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.
Delete caches and save disk space | 17 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
I've been a fan of the free JDiskReport for finding files and folders sitting there taking up space.
---
zs
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.
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 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..
---
Father of Jeremy Logan
Show user library in mac. Especially the second command - the first one is well known already - removes the extended attribute com.apple.FinderInfo of the user's Library folder with the content: 0000 which - when applied like this - hides files and folders immediately.In return you can hide files and folders by applying: xattr -wx com.apple.FinderInfo '0000' foo.barIf the file or folder already has an extended attribute com.apple.FinderInfo (e.g. & xattr.) remove a 'hide flag' here.
I meant to add, that I want to add something like this to my ~/.bashrc:
---
Father of Jeremy Logan Library Caches Mac
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
A good start to analyse your file system is WhatSize, an all-mac program, universal binary, small, fast and free. 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
---
-- 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.
How To View Cache Folder
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. Clear Cache Files Firefox
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
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.
I'd be cautious deleting ~/Library/Caches/Metadata because it contains Spotlight proxy files used by iCal, Safari, and other apps. Garageband sound library mac. 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.
Mac Library Caches Folder Firefox Windows 10
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. Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |