Mopup › Guides › Clear cache

How to clear cache on a Mac safely

A cache is a copy of something an app has already downloaded or worked out, kept so it doesn't have to do the work again. Caches are safe to delete because apps rebuild them. An app may be a little slower the first time afterwards, and it's best to quit an app before you clear its cache.

Where caches live

~/Library/Caches: your apps' caches, one folder per app, named after the app or its ID, like com.spotify.client.
/Library/Caches: caches shared by everyone on the Mac. Most belong to macOS or to installers; leave them alone.
Inside your browsers, which have their own way to clear them.

See which caches are big

This lists the 15 largest caches, smallest first, and changes nothing:

du -sh ~/Library/Caches/* 2>/dev/null | sort -h | tail -15

Browsers, music and video apps, and developer tools are often at the top.

Clear an app's cache

Quit the app.
In Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder, type ~/Library/Caches and press Return.
Open the app's folder and move what's inside it to the Trash. Leave the folder itself in place.
Empty the Trash to get the space back.

Clear your browser's cache

Safari: choose Safari › Settings › Advanced and turn on "Show features for web developers". Then choose Develop › Empty Caches.
Chrome: open Settings › Privacy and security › Delete browsing data, tick "Cached images and files", and leave "Cookies and other site data" unticked so you stay signed in to websites.
Firefox: open Settings › Privacy & Security, choose Clear Data under Cookies and Site Data, and tick only "Temporary cached files and pages".

What to leave alone

The caches of apps that are open. Quit them first.
Folders whose names start with com.apple. Clearing them gains little, because macOS rebuilds them right away.
Scripts that empty all of ~/Library/Caches at once. Every app then starts over at the same time, which makes your Mac feel slow for a while.

Caches come back

Most caches grow again as you use your apps, and that's normal. Clearing them helps when space is tight or an app misbehaves. There's no need to do it every week.

Mopup's Cleanup section on a demo Mac: the Spotify, Google, Firefox, Dropbox, ChatGPT, Discord and zoom.us caches and logs, each with its size and what removing it means.