How to Clear Cache on Mac Safely: Safari, Chrome, and Apps

Quick answer: to clear cache on a Mac, empty your browser’s cache from its settings (in Safari, Develop > Empty Caches), then quit the apps you want to reset and delete the contents of their folders in ~/Library/Caches. Leave system caches alone. Expect sites to sign you out and apps to load slower once while the cache rebuilds.

The steps below are updated for macOS 27 and current versions of Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. The rest of the guide covers which caches are worth clearing and what happens when you do.

How to clear Safari cache on Mac

Safari keeps its cache tool in the Develop menu, which is hidden by default.

1. In Safari, choose Safari > Settings, then click Advanced.
2. Turn on Show features for web developers. A Develop menu appears in the menu bar.
3. Choose Develop > Empty Caches, or press Option-Command-E.

That removes cached files but keeps your history, cookies, and saved logins. If you also want to clear history and website data, use History > Clear History instead. Apple’s guide to clearing your browsing history in Safari explains what that removes, and managing cookies and website data lets you clear a single site instead of everything.

How to clear Chrome cache on Mac

1. In Chrome, click the three-dot menu, then Delete browsing data, or press Shift-Command-Delete.
2. Set the time range to All time.
3. Tick Cached images and files only. Untick cookies and history if you want to stay signed in.
4. Click Delete data.

Google’s help page on clearing cache and cookies shows the same steps for other platforms.

How to clear Firefox cache on Mac

1. Open Firefox > Settings > Privacy & Security.
2. Under Cookies and Site Data, click Clear Data.
3. Tick only the cached files option, untick cookies and history if you want to stay signed in, and confirm.

Mozilla documents this in how to clear the Firefox cache.

How to clear app caches on Mac

App caches are where real space hides. Music, chat, and design apps can each hold several gigabytes.

1. Quit the app whose cache you want to clear. Clearing it while the app runs can corrupt the data you’re trying to reset.
2. In Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder (Shift-Command-G) and enter ~/Library/Caches.
3. Switch to list view, then choose View > Show View Options and turn on Calculate all sizes so the largest folders rise to the top.
4. Open the folder for that app. Folders are usually named by bundle ID, so Spotify appears as something like com.spotify.client.
5. Delete the contents of the folder, not the folder itself. Removing the folder can confuse an app on its next launch, while emptying it just triggers a clean rebuild.
6. Empty the Trash to get the space back, then reopen the app.

If you’d rather not go folder by folder, BlueHammer Cleaner groups caches by app and shows sizes first, so you see what you’re clearing before it’s gone.

Which caches are safe to delete?

Cache	Where it lives	Safe to clear?	What you’ll notice
Browser cache	Inside Safari, Chrome, or Firefox	Yes	Slower first load of each site; some sites sign you out
App caches	~/Library/Caches, one folder per app	Yes, with the app closed	Slower first launch; offline content may download again
Developer caches (e.g. Xcode DerivedData)	~/Library/Developer	Yes	The next build takes longer
System caches	/System and /Library/Caches	No	Nothing useful; macOS manages and rebuilds these itself

System caches are small next to app caches, and clearing them buys you nothing worth the risk. When clearing cache actually matters, it’s almost always the app caches in your own Library folder.

What happens when you clear cache

A cache is a local copy of something your Mac already fetched or built, so it doesn’t have to do that work again. A browser caches images and scripts so a site you revisit loads instantly. An app caches rendered data so it opens where you left off.

Clearing it deletes those copies. You get the disk space back right away, the next visit to each site downloads everything again, and some sites ask you to sign in. Your documents, photos, messages, and settings are not part of the cache and aren’t touched.

That’s also why clearing cache “to keep things clean” usually backfires. An empty cache isn’t a faster Mac; it’s a Mac that has to rebuild everything on the next use.

When clearing cache actually helps

There are three good reasons to clear cache:

• An app started crashing or acting strangely after an update. A corrupted cache is a common cause, and clearing it forces a clean rebuild.
• One website shows an outdated layout or won’t load properly. Clearing the browser cache, or just that site’s data, fixes this in seconds.
• Your startup disk is nearly full. Under roughly 10 percent free, clearing large app caches can hand back several gigabytes. That’s about space, not speed, so work through freeing up space without removing files you need as well.

If the space is going to “System Data” rather than caches, our explainer on what System Data means on a Mac covers what sits there. Apps you no longer use are usually a bigger win than caches; see uninstalling Mac apps completely.

Caches grow back, and that’s fine

After you clear a cache, it fills again as you use the app. That isn’t the cleanup failing. The app is rebuilding the local data that makes it fast, and a cache that returns to a few gigabytes is a sign of normal use.

So treat cache clearing as a targeted fix, not a weekly habit. When an app acts up, a page goes stale, or the disk gets tight, it’s the right move. The rest of the time, let your caches do their job.