diff --git a/beets/test/_common.py b/beets/test/_common.py
index 487f7c442..10083c8cb 100644
--- a/beets/test/_common.py
+++ b/beets/test/_common.py
@@ -190,14 +190,6 @@ class DummyIO:
     def readcount(self):
         return self.stdin.reads
 
-    def install(self):
-        sys.stdin = self.stdin
-        sys.stdout = self.stdout
-
-    def restore(self):
-        sys.stdin = sys.__stdin__
-        sys.stdout = sys.__stdout__
-
 
 # Utility.
 
diff --git a/beets/test/helper.py b/beets/test/helper.py
index 207b0e491..582d7ac43 100644
--- a/beets/test/helper.py
+++ b/beets/test/helper.py
@@ -168,13 +168,14 @@ class IOMixin:
     def io(self) -> _common.DummyIO:
         return _common.DummyIO()
 
-    def setUp(self):
+    def setUp(self) -> None:
         super().setUp()
-        self.io.install()
 
-    def tearDown(self):
-        super().tearDown()
-        self.io.restore()
+        patcher = patch.multiple(
+            "sys", stdin=self.io.stdin, stdout=self.io.stdout
+        )
+        patcher.start()
+        self.addCleanup(patcher.stop)
 
 
 class TestHelper(ConfigMixin):
@@ -759,7 +760,6 @@ class TerminalImportMixin(IOMixin, ImportHelper):
     io: _common.DummyIO
 
     def _get_import_session(self, import_dir: bytes) -> importer.ImportSession:
-        self.io.install()
         return TerminalImportSessionFixture(
             self.lib,
             loghandler=None,
diff --git a/test/ui/commands/test_completion.py b/test/ui/commands/test_completion.py
index ee2881a0e..992ed58c8 100644
--- a/test/ui/commands/test_completion.py
+++ b/test/ui/commands/test_completion.py
@@ -49,7 +49,6 @@ class CompletionTest(IOMixin, TestPluginTestCase):
         # Load completion script.
         self.run_command("completion", lib=None)
         completion_script = self.io.getoutput().encode("utf-8")
-        self.io.restore()
         tester.stdin.writelines(completion_script.splitlines(True))
 
         # Load test suite.