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How to Clear Cache on Mac

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If your Mac is running poorly or if you’re running out of storage, try clearing your Mac’s cache.

There are numerous ways to improve your Mac’s performance, but clearing your computer’s cache is a quick and easy way to help it run more efficiently.

You don’t need to clear your Mac’s cache every day, but it’s a good idea to do some spring cleaning once in awhile. Clearing your cache gets rid of temporary files your computer collects from websites you visit.

If your iMac, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air is slow or if you want to do some cleanup without having to delete apps, photos, videos, and music, here’s how to clear cache on Mac.

How to Clear Cache on Mac

The process to clear cache on Mac is different than the one used to clear cache on iPhone and iPad. It’s actually a bit easier because there’s a shortcut on macOS.

  1. First, open up Finder on your Mac.
  2. With the Finder window open, hold down shift, command, and G. A new window will pop up.
  3. In that window type in ~/Library/Caches.
  4. Click Go.
  5. Once you do that you’ll be brought to the folder that contains your Mac’s cached data. You now have a few options. You can manually select what you want to delete or you can delete everything.
  6. If you want to delete everything, press command and A which will select all of your folders.
  7. With all of them selected, press command and delete.
  8. You’ll now be prompted to put in your Mac’s password. After you input the password, your cached data will be deleted.

If you’d prefer to delete your Mac’s cached data without a shortcut, you can use the following steps. This is useful if your keyboard isn’t responding.

  1. Minimize or close all windows so that the taskbar at the top of your Mac’s screen says Finder.
  2. Click Go.
  3. Now click Go to Folder.
  4. A search box will pop up and you’ll want to type in ~/Library/Caches.
  5. Click Go.
  6. In the toolbar click Edit and then click Select All.
  7. Now, in the toolbar click File and select Move to Trash.
  8. Enter your Mac’s password to complete the process.

After you’ve done that you may want to clear the cache of apps like Safari and/or Chrome. This will help you clear out space and it could help your computer run a bit faster.

  1. If you use Apple’s Safari browser on your Mac, here’s how to get rid of cookies and other data stored on your device.
  2. Open up Safari on your Mac.
  3. With Safari open, look in the upper left of the toolbar and click Safari.
  4. In the drop down menu, select Clear History. This will clear your browsing history.
  5. Next, click Safari from the toolbar. This time select Preferences.
  6. Go to the Advanced tab.
  7. Look down and check the box that says Show Develop menu in menu bar. Close this window.
  8. You should now see a Develop tab on your toolbar. Click that.
  9. In the new drop down menu, click Empty Caches.

If you use Google Chrome, here’s how to clear your data.

  • Open up Chrome.
  • In the top left corner of the tool bar click Chrome.
  • In the drop down menu click Clear Browsing Data.
  • You will now be in your browser’s settings where you can pick and choose what to delete.
  • Select what you want and click Clear Data.

If you continue to run into issues on your Mac, you’ll want to check out our list of fixes for the most common macOS problems. It’s a good starting point.

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