Is it safe to delete ~/Library/Caches on a Mac?

What ~/Library/Caches is

Every account on a Mac has a Library folder inside its home folder, where apps keep their settings, data and temporary files. Caches is one folder in it. Apps put things there that they can get again: downloaded images and web pages, thumbnails, compiled code, update files. Keeping them means the app doesn't have to download or rebuild them every time.

~/Library/Caches

App caches

What it is

Temporary files apps keep so they don't have to download or rebuild them each time.

Does it come back?

Comes back on its own

Without it

Apps rebuild their caches as you use them, so some may be slower at first or ask you to sign in again.

There's more than one Caches folder, and the tilde matters:

The ~ stands for your home folder. Everything in this guide is about the first one.

How to find the Caches folder

The Finder hides your Library folder because apps manage it themselves. Apple's guide to going directly to a folder gives two ways in:

• Choose Go > Go to Folder (⇧⌘G), type ~/Library/Caches and press Return.
• Open the Go menu, press and hold ⌥, choose Library, then open Caches.

Most folders inside are named after an app's bundle ID, a reverse-domain name like com.spotify.client, and some simply after the app or its maker, like Firefox or Google. Folders that start with com.apple belong to macOS and Apple's own apps.

See which caches are big

To size one folder, select it and choose File > Get Info. To see them all at once, Terminal is quicker. These commands only read; they don't change anything.

The whole folder:

du -sh ~/Library/Caches 2>/dev/null

Every folder inside it, biggest last:

du -sh ~/Library/Caches/* 2>/dev/null | sort -h

Look at the last few lines. Browsers, music and video apps, and developer tools are common big ones. If a folder you don't recognize is near the bottom, its name is usually enough to find the app it belongs to.

Clear one app's cache

This works the same on macOS 15 Sequoia and macOS 26 Tahoe.

1. 1

   Quit the app

   Quit the app whose cache you want to clear, so it isn't using the cache while you move it.

2. 2

   Open the Caches folder

   In the Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder, type ~/Library/Caches and press Return.

3. 3

   Find the app's folder

   Look for a folder named after the app or its bundle ID, such as com.example.app. Select it and choose File > Get Info to see how big it is.

4. 4

   Move that folder to the Trash

   Drag the app's folder to the Trash, or select it and press Command-Delete. Leave the Caches folder itself where it is.

5. 5

   Open the app again

   The app rebuilds what it needs. It may be slower for a little while, or ask you to sign in again.

6. 6

   Empty the Trash later

   Once the app works as expected, choose Finder > Empty Trash to get the space back.

Move one app's folder, not the Caches folder itself. Moving the whole folder takes every app's cache at once, including ones that macOS and open apps are using right now, and they put their files straight back.

Some caches live elsewhere. Sandboxed apps, including most App Store apps, keep theirs in ~/Library/Containers/<app>/Data/Library/Caches. Chrome, Slack, VS Code and other apps built on Chromium keep folders named Cache, Code Cache and GPUCache inside Application Support. Browsers also have their own settings for clearing website data, which our guide to clearing caches on a Mac walks through.

Developer tools are better cleared with their own commands, which know what's safe to drop. See Homebrew cleanup and clearing Xcode DerivedData.

Why most caches come back

A cache is meant to grow back. When you open the app again, it downloads and rebuilds what it needs, and a busy browser or streaming app can be back near its old cache size within days. Nothing is wrong when that happens; the app is doing its job.

That changes what clearing caches is good for:

• To free space today, say to fit a macOS update, clearing a few big caches works.
• To keep space free, look at things that don't come back on their own: old iPhone backups, installers you've used, apps you don't open, Xcode data from old projects, and large files in Downloads.

Not every cache regrows at the same pace. Package caches such as Homebrew's downloads come back only when you install or upgrade something, so clearing them tends to last longer than clearing a browser's.

~/Library/Caches/Homebrew

Homebrew downloads

Made by

Homebrew

What it is

Downloads Homebrew kept after installing or upgrading packages.

Does it come back?

Comes back when it's needed

Without it

Homebrew downloads them again if it needs to reinstall something.

How to manage it

brew cleanup

macOS manages caches too. Apple's Optimize storage space page says that when space is needed, macOS clears caches and logs that are safe to delete, such as temporary database files, interrupted downloads, staged macOS and app updates, and Safari website data. So on a nearly full Mac, some cache space is already space macOS will give back without you.

What's safe to delete from the Library, and what isn't

Caches is the safest folder in the Library. Most of the others hold things that exist nowhere else. Here's the rest of ~/Library, using the same descriptions as our field guide:

Two rules cover most of it. Move single items, never the Library or one of its main folders. And anything starting with com.apple outside Caches belongs to macOS or an Apple app you're still using.

Why is my Library folder so big?

If the Storage settings or a disk map shows a huge Library, caches are rarely the whole story. To see which folders are big:

du -sh ~/Library/* 2>/dev/null | sort -h

Terminal needs Full Disk Access to measure protected folders such as Mail, Messages and Safari, so without it some of these sizes come out too small. You can turn it on here:

Apple menu, then System Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Full Disk Access

The usual large folders are Application Support (app libraries and downloaded content, plus iPhone backups in MobileSync), Containers, Developer for anyone who has installed Xcode, and Mail and Messages with their attachments. Each one needs a different decision, so measure before you move anything. Our guide to what's taking up space on a Mac goes through them.

How MacClearings handles caches

The Map shows your home folder as a treemap or sunburst and colors what its cleanup rules recognize by kind, so caches stand out in blue and you can see how big ~/Library/Caches is next to everything else. Select any folder and the inspector says what it is, which app made it and whether it comes back, using the same field guide entries shown on this page.

Suggestions groups caches into rules. App caches, browser caches, and the caches macOS and Apple's apps keep are listed but start unchecked: they come back within days, and some are in use:

Suggestions rule · App caches

macOS and Apple app caches

Caches kept by macOS and Apple apps. They are rebuilt automatically, but some are in active use, so they start unchecked.

• ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.*

Listed, but you decide whether to check it.

Developer caches that come back only when needed, such as Homebrew downloads and pip packages, are checked for you. Whatever you add, from Suggestions or with Add to Cleanup in the Map's inspector, goes into one review list and then to the Trash. MacClearings never moves the Caches folder itself, only what's inside it.

History keeps every cleanup with Undo, and measures each place again after a day, a week and a month, so you can see how much of the space stayed free. MacClearings never empties the Trash, so the space comes back when you empty it yourself.