What is ~/Library/Caches on Mac, and is it safe to delete?

Where it is

What it is

~/Library/Caches is the place macOS gives each app for data it does not need to keep. Browsers store web pages and images there, music and video apps store streamed media, and developer tools store downloaded packages. Each app normally gets its own subfolder, named after the app or its bundle identifier.

It grows because most apps never tidy up after themselves. A cache that made sense a year ago stays on disk long after you stopped using the app, and apps you have deleted often leave their cache folder behind.

There is also a system-wide /Library/Caches and a cache area inside each sandboxed app's container. This page is about the one in your home folder, which is usually the largest.

How big it gets

Usually several GB, and it can reach tens of GB if you use browsers, streaming apps or developer tools heavily.

How to clear it by hand

1. Quit the apps whose caches you want to clear, so nothing is writing to the folder while you work.
2. In Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder, type ~/Library/Caches and press Return.
3. Sort by size if you can, or use the command below in Terminal to list the biggest subfolders.
4. Move the subfolders you do not need to the Trash. Delete what is inside Caches, not the Caches folder itself.
5. If macOS refuses to remove a folder, leave it. Some Apple caches are protected.
6. Empty the Trash to get the space back.

du -sh ~/Library/Caches/* | sort -hr | head -20

What happens afterwards

Apps recreate their caches as you use them. The first launch can be a little slower, websites reload their images, and some apps download content again. You do not lose documents, settings or logins stored elsewhere.

How Diskzy handles it

Diskzy lists caches in the Clean up tab, each ticked or unticked with a reason. Browser and Electron app caches are ticked unless that app is open, and apps that are open are left alone.

Related guides

• Logs~/Library/Logs
• Application Support~/Library/Application Support
• Homebrew cache~/Library/Caches/Homebrew
• Trash~/.Trash