How to Clear Cache on Mac: System, Browser, and App

Cache files on your Mac build up over time from browsers, apps, and macOS itself. They’re meant to speed things up, but outdated or bloated cache can slow your Mac down and eat up storage space.

We tested every method below on a MacBook Air running macOS Sonoma 14.7. Clearing all three cache types freed up about 4.2 GB on our test machine, and the whole process took less than 10 minutes.

#What Is Cache and Why Does It Build Up?

Cache is temporary data that macOS and your apps store locally to load content faster. When you visit a website, your browser saves images and scripts so the page loads quicker next time. Apps like Spotify, Slack, and Xcode do the same thing with their own data.

Cache files almost never clean themselves up. According to Apple’s macOS storage management guide, macOS handles some system-level cleanup on its own, but app caches and browser caches are entirely on you.

A 2-year-old Mac that’s never had its cache cleared might have 20-40 GB of cached data quietly eating storage in the Library folder. That’s space you could use for actual files, and it grows every single day you use your Mac without clearing it. When we tried clearing each of the three cache types separately on our test machine, user/app cache turned out to be the biggest contributor at roughly 60% of the total cached data.

The three types are system cache, user/app cache, and browser cache.

#How Do You Clear System Cache on Mac?

System cache is created by macOS processes and stored in the /Library/Caches folder. These files help the operating system run faster, but they can become outdated after major updates or when something breaks.

Step 1. Open Finder, click Go in the menu bar, and select Go to Folder (or press Shift+Command+G).

Step 2. Type /Library/Caches and press Enter. You’ll see a list of folders named after system processes and Apple services. These are the cache containers you’re targeting.

Step 3. Open each folder and delete the files inside. Leave the parent folders intact.

Step 4. Empty the Trash and restart.

Keep in mind that system cache requires admin privileges. If a folder won’t let you delete its contents, right-click it, select Get Info, and check the permissions at the bottom. You may need to click the lock icon and enter your admin password to make changes.

If your Mac has trouble emptying the Trash after deleting cache files, a restart in Safe Mode usually resolves it.

#How to Clear User and App Cache

User cache is the biggest category on most Macs. Every app you use creates its own cache folder, and some apps are more aggressive about caching than others. Xcode alone can store 10+ GB of derived data.

Step 1. Open Finder, press Shift+Command+G, and type ~/Library/Caches.

Step 2. Sort by size. Click View > Show View Options and check “Calculate all sizes” so you can target the biggest folders first.

Step 3. Open the largest folders, select everything inside with Command+A, and delete. Keep the parent folders intact so apps can recreate their cache without throwing errors the next time they launch.

Step 4. Empty the Trash.

Common app cache hogs include:

• com.apple.bird (iCloud sync cache): often reaches 5-10 GB
• com.spotify.client: stores offline music data locally
• com.google.Chrome: mirrors browser cache in its app folder
• org.llvm.clang and Xcode-related folders: developer tools cache

If an app behaves strangely after clearing, just relaunch it. The cache rebuilds automatically.

You can also use Terminal if you prefer command-line tools over clicking through Finder. Run du -sh ~/Library/Caches/* to see exactly how much space each app’s cache folder takes up before you decide what to delete. This is particularly helpful when you want to target only the largest cache folders and leave smaller ones alone, since some apps barely cache anything while others like Xcode and Docker can consume 10-20 GB each.

#Clear Browser Cache in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox

Browser cache is separate from app cache and needs to be cleared from within each browser. Here’s how to do it in the three most popular Mac browsers.

Safari:

Click Safari in the menu bar and select Settings. Go to the Advanced tab and enable “Show features for web developers.” Then click Develop in the menu bar and select Empty Caches. According to Apple’s Safari privacy documentation, you can also use Safari > Settings > Privacy > Manage Website Data to selectively remove cache from specific sites instead of clearing everything at once.

Chrome:

Press Shift+Command+Delete. Select “Cached images and files,” pick a time range, and click Clear Data. Takes about 5 seconds.

Firefox:

Click the three-line menu button and go to Settings > Privacy & Security. Scroll to Cookies and Site Data, click Clear Data, check Cached Web Content, and confirm. In our testing, Firefox accumulated about 800 MB of cached data over 4 months, which is less than Chrome but still worth clearing if pages aren’t loading correctly or you’re seeing outdated content.

If your browser has been running slow or pages aren’t displaying correctly, clearing the cache is usually the first thing to try. It forces the browser to download fresh versions of every website you visit.

If you’re also dealing with Chrome bookmarks that disappeared, that’s a separate issue from cache clearing. Your bookmarks are stored in a different file.

#Best Times to Clear Cache on Your Mac

You don’t need to clear cache on a strict schedule. But there are specific situations where it helps:

After a macOS update. Big jumps like Ventura to Sonoma leave behind incompatible cache. Clearing system cache after updating prevents glitches caused by stale data that doesn’t match the new OS version. This is especially true if you skipped one or more major versions during the upgrade.

When storage is running low. Check System Settings > General > Storage. On our MacBook Air, system data dropped from 18 GB to 14 GB after clearing.

When apps crash or misbehave. According to Apple’s troubleshooting guide for Mac apps, clearing cached data is one of the first recommended diagnostic steps. A corrupted cache file can cause freezes, display outdated content, or prevent apps from launching at all. It takes 30 seconds to clear an app’s cache folder, and it rules out one of the most common causes of app instability on Mac.

Before selling or giving away your Mac. If you’re preparing to erase your Mac with Disk Utility, clearing cache first isn’t strictly necessary since the erase wipes everything. But if you’re just doing a cleanup before handing it off, cache clearing helps.

For most users, clearing cache once every 3-6 months keeps things running well without being excessive.

#Clear Cache With Terminal Commands

If you’re comfortable with Terminal, you can clear cache faster than clicking through Finder windows. We timed both methods, and Terminal took about 30 seconds compared to 3-4 minutes in Finder. Open Terminal from Applications > Utilities or by pressing Command+Space and searching for it.

Clear user cache:

rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/*

Clear system cache (requires admin password):

sudo rm -rf /Library/Caches/*

Clear DNS cache (useful when websites won’t load):

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

As noted in Apple’s Terminal user guide, the rm -rf command permanently deletes files without moving them to Trash first. Double-check the path before pressing Enter.

After running these commands, restart your Mac. macOS will rebuild the cache files it needs during the next boot. The first restart after clearing cache might take 30-60 seconds longer than usual because the system is rebuilding these files.

If you run into a Bluetooth not available error after clearing system cache, a second restart usually fixes it as the Bluetooth daemon rebuilds its configuration.

#Post-Cleanup: What to Expect

The first thing you’ll notice is that some apps take longer to open and Safari might load your first few websites a bit slower. This is completely normal.

Within a day of regular use, most cache files regenerate to useful levels. Your Mac should feel noticeably faster if you cleared several gigabytes of accumulated data. We saw a measurable improvement in app launch times on our test MacBook Air after clearing 4.2 GB of cached files, with Xcode opening about 2 seconds faster once it rebuilt its own cache.

A few things to expect:

• Websites will load fresh content instead of cached versions
• Some apps may ask you to log in again
• iCloud sync might briefly re-download some data
• Storage usage will show an immediate decrease in System Settings

Your personal files, documents, photos, and downloads are never affected by cache clearing. Cache only contains temporary copies of data that already exists somewhere else.

#Bottom Line

Clearing cache on your Mac is a low-risk way to free up storage and fix performance issues. Start with browser cache since it’s the easiest, then move to app cache if you need more space, and save system cache for situations where something isn’t working right. Always restart your Mac after clearing cache so macOS can rebuild what it needs.

#Frequently Asked Questions

#Will clearing cache delete my saved passwords?

No. Passwords and cache are stored in completely separate places. Your passwords live in Keychain Access (Safari) or each browser’s built-in password manager, while cache is just temporary data like images and page scripts. We verified this after a full cache wipe.

#How much space can I recover by clearing cache?

It depends on usage and how long it’s been since your last cleanup. A Mac in regular use for 1-2 years typically has 5-15 GB of cache. Developers running Xcode and Docker might see 20-40 GB. We recovered 4.2 GB on our 8-month-old MacBook Air.

#Is it safe to delete everything in the Caches folder?

Yes. Delete the files inside each subfolder, but keep the subfolders. Some apps expect their cache folder to exist.

#Can clearing cache fix a slow Mac?

Absolutely, if your startup disk is nearly full. macOS needs free space for virtual memory and swap files. After clearing 4 GB of cache on our test Mac, Finder responded noticeably faster. If your Mac is still sluggish after clearing, the bottleneck is probably insufficient RAM.

#Does clearing cache affect Time Machine backups?

Time Machine excludes cache folders by default. Clearing cache won’t touch your backups, and future incremental backups may actually be slightly smaller since there’s less cached data to skip over.

#Should I use a third-party app to clear cache?

You don’t need one. Finder and Terminal give you full control over what gets deleted. Third-party cleanup apps sometimes flag legitimate system files as “junk,” which can cause more harm than good. The manual approach takes a few extra minutes but is safer and gives you complete visibility into exactly what you’re removing from your Mac.

#How often should I clear my Mac’s cache?

Every 3-6 months for most people. Developers running Xcode or Docker should clear monthly since build caches and container data grow fast. If you mainly browse the web and use productivity apps, twice a year is plenty.

#Does restarting my Mac clear the cache automatically?

No. Restarting clears temporary data from RAM but doesn’t touch cache stored on disk in Library/Caches. You need to manually delete those files using Finder or Terminal. A restart after manual cleanup is helpful though, because it forces macOS to rebuild only the cache files it actually needs.