How to Clear All Caches on Mac (System, App, Browser)

Caches are temporary files that macOS and applications store on your disk to speed up repeated operations. Instead of fetching data from the internet or recalculating something from scratch, your Mac reads the cached copy. This is great for performance, but over months and years these cached files accumulate to surprising sizes.

On a typical Mac that has been in use for a year or more, caches can account for 3 to 10 GB of storage. For heavy browser users or developers, the number can be even higher. Clearing them is one of the safest and most effective ways to free up disk space on your Mac.

What Are Caches and Why Clear Them?

There are three main categories of caches on macOS:

• User caches (~/Library/Caches) -- created by applications you run under your user account. This is where most of the recoverable space lives.
• System caches (/Library/Caches) -- created by macOS and system services. Requires admin privileges to manage.
• Browser caches -- stored in application-specific directories by each web browser. Often the single largest cache category for non-developers.

Clearing caches is safe because they are, by definition, temporary data that can be recreated. The worst that happens is that apps may load slightly slower the first time they rebuild their caches. No personal data, settings, or documents are stored in cache directories.

Clear User Application Caches

User caches are the biggest opportunity. They are located in ~/Library/Caches and are safe to manage without admin privileges.

Step 1: Check Total Size

Step 2: Identify Largest Cache Folders

Step 3: Clear Individual Caches

You can delete the contents of individual cache folders. It is better to delete the contents of the folder rather than the folder itself, since some apps expect their cache directory to exist:

Using Finder

If you prefer a visual approach:

1. Open Finder
2. Press Shift + Cmd + G to open "Go to Folder"
3. Type ~/Library/Caches and press Enter
4. Sort by size (View > List, then click Size column)
5. Open large folders and delete their contents

Common Large Cache Offenders

• Spotify -- caches music for offline playback. Can reach 2-5 GB.
• Slack -- caches messages, files, and media. Often 500 MB to 2 GB.
• Discord -- similar to Slack, caches media and attachments.
• Adobe Creative Cloud -- Photoshop, Illustrator, and other Adobe apps each maintain large caches.
• VS Code -- extension caches, language server caches, and cached data can total 500 MB+.
• Xcode -- module caches and precompiled data.

Clear System Caches

System caches are stored in /Library/Caches (note: no tilde, this is the system-level Library). These require admin privileges and should be handled more carefully.

System caches are generally smaller than user caches and are more aggressively managed by macOS. The safest approach is to leave most system caches alone, or use a trusted cleanup tool that knows which ones are safe to remove.

Clear Browser Caches

Browser caches are often the largest single category for non-developers. Each browser stores cached web pages, images, scripts, and other assets independently.

Safari

Open Safari, go to Safari > Settings > Privacy > Manage Website Data, then click Remove All. Alternatively, enable Develop menu (Settings > Advanced > Show features for web developers) and use Develop > Empty Caches.

Chrome

Navigate to chrome://settings/clearBrowserData in the address bar. Select "Cached images and files" under the Advanced tab, choose "All time" for the time range, and click "Clear data."

Chrome also stores additional caches in Application Support that are not cleared by the built-in tool:

Firefox

Open Firefox, press Cmd + Shift + Delete, select "Cache" and "Offline website data," choose "Everything" for the time range, and click "Clear Now."

Arc, Brave, Edge, and Other Chromium Browsers

All Chromium-based browsers follow the same pattern as Chrome. Access their clear data settings via the browser's settings menu. They also store GPU caches and service worker data in Application Support directories.

Flush DNS Cache

The DNS cache stores recent domain name lookups. Flushing it does not recover meaningful storage space, but it can fix issues with websites not loading correctly or resolving to outdated IP addresses.

This is particularly useful after changing DNS servers, connecting to a VPN, or experiencing intermittent website loading failures.

Clear Font Cache

If you experience font rendering issues (wrong fonts displaying, garbled text, or font-related crashes), clearing the font cache can help:

macOS will rebuild the font cache on restart. This takes a few extra seconds during boot but resolves most font-related display issues.

What Happens After Clearing Caches?

After clearing caches, you may notice a few temporary changes:

• Websites load slightly slower the first time you visit them, since the browser needs to re-download assets from scratch. Subsequent visits will be fast again.
• Applications may take longer to launch once, as they rebuild their caches. This is usually a one-time delay of a few seconds.
• You may be logged out of some websites, depending on how aggressively you cleared browser data. (Clearing only "cached images and files" usually preserves login sessions.)
• Spotlight may briefly re-index if you cleared system-level caches.

None of these side effects are permanent. Caches rebuild themselves naturally through normal usage.

Which Caches Are Safe to Delete?

• Always safe: User application caches in ~/Library/Caches, browser caches, DNS cache
• Usually safe: System caches in /Library/Caches (be selective, avoid Apple system service caches)
• Never touch: /System/Library/Caches (protected by SIP, essential for boot)

When in doubt, a targeted approach is best: identify the largest cache folders, verify they belong to an application you recognize, and delete their contents while the app is not running.

For a broader look at freeing up disk space beyond just caches, see our complete guide to freeing up space on Mac.