorages entries, the Application Support folder, the cache and the preferences file. brew uninstall --cask --zap yuanbao moves them to the Trash whatever you ticked in Mole. To remove only the app:

brew uninstall --cask yuanbao

元宝 desktop download · Tencent's desktop launch note on sync · Homebrew's yuanbao cask

What Mole lists

For 元宝 downloaded from yuanbao.tencent.com:

• The container, WebKit folder, both HTTPStorages entries, Application Support folder, cache and preferences file under com.tencent.yuanbao are selected by default, because each is named after the app's bundle ID.
• The temporary folders macOS keeps for the app, including the WebKit ones named com.apple.WebKit.*+com.tencent.yuanbao, are selected by default.
• Group containers of other Tencent apps that share the developer prefix are not listed.

What this test covered

On September 26, 2026, 元宝 2.86.0 was copied from the official download into Applications, without Homebrew, launched once without signing in, and uninstalled with a development build of Mole, with every listed item ticked for the test. Status showed it as one row named Yuanbao with nine processes and about 536 MB. The app and all twelve listed rows went to the Trash, and none of the files it had written were left. No startup item appeared before or after. An earlier test on September 19, 2026 copied 元宝 2.85.1 from the official download and removed it with Mole 1.15 Preview build 277; the rows named after its bundle ID already covered what it wrote. Neither test signed in, so conversation history was not checked on the Mac, and the Homebrew cask was not tested.