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How to clear the cache on your Mac — safely

A cache is a file an app keeps so it does not have to redo work: a decoded image, a downloaded asset, a compiled shader, a search index. Caches exist to make your Mac faster, which is why "clear your cache regularly" is bad general advice. Clearing them is worth doing for two specific reasons — reclaiming disk space when a cache has grown to gigabytes, and fixing an app that is misbehaving because its cache is stale. Here is how to do it properly.

Updated 2026-08-02 · Written by the CleanerMac team · macOS 13–15 tested

The three cache locations that matter

macOS stores cached data in several places with very different rules attached.

• ~/Library/Caches — your user caches. This is the one you can safely work in. Each subfolder is named after an app's bundle identifier, for example com.google.Chrome or com.spotify.client. Deleting the contents of a folder here is recoverable in practice: the app rebuilds what it needs on next launch.
• /Library/Caches — system-wide caches shared by all users. Some entries here are genuinely rebuildable, but this folder also holds items apps expect to exist, and clearing it requires an administrator password. Touch it only when troubleshooting a specific, identified problem.
• /System/Library/Caches — leave it alone. The system volume is read-only and protected by System Integrity Protection. If a command tells you to disable SIP to clear a cache, stop and find better advice.

Sandboxed apps are a separate case. Their caches often sit inside ~/Library/Containers/<bundle-id>/Data/Library/Caches rather than in the top-level Caches folder, which is why a manual sweep of ~/Library/Caches can look like it freed nothing for App Store apps.

Clearing user caches by hand

1. Quit the app first. This is the one rule that actually matters. Deleting the cache of a running application can crash it, corrupt its state, or lose unsaved work, because the app holds open file handles into that directory.
2. In Finder, press ⇧⌘G and enter ~/Library/Caches. (The tilde matters — without it you land in the system folder.) You can also hold Option while opening the Finder Go menu to reveal the Library entry permanently.
3. Switch to list view and sort by size using ⌘J → Calculate all sizes, so you work on the folders that are actually large instead of all two hundred of them.
4. Open the offending folder and delete its contents, not the folder itself. Some apps expect their cache directory to exist and behave oddly if it vanishes.
5. Empty the Trash to actually reclaim the space, then relaunch the app. The first launch will be slower — that is the cache rebuilding, and it is expected.

Take a Time Machine backup before your first bulk clear. Not because caches are precious, but because it costs nothing and removes the anxiety.

What is safe, what is not

The recurring mistake is confusing Caches with Application Support. The first is disposable by design. The second is where apps keep the things you would be upset to lose. If a guide tells you to clear Application Support to free space, close it.

Browser caches, done properly

Browsers manage their own storage and it is better to use their own controls than to delete files underneath them.

• Safari — for a full reset of site data, use Safari → Settings → Privacy → Manage Website Data → Remove All. To clear only the cache without signing out everywhere, enable Settings → Advanced → Show features for web developers, then use Develop → Empty Caches. Safari's own files live in ~/Library/Safari and ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari; there is a fuller walkthrough in how to clear the Safari cache.
• Chrome and Edge — ⇧⌘Delete opens Clear Browsing Data. Choose "Cached images and files" and leave cookies checked only if you are willing to sign back in to everything.
• Firefox — Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data → Clear Data, with the cached-content box ticked.

Browser caches regrow quickly. If a browser is consistently consuming many gigabytes, the cause is usually profile data and extensions rather than the cache itself.

System caches worth resetting when something is broken

These are targeted fixes. Run them when you have the matching symptom, not on a schedule.

• DNS resolver cache — for sites that will not resolve, or a DNS change that has not taken effect: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder. There is more detail in how to flush the DNS cache on a Mac.
• Quick Look — for blank or wrong previews in Finder and Spotlight: qlmanage -r cache.
• Font databases — for garbled text or missing glyphs: atsutil databases -remove, then log out and back in. Add sudo to also clear the system-level database.
• Finder and Dock — for stuck icons or an unresponsive Dock: killall Finder and killall Dock. Both relaunch immediately; nothing is lost.
• Spotlight index — for search returning nothing sensible: sudo mdutil -E /. Be aware this triggers a full reindex that can take hours and will slow the Mac while it runs.

Why cache clearing often frees less than you hoped

Two things surprise people. First, macOS reports some space as purgeable — APFS local Time Machine snapshots and cached content the system will release automatically under pressure. You may delete gigabytes and see the free-space figure barely move, because macOS had already counted that space as available. You can list local snapshots with tmutil listlocalsnapshots /.

Second, caches are usually not where your disk actually went. Once you have cleared them, the bigger wins are duplicated media, old installers, iOS backups and large forgotten files — see how to free up space on a Mac and what System Data storage really contains. If your Mac feels sluggish rather than full, work through how to speed up a slow Mac instead.

The one-click version

The manual routine above works and costs nothing but attention. The part that goes wrong is step one — remembering to quit every app before touching its cache folder. CleanerMac automates exactly that: it maps each cache folder to its owning application by bundle identifier and refuses to clear anything belonging to a process that is currently running. It sweeps user caches and logs, protects active Xcode projects while clearing stale build data, and lists every item with its size before it removes anything. It runs entirely on your Mac with no account and nothing uploaded.

Either way, the principle is the same: clear caches for a reason, quit the app first, know the difference between Caches and Application Support, and leave the system volume alone.

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