How to clear cache on a Mac (what's safe and what's not)

Caches are copies of data an app can rebuild, kept so things load faster. Clearing them frees space, but it also makes the next launch slower, so only do it when you need the room or an app is misbehaving.

Clear user caches

1. Quit the apps whose caches you want to clear.
2. In Finder choose Go → Go to Folder and enter ~/Library/Caches.
3. Open individual folders and delete their contents. Leave the folders themselves in place.
4. Empty the Trash.

Start with the largest folders (sort by size) rather than deleting everything. Browser, chat and creative apps usually top the list.

Browser caches

Clear these from inside the browser (Safari: Develop → Empty Caches, after turning on the Develop menu in Settings; Chrome: Clear Browsing Data → Cached images and files). It is cleaner than deleting folders by hand.

Electron app caches

Apps built on Electron, including many chat and note-taking tools, keep large Chromium caches inside ~/Library/Application Support/<app name>. Look for folders called Cache, Code Cache, GPUCache and Service Worker. They are safe to clear with the app closed.

Logs

~/Library/Logs holds diagnostic reports. They’re rarely large, and safe to delete if you aren’t debugging something.

Developer caches

Package managers keep their own: npm, pnpm, Homebrew, Cargo, Gradle and pip. Each has a cache command, for example npm cache clean --force and brew cleanup. Xcode has its own set, covered in clearing DerivedData and simulators.

What not to clear

• System caches in /Library/Caches and /System/Library/Caches. They are managed by macOS.
• Anything in ~/Library/Application Support that isn’t a clear cache folder. That is real data.
• Keychains and Preferences. They aren’t caches.

The honest take

Cache cleaning is oversold. Most caches are small, and macOS handles its own. Clear them when a specific app is huge or broken, not as weekly maintenance.

Gardner’s Clutter tool lists app caches, developer caches and leftover files in plain-language groups and moves what you tick to the Trash, so a mistake can be undone.