Spotify cache on Mac: is it safe to delete?

Where it is

What it is

When you play a song, Spotify keeps a copy of the audio on disk so it does not need to stream it again. On a Mac that cache is in ~/Library/Caches/com.spotify.client.

The cache is not the same as your downloads. Songs and podcasts you downloaded for offline listening are stored separately, and Spotify's settings show where.

The cache grows the more you listen, up to a limit Spotify manages itself. Heavy listeners see it settle at a large size and stay there.

How big it gets

Often several GB for someone who listens daily.

How to clear it by hand

1. Open Spotify, click your profile picture and choose Settings.
2. Scroll to Storage. It shows how much space the cache and your downloads take.
3. Click Clear cache and confirm. Your downloads are kept.
4. To do it by hand instead, quit Spotify and move ~/Library/Caches/com.spotify.client to the Trash. The command below only shows how large the folder is.

du -sh ~/Library/Caches/com.spotify.client

What happens afterwards

Songs you play are streamed again and re-cached, so the first play may take a moment to start on a slow connection. The cache grows back with use.

How Diskzy handles it

Diskzy's Clean up tab finds app caches like this one. Apps that are open are left alone, and what it removes goes to the Trash.

Related guides

• Caches~/Library/Caches
• Google Chrome cache~/Library/Caches/Google/Chrome
• Slack cache~/Library/Application Support/Slack/Cache