What does mac os /Library folder store? Ask Question Asked 7 years, 1 month ago. The user library, /Library, stores per-user settings etc. The local library, /Library, stores computer-wide settings etc. BTW, I call this the 'local' library, because in NextStep it was /Local/Library, but you'll see all sorts of other names for it, such as. Sep 27, 2016 A lot of Mac tutorials mention the Library folder, which is where your macOS applications store things like settings and caches. Some settings can only be changed by editing files in the Library. But the Library is hidden by default. Jun 25, 2019 Summary: Have you deleted macOS system cache or log library files mistakenly without taking a backup?Read on to learn how you can recover deleted caches and logs. Most websites use cookies and create temporary caches on your Mac when you browse the Internet.
Cache is basically a technical data that is stored when an app, browser or system performs a task. Cache files serve a vital function as they contain a “shortcut” to a task in order to perform it faster the next time.
Why should you clear cache on Mac?
Old cache files that remain latent in the system do nothing but piling up, cluttering your system folders. What was initially useful becomes a drag, slowing down your Mac through all the wasted space it is taking up.To make it even worse, undeleted cache data also leads to task conflicts and other system issues.
Here are the three main categories of cache data:
- Browser cache
- System cache
- App (or User) cache
How to clear cache on Mac
Now, if you’re ready to finally get down to business, we’re going to walk you through both the manual and the automatic solutions to clear your cache.
Cleaning app cache and system cache on Mac
It’s staggering how much space can in fact be occupied by app/user cache on Mac. Wondering how much storage you’ve lost already? Well, it’s different for everyone, but it’s safe to assume several gigabytes at the very least. System caches doesn’t waste that much, yet they are still “heavy” enough. Luckily, you can clear the both types in the same fashion.
Below we will show where exactly these cache files are lurking around your Mac. But please be careful — if you accidentally delete the wrong file, you may run into trouble.
To play it safe, backup the folders mentioned in the steps below. If everything works as it should, you can later delete these backups. Or you can skip the manual steps and go straight to Quick Tip (the safe and easy option).
How to delete system cache and unwanted app data manually
To delete system and app cache manually, follow these steps:
- Open Finder and select Go > Go to Folder
- Type in ~/Library/Caches and hit Enter
- Backup the folders if you are worried about something going wrong
- Keep the folders, but go into each one and delete the files inside
Sorry to tell you, but we’re not finished yet. There are a few more folders and to remove them completely just follow the same steps, but this time go to /Library/Caches (without the ~). When you’re done, just empty the Trash to finish the job.
Quick Tip: get rid of system/app caches in one click
Clearing app caches manually is a tough nut to crack. To do the job in a fraction of the time (and without the risk of losing something important), you can fire up a dedicated cache cleaner app, CleanMyMac X . It will find and clear all your app caches blazing fast.
See how easy it is with these steps:
![Caches Caches](/uploads/1/3/3/9/133908181/643577943.jpg)
- Download CleanMyMac X (it’s free to download)
- Run the app and click on System Junk
- Click on the big Scan button
- When it’s done scanning, click Clean
How to clear Internet cache on Mac
Clearing browser cache has two good things about it: it frees up space for your Mac to run faster and it removes your browsing history, making sure nobody ever finds your digital trail. Since each browser deals with caches differently, we’ve broken the cache-clearing solutions to three main browsers – Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.
If you’re uncomfortable deleting cache manually, and prefer a less time-consuming approach, you can skip down to “How to clear all browser cache easily” to remove all your browser caches in one go.
How to empty cache in Safari
In Safari, clearing cache is as easy as it gets. Just go to History and click Clear History in the menu bar. Your cache and website history will be cleared immediately. If you prefer knowing exactly what you’re clearing, you can do that with a few more steps. https://newne406.weebly.com/blog/copy-music-library-from-mac-to-iphone.
Library On Mac
To empty cache on Safari with manual methods:
- Go to Safari > Preferences
- Select the Advanced tab
- Enable Show Develop menu
- Go to the Develop section in menu bar
- Click on Empty Caches
How to clear browser cache in Chrome
When it comes to Chrome, clearing cache on Mac requires the following steps:
- Click the Google Chrome settings icon in the top right browser window
- Choose Settings
- Choose History and click Clear browsing data
- Make sure Cached images and files are checked
- Choose the Beginning of Time to clear all your cache
- Click Clear browsing data button to finish
How to delete cache in Firefox
And here’s for Firefox users (it’s even simpler than with the previous two). Just proceed with the following:
- Navigate to History > Clear Recent History
- Select Everything from the time range menu
- Click the arrow next to Details and make sure only Cache is checked
- Click Clear Now
How to clear all browser cache easily
So you decided to ditch the manual way and skipped to the automatic method. Congratulations! This is the quickest and safest way to remove browser cache. Instead of doing it manually through your browser settings, you can gain full control over all your cache and history data with CleanMyMac X . It’s an easy cache cleaner that will do the job like a charm. Follow these steps to clear all your browser caches:
- Run CleanMyMac and go to the Privacy module
- See all your browsers listed, select any of them
- Tick items you want to clean
- Finally click Remove to clear your browser
A final reason to clear cache on Mac
How to access your library on mac. Cache data works wonders for your Mac and system, but over time it can pile up and slow down your Mac’s performance, taking up the increasing amounts of space.
How to repair iphoto library on mac. Hopefully, our guide will be everything you needed and more to free up gigabytes of valuable space and reclaim it by cleaning cache.
Best of all, we’ve also revealed how an automatic cache cleaner like CleanMyMac X makes removing cache as easy as a child’s play. Download the free version of the app here.
Let us know how it goes! https://newne406.weebly.com/mac-move-imovie-library.html.
Delete caches and save disk space | 17 comments | Create New Account
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I've been a fan of the free JDiskReport for finding files and folders sitting there taking up space.---
zs
zs
Mac Library Caches
For an Intel equivalent of the disk space usage, try Disk Inventory, also free.
Also, to skip the typing everytime & for a graphical interface, these options are available in both maintenance tools of Onyx and iTweax.
The heavier-duty Onyx actually doesn't indicate the amount used by the Cache, which the light-weight iTweax does.
Also, to skip the typing everytime & for a graphical interface, these options are available in both maintenance tools of Onyx and iTweax.
The heavier-duty Onyx actually doesn't indicate the amount used by the Cache, which the light-weight iTweax does.
I recently recovered 5 gigs of hard drive space using Tiger Cache Cleaner. My iBook also starts up and runs noticeably faster now.
$ du -k ~/Library/Caches/ | sort -n
Great for spotting where that space is going
(you may need to sudo it)
$ sudo -k ~/Library/Caches/ | sort -n > du_cache.txt
to get a text file
I tried this:Great for spotting where that space is going
(you may need to sudo it)
$ sudo -k ~/Library/Caches/ | sort -n > du_cache.txt
to get a text file
Doesn't work..
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Father of Jeremy Logan
I meant to add, that I want to add something like this to my ~/.bashrc:Father of Jeremy Logan
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Father of Jeremy Logan
Father of Jeremy Logan
just use a . (ie. period) in place of pwd.. and no quotes. FYI: in unix the . stands for the current directory and a . stands for the parent directory.
It's easier than that!
du -k | sort -n
du defaults to the present directory
du -k | sort -n
du defaults to the present directory
A good start to analyse your file system is WhatSize, an all-mac program, universal binary, small, fast and free.
(Comparable to TreeSize on Win-Systems)
-- brf
AppleJack, among other things, will clean both system and user caches, as well as feed the pets and repair your permissions. Welll, maybe not the pets thing, but it is a lovely program.(Comparable to TreeSize on Win-Systems)
-- brf
User Library Caches Mac Os
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--
Adam C.
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Adam C.
I'm not sure if this hint has been posted before but if you get info on each application file there are installed language options. I went through all of my apps and deleted all of them except english. Most times this will halve the size of the app. Apple is notorious for installing 12 different languages for each app. I believe there is an apple script that does this automatically too.
Just be careful about deleting some application localizations. Some applications may have dependencies to those localizations. Some time ago, I remember a problem when someone tried to delete localizations, and they ended up having to reinstall that application.
Mac User Cache Files
Yep, certain apps can mysteriously misbehave after you've deleted their language localization files. And Apple software updates can reinstall ones you've deleted so it's not necessarily a one-time removal routine.
I don't see any reason to risk removing those files unless reclaiming disk space is a necessity and there are no safer alternatives.
I don't see any reason to risk removing those files unless reclaiming disk space is a necessity and there are no safer alternatives.
I can recommend Monolingual (monolingual.sourceforge.net), a neat little software that does just that - removes language resources you don't want/need. I've been using it for a couple of years now without problems (making sure never to remove any of the English varieties (my system language).
Anders
Anders
Just for reference, I will reiterate what has already been said about the long-term importance (or lack there of) of files in the ~/Library/Caches directory.
Recently I discovered a bug in an application (the producer of said application was 'some kind of fruit company' who shall remain nameless), and the top level tech that I was working with confirmed that its no big deal to delete the contents of the ~/Library/Caches directory.
I'm not advocating that you empty the directory and then lock the folder so that it can never be populated, nor am I advocating that you empty the directory at all. I'm simply stating that you can empty the directory and its not a big deal.
If your Caches folder is out of control, then you should think about some sort of cleaning.
For comparison purposes, here are the current sizes for my (Mac OS X created) Caches folders:
/Library/Caches
24.7 MB
/System/Library/Caches
11.6 MB
/private/var/root/Library/Caches
16 KB
~/Library/Caches
80.2 MB
The oldest directory within the ~/Library/Caches directory was modified Apr 4 2006.
Recently I discovered a bug in an application (the producer of said application was 'some kind of fruit company' who shall remain nameless), and the top level tech that I was working with confirmed that its no big deal to delete the contents of the ~/Library/Caches directory.
I'm not advocating that you empty the directory and then lock the folder so that it can never be populated, nor am I advocating that you empty the directory at all. I'm simply stating that you can empty the directory and its not a big deal.
If your Caches folder is out of control, then you should think about some sort of cleaning.
For comparison purposes, here are the current sizes for my (Mac OS X created) Caches folders:
/Library/Caches
24.7 MB
/System/Library/Caches
11.6 MB
/private/var/root/Library/Caches
16 KB
~/Library/Caches
80.2 MB
The oldest directory within the ~/Library/Caches directory was modified Apr 4 2006.
I'd be cautious deleting ~/Library/Caches/Metadata because it contains Spotlight proxy files used by iCal, Safari, and other apps. Something will eventually trigger those files to be regenerated but before that happens Spotlight searching may be temporarily crippled. I discovered that awhile ago with Safari bookmarks and eventually deleted and restored the Bookmarks.plist file to force proxy files to be rebuilt after other methods had failed to do it.
First, a true confession: Until very recently (i.e. today) I didn't know about the need to periodically delete the cache and as a result, mine was gigantic.
I deleted the cache by dragging it into the trash and then emptying the trash. Then I told the computer to restart. I understand it takes awhile to rebuild the cache, but I'm not sure what 'awhile' means. It's been almost 2 hours now and I'm wondering if that's normal for the (gulp) years worth of stuff that was stored in my cache. How many hours should I let this continue before taking some other action?
Thanks for your help.
I deleted the cache by dragging it into the trash and then emptying the trash. Then I told the computer to restart. I understand it takes awhile to rebuild the cache, but I'm not sure what 'awhile' means. It's been almost 2 hours now and I'm wondering if that's normal for the (gulp) years worth of stuff that was stored in my cache. How many hours should I let this continue before taking some other action?
Thanks for your help.