Along with the daily usage of Mac, various caches will be piled up in the background. Cache is used to avoid recreating or re-downloading some information for the operating of system and apps. It can bring you a better user experience, especially when you browse on Safari and Chrome.
However, over time caches become bigger and bigger and will start slowing your Mac instead of making it work faster. You need to empty cache on Mac periodically.
Here comes the question, how to clear cache on Mac? How to delete Safari and Chrome cache on Mac? In this post, we will show you 3 ways to empty browser cache files on Mac. If you don't know how to do it, you can keep reading to find the effective methods.
How to Clear Cache on Mac
Review and Select Application Cache to Clean Up Select a specific category. Preview the files in the category you selected. Select all or select some files you wish to delete. How to clear cache on Mac manually. If you want to clear user cache and system cache on Mac, you can take the following guide. Step 1 Open 'Finder' app on Mac and select 'Go to Folder' in the 'Go' menu. Step 2 Type in '/Library/Caches' and hit 'Enter' key to proceed to this folder. Step 3 Enter each of the folders and clean up cache.
Method 1: Shortcut to clear cached on Mac automatically
Mac Cleaner is a free and professional Mac data management tool to help you remove useless cache data and history quickly and safely. It can also help you to delete unneeded files and large and old files.
Step 1Download and install Mac Cleaner on your Mac and launch it. On the main interface, you can check the system status of your Mac.
Step 2Click 'Junk Files' on the left sidebar and click 'Scan' to let Mac Cleaner scan all useless cache files and logs in seconds.
Step 3Preview the junk files like application cache, photo junks, system logs, system cache, etc. and its related detail junk files after scanning. Choose all or some items you want to clear up. Then click the 'Clean' button and all the cached, history and cookies on your Mac has been cleared up in seconds.
Don't Miss: How to clear app cache on iPad.
Method 2. How to clear cache on Mac manually
If you want to clear user cache and system cache on Mac, you can take the following guide.
Step 1Open 'Finder' app on Mac and select 'Go to Folder' in the 'Go' menu.
Step 2Type in '/Library/Caches' and hit 'Enter' key to proceed to this folder.
Step 3Enter each of the folders and clean up cache files.
Step 4Type in '~/Library/Caches' and hit 'Enter' key to clean up cache on Mac.
After that, you should navigate to 'Trash' and empty the folder. To do that, you can control-click on the 'Trash' icon and choose 'Empty Trash.' Then the cache files on Mac will be deleted. Of course, you cannot clear most of folders in Caches with this method and you have no idea how much space they take and if those files can be deleted without app or system crash or freeze.
In such situation, the deleted cache will go to Trash, and can be recovered with some data recovery software. So we will recommend you the method 1 to make clear cache on Mac permanently.
Method 3: How to delete cache on Safari/Chrome/Firefox
1. Clear Safari cache on Mac
Launch Safari browser on your Mac. Then Click 'Preferences' > 'Advanced' to make 'Develop' show in the upper menu bar. In the drop-down menu of 'Develop', select 'Empty Caches'. Then the safari cached will be cleared up on your Mac. Just make sure to close or quit the browser and restart it after clearing cache.
You can also click 'Preferences' on Safari menu, choose 'Privacy' on the pop-up window and then click 'Manage Website Data...'. Click 'Remove All' and then 'Remove Now' to clear all your Safari cache and cookies.
2. Clear Chrome cache on Mac
Open Chrome browser and click the 'Chrome' menu icon on the toolbar. Then click 'More Tools' > 'Clear browsing data'. Choose the time range in the drop-down menu of 'Data' and mark 'Cookies and other site and plug-in data' and 'Cached images and files'.
Click 'Clear Browsing Data' to empty cache on Chrome.
3. Clear Firefox cache on Mac
Run Firefox click 'Firefox' option in the menu bar. Then click on 'Preferences' > 'Privacy'. Under the History heading, Click 'clear your recent history' under the 'History' heading. Mark 'Cache' checkbox and then click 'Clear Now' to delete cache on Firefox.
In this post, we mainly talk about how to clear cache on Mac. We show you the guide to empty cache files on Safari, Chrome and Firefox. Moreover, we tell you a simple way to empty cache on Mac manually and with the professional Mac clear up software. Hope you can delete the unnecessary data and make your Mac work faster after reading this article.
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January 11, 2021 17:05 / Updated by Louisa White to Mac Cleanup
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Many of your daily computer activities — like opening programs, logging onto email, and navigating websites — are saved as temporary files within your computer. This is called caching, which, as puts it, “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 will download data like images, scripts, and login credentials and save it all in a cached folder. When you visit that same site in the future, your browser simply (and quickly) loads data from the folder it's already created. That way, your computer doesn’t have to spend time downloading all of that information again — it can just pull it from the cache.
There are a few different types of cached data: user or app data that saves information for certain apps; system cache, which your operating system uses to save process information; and browser cache, which saves your web browsing activity.
Convenient, right? But it’s important to clear this cached information every now and then to keep your data safe and free up disk space, which helps your operating system run more smoothly. If you’re having issues with certain apps, it may also be time to clear your cache.
Here's how to get the job done. (Keep in mind: After clearing this data, you may find that when you visit certain websites, you will need to enter your credentials even if you didn’t have to before.)
How to clear your user/app cache on Mac
Mac makes it easy to clear your cached data using simple keyboard shortcuts.
From your Finder window, hit shift, command, and G.
The “Go to Folder” window will pop up. Enter the following command in the search box: ~/Library/Caches. You can also access this command by opening Finder and navigating to Go > Go to Folder from the menu.
Hit the 'Go' button. A folder will open that includes your Mac’s cached files.
From this screen, you can browse each folder and manually delete specific cached files by dragging them to the Trash (and later emptying the Trash). If you know the specific app or process you want to clear, you can select the folder and move it to Trash.
If you want to clear your entire system cache, hit command and A to select every folder, then hit command and delete.
A window will pop up confirming you want to delete the files and asking you for your Mac’s password.
Once you enter your password, Mac will clear your cache.
How to clear your system cache on Mac
System cache doesn’t take up as much space as app or user cache. These are typically files generated by Mac’s operating system, which means you should be a bit more careful when choosing what to delete. You don't want to accidentally erase important files that keep your system running normally.
If you know what you’re doing and the specific system folders you want to empty, here’s how to access your system cache.
From your Finder window, hit shift, command, and G.
The “Go to Folder” window will pop up. Enter the following command in the search box: /Library/Caches (without the ~ that you used above). You can also access this command by opening Finder and navigating to Go > Go to Folder from the menu.
Take care not to delete the actual folder, but you can clear their contents by dragging them to = Trash. Then, make sure to empty your Trash.
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How to clear your browser cache
Clearing your browser cache is relatively easy, but instructions will vary depending on what browser you use. Here’s how to clear your cache in Google Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.
Google Chrome
Open Chrome.
From the hamburger menu in the top right toolbar, select More Tools > Clear Browsing Data
From the “Clear Browsing Data” window choose the time range of data you want to clear. Select 'all time' to delete everything.
Check the boxes marked 'Cookies and other site data' and 'Cached images and files.” Check “browsing history” if you’d like to delete this information, too.
Hit 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 Develop menu in menu bar.” Close the window.
From 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, then Clear History.
Firefox
Clear Messenger App Cache Macbook
Open Firefox.
From the browser’s main menu, select History > Clear Recent History.
From the window that pops up, select the time range of data you want to clear: last hour, last two hours, last four hours, today or everything. Select 'Everything' to delete all cached data.
Click on the arrow next to'Details,” which will allow you to choose the data you want to delete. To delete everything, make sure each box is checked. To only delete your browser cache, just check the box labeled “Cache.”
Click on the 'Clear now' button to delete your data.