How to Clear Cache on Mac Devices

October 1, 2025 By Nancy William No Comments 7 minutes

Clearing the cache from your device and the device’s browser is crucial. It may seem like a useless task, but it’s quite the opposite. The same situation applies to all your devices, including macOS. This guide shows you how to clear cache on Mac. 

Why Clearing Cache on Mac is Necessary

Nowadays, our Macs are mostly used aggressively for work assignments or at educational institutions. It’s one of the best and most convenient devices to get work done quickly. You can use it to juggle your professional deadlines, personal projects, and maintain the countless browser tabs you have open. 

But over time, even the most efficient, or rather, “powerful” machine can start to become a tad bit sluggish. Apps will start feeling like they take forever to launch, or you might encounter a few websites that just won’t load correctly.

You might just assume that it’s more of a serious hardware issue that’s causing your device to perform poorly. However, the reason is something far more unexciting: cache buildup. 

Think of your Mac’s cache as a well-intentioned but sometimes overly cooperative personal assistant. It constantly stores little bits of data, including images from websites, temporary files from apps, system preferences, etc. 

This is required so that when you want to reopen the same websites later on, they load way faster than before. It comes in handy where speed is concerned, but what happens when that assistant never throws anything away? The office becomes a cluttered and disorganized mess. Clearing the cache is the simplest and most effective method needed to remove unwanted data and to maintain storage space.

How Many Kinds of Cache Are There to Clear on Mac?

Before proceeding with the tutorials, it’s essential to understand that your Mac manages two main types of cache, and it’s important to clear both. However, only consider clearing them when there’s an absolute requirement. These kinds of cache include: 

User Cache 

User caches are specific to your account. These are the files created by the apps you use every day, like your web browser, Spotify, or Slack. They are harmless to remove and are the most common source of “digital clutter.”

System Cache

System caches are used by macOS itself to run smoothly. These are generally best left alone unless you’re troubleshooting a specific system-level problem. This is because macOS manages them quite well on its own.

How to Clear Cache in macOS via Browsers

This is the single most impactful action for many users. Your web browser (like Safari, Chrome, or Firefox) builds up a massive cache of images and website data. Clearing it can fix loading errors and free up a surprising amount of space. Here’s how you can get started:

Clear Cache in Mac Safari

• Open Safari. 
• Now, click “Safari” in the top menu bar. Select “Preferences.”
• Go to the “Privacy” tab.
• Next, click on “Manage Website Data.”
• Here, you can see all the stored data. You can click “Remove All” to clear everything, or search for a specific problematic site and remove its data individually.
• Confirm your choice.

Clearing Mac Cache in Google Chrome

• Open Google Chrome on your device.
• Now, click on the hamburger icon (three vertical dots) in the top-right corner. Go to “Settings.”
• On the left, click “Privacy and security.”
• Select “Clear browsing data.”
• A window will pop up. For the “Time range,” choose “All time.”
• Make sure the boxes for “Cached images and files” is checked. You can uncheck “Browsing History and Cookies” if you want to keep those.
• Click “Clear data.”

NOTE – How to Clear Cache on Mac Firefox

The process used for Mac Google Chrome is very similar to clearing it in Firefox. You will usually find it within their “Settings or Preferences” under a “Privacy & Security” section.

How to Clear System Cache on Mac

The cache stored in a Mac’s system is somewhat like its short-term memory, where all the essential files and settings are stored. Keeping all this data readily available speeds up the entire operations that you usually go through on a daily basis. 

However, even though it helps speed up your operations, too many clusters of this memory get corrupted or overloaded over time. This is a common issue that occurs after an update. 

When this issue takes place, it slows things down or causes errors. Clearing out the system cache on your Mac can help, but it requires a careful approach.

You should only delete the contents of the cache folders, not the folders’ structure. This is because this process involves sensitive system data. Once it’s deleted by accident, you cannot create a full backup. Here is how you can get started: 

Deleting System Cache on macOS

• Open “Finder” and click on “Go.” These tabs are available on the menu bar. 
• Now, press down on the “Option” (⌥) key, and select “Library.” 
• You’ll get a bunch of folders. Locate and click on “Caches.” 
• Next, look for any kind of cache folders or files that you want to delete. 
• Lastly, in the dock, right-click on the “Trash” icon, and then on “Empty Trash.” 

WARNING! Clear your system cache only to troubleshoot specific issues, such as slowdowns or glitches, not as a routine task.

How to Clear DNS Cache on Mac

To begin, you need to first find out your macOS version. Once you’ve found it, begin with the tutorial below: 

• First, open “Terminal.” To do so, either open “Finder” > “Utilities” > “Terminal.”

OR

• You can use the quick option by pressing the “Command + Spacebar” keys to open “Spotlight Search,” typing “Terminal,” and pressing “Return.”
• Next, enter “sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder” and then tap on “Return.” 
• You will be asked to enter your admin password. Enter it and tap on “Return.” 

What is Application Cache on Mac?

The application cache on Mac is also known as the user cache, which includes all the apps or files that users often download or use. You can think of it as your Mac apps’ personal notepad. To save time, programs temporarily store all the frequently used data, including images and settings, so they can load faster whenever you use them next. 

As mentioned, even though these are great for speed or quick target loading time, these notes can pile up into a cluttered, oversized junk drawer. 

Clearing out this cache is one of the best ways to free up disk space. Plus, it can often solve app-specific issues such as freezing or crashing, effectively giving the application a clean slate. With that said, take a look below to learn how to delete application cache on Mac.

How to Clear Application Cache on Mac

Before starting this tutorial, always remember to only go through this process if it’s absolutely necessary. Here’s how to get started: 

• Open “Finder.”
• Click on “Go” from the toolbar and then on “Go to Folder…” from the drop-down menu.
•  Now, enter “~/Library/Caches” and select the result that says “Users > (yourusername) > Library > Caches.”
• Select any of the cached application files that you want to delete.
• Once selected, drag them to the “Trash” icon and click on “Empty Trash.” 

Frequently Asked Questions

To Conclude

You now know how to clear cache on MacBook, MacBook Air, and iMac. As mentioned, you should only consider clearing out the cache on your device browser and system only when necessary, and specifically when you experience lagging or off-putting performance that doesn’t usually occur. However, even though cleaning the cache on your device makes it work better, it doesn’t mean it can completely protect you against online tracking, etc. For better protection, always consider using the best VPN and anti-tracking software.