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

By Irshad PC ·

Blue Caches folder icon, ~/Library/Caches. Safe to delete? Yes, it rebuilds itself.
Location
~/Library/Caches
Safe to delete?
Yes, it rebuilds itself Apps rebuild what is in it. Skip the CloudKit, HomeKit and FamilyCircle sync folders.

~/Library/Caches is the folder where apps on your Mac keep files they can rebuild, like saved web pages, streaming buffers and package downloads. Apple tells developers to put only regenerable data there, so clearing what’s inside is safe. Quit your apps first, skip three sync folders, and expect it to refill.

What is ~/Library/Caches?

It’s the Caches folder inside the Library folder in your home folder. The ~ stands for your home folder, so the full path is /Users/yourname/Library/Caches. Finder has hidden your Library folder since OS X Lion (Apple’s File System Basics), so you won’t stumble on it by browsing.

Apple’s developer documentation describes Caches as holding “cached data that can be regenerated as needed” and tells apps never to rely on those files existing (Apple’s Library directory reference). By convention each app gets a subfolder named after its bundle identifier, like com.spotify.client. Command-line tools tend to pick plain names, such as Homebrew or pip.

Caches also feed the System Data number in Storage settings. Apple lists caches among the things that category holds (Apple Support). If that number sent you here, what System Data is covers the rest of the bucket.

~/Library/Caches vs /Library/Caches

The tilde matters. ~/Library/Caches belongs to your account, and you can change it without an admin password. /Library/Caches, at the top level of your startup disk, is shared by every account on the Mac. Apple calls that the local domain. The system typically manages it, and only administrators can add, remove or change items in it (Apple’s File System Basics).

You rarely need to touch /Library/Caches. Clearing it takes an admin password and affects everyone who uses the Mac. If you want macOS’s own caches cleared, Apple’s storage guide notes that a safe mode startup clears certain system caches, and macOS creates them again as needed.

Is it safe to delete?

Yes, for almost everything inside it. Apps have to cope when their cache files disappear, so clearing them loses nothing you made. You pay in time and bandwidth: apps open a little slower the first time, browsers fetch pages again, and package managers re-download what they need.

Three folders are the exception: CloudKit, com.apple.HomeKit and FamilyCircle. They hold sync state for iCloud, the Home app and Family Sharing. Rebuilding that is slow and disruptive, so leave those three alone.

Your documents and settings don’t belong here. Apple’s layout puts app data, which can include your files, in ~/Library/Application Support, and settings in ~/Library/Preferences (same Apple reference). Don’t sweep those two folders the way you’d sweep Caches.

One more caveat. Apple’s rule binds developers, and a sloppy app could park something here you’d miss. That’s why the steps below go through the Trash first instead of deleting outright.

Why it gets so big

macOS doesn’t cap this folder. Apple makes each app responsible for adding and deleting its own cache files (File System Basics), so some apps trim theirs and others let them grow.

Emptying the folder only buys you time, and that’s by design. Apps put files here because they reuse them, so they start refilling it the next time they run. macOS also counts purgeable disk caches as available space (Apple Support) and frees purgeable space itself when it needs room (Disk Utility guide). For space that stays free, look at what doesn’t rebuild itself, like old iPhone backups and Xcode data in ~/Library/Developer. The free up disk space guide goes through them in order.

How to clear it yourself

  1. Quit the apps you’re about to clear. Apps write to their caches while they run. Quitting first means nothing writes to a folder while you empty it.

  2. Open the folder. In Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder, type ~/Library/Caches and press Return (Apple’s steps). Keep the tilde. Without it you land in the shared /Library/Caches.

  3. Sort by size. Choose View > as List, then View > Show View Options and turn on Calculate all sizes. Click the Size column so the biggest folders sit on top. If you’d rather use Terminal, this read-only command lists sizes and changes nothing:

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

  4. Work out who owns each big folder. The name usually gives it away, like com.spotify.client or Google. Leave CloudKit, com.apple.HomeKit and FamilyCircle alone. Skip folders you can’t identify too, including com.apple folders you don’t recognize, which belong to macOS and Apple’s own apps.

  5. Move the contents to the Trash. Open an app’s folder, press Command-A to select everything inside, then press Command-Delete. Leave the folder itself where it is. If Finder says you don’t have permission, skip that folder.

  6. Use your Mac for a day, then empty the Trash. Files in the Trash still take up disk space (more on that), so you only get the space back once you empty it. If an app complains in the meantime, right-click its files in the Trash and choose Put Back.

For developer tools, use their own commands. brew cleanup --prune=all removes all of Homebrew’s cached downloads along with old versions of installed formulae (Homebrew manual), and pip cache purge clears pip’s wheel and HTTP caches (pip docs). The developer junk guide covers the rest.

What SpaceUp Mac does with it

In the Clean tab, SpaceUp Mac lists well-known caches in this folder (browsers, Spotify, Xcode, Homebrew and others) as separate items and groups most other app folders there into one pre-ticked “Other app caches” item you can untick before cleaning. It clears these directly rather than moving them to the Trash, keeps each app’s folder in place, always skips CloudKit, com.apple.HomeKit and FamilyCircle, and never touches /Library/Caches. Deep Scan also lists any item directly inside this folder that takes 80 MB or more, usually labeled “Cache · safe to clear”. The three sync folders are the exception. Those are labeled “App / SDK data · review” and shown with Reveal only, never Move to Trash, matching the Clean tab. Anything you remove from Deep Scan goes to the Trash, as explained in cleaning and safety.

Common questions

What is the flutter_engine folder in ~/Library/Caches?

The Flutter engine creates it. That’s the runtime inside apps built with Google’s Flutter framework, so an app you use may have made it even if you’ve never installed Flutter. The engine keeps compiled graphics shaders there in a subfolder named after its version and deletes older versions’ subfolders on its own (engine source, cache location), so it’s safe to delete and gets rebuilt when needed.

Will clearing caches speed up my Mac?

Usually not. Apps keep caches so they don’t have to rebuild or re-download the same files, so an empty cache means they work harder until they refill it. Clearing one app’s cache makes sense when that app misbehaves.

Why can’t I find an app’s cache here?

Mac App Store apps must be sandboxed (App Review Guidelines, 2.4.5), and sandboxed apps keep their caches inside their own container (File System Basics). Those containers live in ~/Library/Containers next to the app’s documents and settings, so don’t sweep that folder. One container cache you can clear on its own is com.apple.mediaanalysisd. Some big caches sit in Application Support instead, like Adobe’s media cache.

Should I delete the Caches folder itself?

No. Empty what’s inside and leave ~/Library/Caches in place, along with each app’s own folder. Deleting the top folder gains you nothing over emptying it.