How to clear your cache on Mac

Many of your computer’s daily activities – such as opening programs, logging on to e-mail and browsing websites – are saved as temporary files on your computer. This is called a cache, which, as you say, “helps reduce Internet data usage and speed up software installation on Mac computers, iOS and iPadOS devices and Apple TV”.

When you visit a website, for example, your browser downloads data such as images, scripts and login credentials and saves everything in a cached folder. When you visit the same site in the future, your browser simply (and quickly) loads the data from the folder already created. That way, your computer doesn’t have to waste time downloading all of that information again – it can simply pull it out of the cache.

There are a few different types of cached data: user or application data that saves information for certain applications; system cache, which your operating system uses to save process information; and the browser cache, which saves your web browsing activity.

Convenient, right? But it is important to clear this cached information from time to time to keep your data safe and free up disk space, which helps the operating system to run more smoothly. If you are having problems with certain applications, it may also be time to clear your cache.

Here’s how to get the job done. (Remember: after clearing this data, you may find that when visiting certain websites, you will need to enter your credentials, even if you didn’t need to first.)

How to clear the user / application cache on Mac

The Mac makes it easy to clear your cached data using simple keyboard shortcuts.

In the Finder window, press shift, command and G.
The “Go to folder” window will appear. Type the following command in the search box: ~ / Library / Caches. You can also access this command by opening the Finder and navigating to Go> Go to folder in the menu.

Click on the “Go” button. A folder will open, including your Mac’s cached files.
On this screen, you can browse each folder and manually delete specific cached files by dragging them to the Recycle Bin (and then emptying the Recycle Bin). If you know the specific application or process you want to clean, you can select the folder and move it to the Recycle Bin.

If you want to clear the entire system cache, press command and A to select all folders, then press command and delete.
A window will appear confirming that you want to delete the files and asking for your Mac’s password.

As soon as you enter your password, the Mac will clear the cache.

How to clear the system cache on Mac

The system cache does not take up as much space as the application or user cache. Typically, these files are generated by the Mac operating system, which means that you should be a little more careful when choosing what to delete. You don’t want to accidentally delete important files that keep your system running smoothly.

If you know what you are doing and the specific system folders you want to empty, see how to access the system cache.

In the Finder window, press shift, command and G.
The “Go to folder” window will appear. Type the following command in the search box: / Library / Caches (without the ~ you used above). You can also access this command by opening the Finder and navigating to Go> Go to folder in the menu.

Be careful not to delete the actual folder, but you can clear its contents by dragging them to = Trash. Then, be sure to empty your Recycle Bin.

How to clear your browser’s cache

Clearing your browser’s cache is relatively easy, but the instructions vary depending on the browser you use. See how to clear your cache on Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox.

Google Chrome

In the “Clear browsing data” window, choose the time interval for the data you want to clear. Select “all times” to delete everything.
Check the boxes marked “Cookies and other website data” and “Cached images and files.” Check “browsing history” if you want to delete this information as well.
Press the “clear data” button.

Safari

Open Safari.
From the Safari drop-down menu, select Preferences.
Navigate to the Advanced tab. Check the box marked “Show development menu in the menu bar”. Close the window.

On the toolbar, select the Develop drop-down menu and click Empty Cache. If you want to delete your browser history, select the History drop-down menu and then Clear history.

fire Fox

Open Firefox.
From the main browser menu, select History> Clear recent history.
In the window that appears, select the time interval of the data you want to clear: last hour, last two hours, last four hours, today or all. Select “All” to delete all cached data.
Click the arrow next to “Details”, which will allow you to choose the data you want to delete. To delete everything, make sure that each box is checked. To delete only the browser cache, just check the “Cache” box.
Click the “Clear Now” button to delete your data.

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