'I have a MacBook, and recently my MacBook become slower and slower. One of my friends suggests me to clear cache data. To be honest, I am not tech savvy, and I don’t know how to clear cache on Mac at all. Please help!'
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Like Windows computer, Mac also has cache and temporary files.
Look at Activity Monitor. Activity Monitor tool shows which applications are consuming most memory and how to clean MacBook. You can sort processes by memory and CPU usage. Some apps cannot be removed because they are an integral part of the computer.
Find hidden junk, large old folders, background apps, and heavy memory consumers. Use CleanMyMac X to free up space on your Mac and tune it for maximum speed. The new version effectively blocks. Today, we're showing you how to clean your Apple Computer to make it run faster and free up disk space. If your Mac is running slow, this video is for YOU!
Cache and temporary files on your Mac helps you open some browsing pages quickly.
Surely, it records your trace and takes up some storage.
If you want to free up space, or want your browsing history to be secret, clearing Mac cache and temporary files is necessary.
How to clear cache on Mac?
This page shows the full guide to help you delete cache and temporary files on MacBook Air/Pro, iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook, including app cache, browsing cache (Firefox, Chrome, etc.) and system cache.
Part 1: Easiest way to clear all cache throughly on Mac
If you are seeking for an automatic and quick way to clear Mac caches, then you need the third-party tool, Mac Cleaner, to help you.
It has the capacity to remove junk files, unneeded files, large photos and other useless documents on Mac in one click, which is more efficient than other methods.
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Scan entire hard drives to display all junk files and other data for previewing.
Detect junk files, unneeded files, large and old files, duplicate files and uninstall apps.
Monitor battery status, memory usage, CPU usage and disk utilization.
Work for iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air/Pro, Mac mini, etc.
Step 1. Download Mac Cleaner
Download the latest version of Mac Cleaner and follow the onscreen assistant to install it on your Mac.
When you want to clear cache on Mac, launch the application, it will scan entire hard drive and show you the status of your Mac automatically.
Step 2. Select data for clearing
Go to the 'Junk Files' tab from left hand column, then locate to the right side, and click on the 'Scan' button at bottom right corner to scan all cache data and logs quickly. When you are presented the result, click the 'Review' button to see the details.
Step 3. Clear cache on Mac
Select the data category that you want to remove, the junk files and cache data will show up. Unfold the 'Sort by' dropdown menu and arrange the cache files by name, time and more. Then you can check the boxes in front of worthless files and cache data in each category.
For example, to clear browser cache on Mac for Safari, find the folder title contains Safari and select it.
Finally, click the 'Clean' button at bottom right side, then hit 'Clean' again on the popup dialog to confirm it and trigger the process. When it is done, you can further free up storage by cleaning unneeded and large files.
Part 2. How to clear browsing cache (Firefox/Chrome/Safari) on Mac
When you surf the Internet, your browser will create cache files for you. Here we only take the three frequently used browsers, as the example to show how to delete cache on Mac.
How to clear browser cache on Mac Safari
Step 1: Open the Safari app on Mac. Sims 4 evolve plants mod. If you cannot find the Develop menu, go to the 'Safari' menu at upper left corner, head to 'Preferences' > 'Advanced', locate to the bottom and tick the checkbox next to 'Show Develop menu in menu bar'.
Step 2: Then back to Safari window, the Develop menu should show up on top ribbon. Pull down the “Develop” menu and choose 'Empty Caches'. Wait for a few seconds until clearing browser cache on Mac is complete.
Step 3: To further clear browsing data in Safari, you can go to the History menu, select 'Clear History'. Choose 'all history' from the dropdown menu and then hit 'Clear History' button to get rid of browsing data on Safari.
if you are running an iPhone, just learn here to clear iPhone browsing history here.
No matter wipe Mac or remove browsing data, there is no notification or confirming message telling you that Safari browser cache data has been cleared. It simply works behind the scenes.
How to clear browser cache on Mac Chrome
Step 1: If you prefer to use Google Chrome on Mac, you have to clear browser cache on Mac in your Chrome browser. Start the Chrome for Mac app, type chrome://settings/clearBrowserData into the address bar and hit the 'Enter' key to go to the clear browsing data window. Or you can click the menu button at top right side with a three-dot icon and head to 'More tools' > 'Clear browsing data” to open it.
Step 2: Make sure to check the boxes in front of 'Cached images and files', 'Browsing history', 'Download history' and other data you want to clear, and then click the 'Clear browsing data' button to clear browser cache on Mac.
It may take a while to complete the process depending on how much cache and browsing data in your browser. And you can set up to clear cache on Mac automatically: pull down the menu icon, go to 'Settings' > 'Show Advanced Settings' > 'Privacy' > 'Content Settings' > 'Cookies' and select 'Keep local data only until you quit your browser'.
How to clear search history on Mac Firefox
Step 1: Open the Firefox for Mac app, pull down the menu button at top right corner of the window marked with a three-line icon. Choose 'Options' to open the options page for Firefox. Then go to the 'Privacy & Security' tab from left side column. Or input about:preferences#privacy into the address bar to open it directly.
Step 2: Scroll down on the right page until you see the 'Cached Web Content' section, then click the 'Clear Now' button to clear browser cache on Mac.
Step 3: To clear search history on Mac in the Firefox browser, locate to the History section on the Privacy page, click the link labeled Clear Recent History to open the floating dialog. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+Del.
Step 4: Finally, hit the Clear Now button to initiate clearing search history on Mac in Firefox. To set up automatic clear history on exit, navigate to the History section in 'Privacy & Security' tab and tick the checkbox next to 'Clear history' when Firefox closes.
Part 3. How to clear app cache on Mac
Mac also shows you the solutions to clear cache on Mac
Step 1: Exit all apps on your MacBook and open the Finder app. Then hold down the 'Shift' key in Sierra or 'Option/Alt' key in earlier versions and unfold the 'Go' menu.
Step 2: Scroll down and find the 'Library' option, click on it to open your Library folder. Then search for the folder called “Caches” and open it, which saves most caches and temporary files generated by Mac apps.
Step 3: Press 'Cmd + A' to select all caches, you can also hold 'Cmd' and select specific app caches. Right click on the selected cache files and choose 'Move to Trash' to throw them to your trash can.
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Step 4 Illustrated microsoft office 365 & office 2019. : Finally, empty the Trash on Mac as usual to clear cache on Mac.
The caches folder contains many files and folders with nonsensical names, such as com.app.itunes. To find the cache file for certain app, you have to look for the folder that matches the app’s name. For example, the file named com.apple. iTunes would include the iTunes caches. Plus, the app cache file does not have UI, so you cannot open it without third party tools.
Part 4. How to clear system and DNS caches on Mac
The Mac system also creates cache and temporary files, but you’d better not interfere with system level cache files and folders. That may lead to in various sorts of unexpected results or even damage your device. To clear system cache on Mac safely, follow the steps below.
Step 1: Go to the Apple menu on your desktop, and choose 'Restart'. This will trigger specific system maintenance tasks that clear caches on Mac for system level automatically. The caches cleared include virtual memory, system temporary files, completed software updates, caches of App Store and more.
Accidentally clear system files? Get system recovery here.
Step 2: After your MacBook startup, you can clear DNS caches on Mac manually. Input terminal into Spotlight to open Terminal, and then type the command below into Terminal:
'sudo dscacheutil -flushcache;sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder;say cache flushed'
Step 3: Enter your admin password to perform the command and remove DNS caches from your Mac computer.
You may need: How to clear cache on iPad?
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we have told you how to clear cache on MacBook Air/Pro and other Mac computers. You can manually clear cache from system, app data and browsing history. Moreover, we also show the easiest way to clear all cache and temporary files on Mac with Mac Cleaner throughly. No matter which way you use, you should take care of the operation.
There are mainly two reasons why you want to restore your Mac to factory settings and erase everything.
You want to erase your MacBook Pro/Air, MacBook, iMac to sell or give away the Mac.
Your Mac is running slow or having other problems so that you want to delete everything on Mac to start over.
It is not difficult to erase everything on a Mac and reformat the MacBook or iMac. But if you want to reset MacBook Pro/Air, iMac without losing data, or securely and completely wipe a Mac, there are a couple of things you should do. Just follow this guide to complete all the steps that are needed to securely and completely erase everything on Mac. Your Mac will be restored to factory settings after that.
Step 1: Back Up Your Mac Before Factory Reset
I believe that there must be some important files on your Mac. Therefore, it is a must to back up your files before erasing your MacBook or iMac. There are mutiple options to back up your Mac:
Move everything that are important to you to an external hard drive. It is time-consuming but feasible if you have limited documents, photos, videos, etc. that need to be backed up before erasing Mac.
Back up your files on Mac to a cloud storage, such as iCloud. Before doing that, make sure your iCloud account have enough free space.
Make a copy of your Mac data to an external hard drive with a backup program, such as Time Machine, Apple's built-in backup tool for Mac. Learn about the steps to back up a Mac: How to Backup Your Mac with or without Time Machine.
You can wipe a Mac without losing data by using one of the backup methods mentioned above. And to reduce the size of your Mac's backup and incease the backup speed, it is recommended to clean useless junk files on your Mac before a Time Machine or iCloud backup. FonePaw MacMaster can easily delete caches, logs, borwsing history, duplicate files and photos, large files, useless apps and more from your Mac.
Download
Download and run FonePaw MacMaster on your Mac.
Select the file type you want to clean, such as system junks, duplicate photos. Click Scan.
Click Clean to remove the junks you don't need.
Go ahead to back up your Mac. The backup will be finished more quickly, taking less space of your external hard drive or iCloud account.
Step 2: Completely Delete Private Files
Do you know that files on Mac are actually recoverable after factory reset? That's right. Even though you have reformatted your Mac and erased everything on Mac, it is still possible to recover the erased files on the Mac with a professional data recovery program such as FonePaw Data Recovery. If you have confidential files on your Mac and don't want to take the risk that somebody may find the files from the reformatted Mac after performing data recovery, you can use Eraser on FonePaw MacMasterto securely delete confidential files on your Mac before factory reset. The Eraser can erase the trace of a file on the hard drive and make it unrecoverable.
Install FonePaw MacMaster on your Mac.
Click Eraser and select the files you want to destroy.
Click Erase to make it unrecoverable.
Step 3: Turn off FileVault
FileVault encryption is an Apple built-in feature that is designed to encrypt your hard drive and files on the hard drive. It is recommended to turn off FileVault before reset and clean install macOS system. Here are the stpes to disable FileVault encryption.
Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy.
On the Security & Privacy window, click the FileVault tab.
Click Lock button and you will need to enter password of the administrator account the unlock FileVault settings.
After entering the password, you are able to click Turn Off FileVault. Click it.
All files on your Mac will be dencrypted after FileVault is off.
Step 4: Remove iTunes Authorization and iCloud Account
You don't want your iTunes or iCloud account to be linking to your MacBook or iMac if you decide to sell it or give it away. You can authorize only 5 computer with your iTunes account so you don't want to lose an allocation to a Mac that you no longer own. So before erasing your MacBook or iMac, you should first deauthorize iTunes and disable iCloud on your Mac.
Deauthorize iTunes on Mac
Open iTunes on Mac.Click Account > Authorizations > Deauthorize This Computer.
You'll need to enter the password of your Apple ID. Then click Deauthorize.
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Sign out of iCloud on Mac
Open System Preference > iCloud. Click Sign Out.A window will pop up, asking whether you want to keep a copy of your iCloud data on the Mac.
Deselect all the options and click Continue, which will ensure that your iCloud data won't stay on the Mac.
Also, don't forget that your iCloud account can also be used to receive iMessage. So run Messages, click Preferences > Accounts to sign out of iMessage.
Clean Keyboard Macbook Air
Step 5: Erase MacBook, MacBook Air/Pro, iMac
After finishing the above steps, you are now offically able to wipe your MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or iMac. You need to erase your Mac in recovery mode.
Enter your Mac into recovery mode
Power off your Mac and then reboot it. As it is rebooting, press and hold Command + R (Option + Command + R or Shift + Option + Command + R) until you see the Apple logo.
Generally you can use Command + R combination to enter the Recovery mode. If you need to upgrade you need to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac, use Option + Command + R; If you want to clean install the macOS that came with your Mac, use Shift + Option + Command + R.
Erase everything on your Mac
When you are in recovery mode on Mac, you will see the macOS Utilities menu. Select Disk Utility.
Select the disk to erase. To erase everything on your Mac, you usually should choose the main hard drive named Macintosh HD.
If the Mac is running High Sierra or later, Disk Utility will show all the Macs linked with your Apple ID under Macintosh HD. So be careful not to delete the drive of other Macs.
Click Erase. Then you need to enter name and format of the drive. You can choose either APFS or Mac OS Extended (journaled) to reformat the Mac. APFS is a new file system introduced by Apple since High Sierra, which is more recommendable.Click Erase to begin wiping everything on your Mac.
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Step 6: Reinstall macOS on MacBook, iMac
After deleting everything on your Mac, you can now reinstall macOS. Go back to macOS Utilities menu. Select Reinstall macOS and follow the on-screen instructions to finish.
That's all about how to factory reset your Mac and erase everthing. If you have more question, drop it in the comment section.