Where is the Firefox cache on Mac? Is it safe to delete?

Where it is

What it is

Firefox saves parts of the sites you visit so they load faster next time. On a Mac this cache is in ~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles, with one folder for each Firefox profile.

Your profile itself is in a different place, ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles. That folder holds bookmarks, history, saved logins, add-ons and settings, and it should not be deleted.

Firefox limits the size of the cache automatically, so it does not grow without end, but it can still take a noticeable amount of space if you browse a lot or have several profiles.

How big it gets

Usually from a few hundred MB to about a GB for each profile.

How to clear it by hand

1. The simplest way is inside Firefox: open Firefox > Settings, choose Privacy & Security, scroll to Cookies and Site Data and click Clear Data.
2. Tick only the option for cached files and pages. Leave cookies and site data unticked if you want to stay signed in to websites.
3. Click Clear.
4. To remove the cache by hand instead, quit Firefox and move the contents of ~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles to the Trash. The command below shows how large it is.

du -sh ~/Library/Caches/Firefox

What happens afterwards

Pages load a little more slowly the first time you revisit them while Firefox fills the cache again. You stay signed in, and bookmarks, history and passwords are not affected.

How Diskzy handles it

Diskzy lists browser caches in the Clean up tab, ticked unless that browser is open. What it removes goes to the Trash.

Related guides

• Google Chrome cache~/Library/Caches/Google/Chrome
• Safari cache~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Caches
• Caches~/Library/Caches