Forums
New posts
Articles
Product Reviews
Policies
FAQ
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Operating System
Cleaning the cache
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="MacInWin" data-source="post: 1914140" data-attributes="member: 396914"><p>You are mixing a lot of terms together that don't make much sense. "Cache" is data that is downloaded, or kept, by an application so that it doesn't have to download it again next time it needs it. So, the Safari (or any browser) cache would be the most recent visits to a website, for example. If the actual site doesn't respond in time, the cached version is put up for you, in some case. To you, it ends up looking like you can't get the page to update, which is true at that moment. </p><p></p><p>Leftovers from uninstalling an app are not generally "cache" but various bits and pieces that the app may have put in some locations in order to run properly. These might include launch daemons, plists, and snippet of code called "helpers." What App Cleaner does is look for those bits and pieces and shows them all to you when you drag the app to the AppCleaner window. Then clicking on the "Remove" button moves all of what is found to the Trash, and when you empty the Trash, the files are erased. AppCleaner is pretty good. And free. You can get it here:</p><p></p><p> <a href="https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/" target="_blank">AppCleaner</a></p><p></p><p>The operating system also uses cache(s) to speed up things for you. Those caches are generally the files you have most recently used, or a list of them, so that if you open them again, it can retrieve them from cache faster. There are also results of various operating system function that are stored in cache so they don't need to be retrieved/recalculated again. These caches the system will purge periodically, so you don't have to do anything about them. If you still feel you HAVE to clean (a trait a lot of Windows users have when they come to the Mac) then, again, you can get OnyX from here:</p><p></p><p>[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html[/URL]</p><p></p><p>and use it with the defaults as set by the developer. It will empty various cache and history files for you. It's not really necessary to do very often, maybe once every six months or so, but I haven't done it in over a year now because the system cleans up pretty well at every cold start.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MacInWin, post: 1914140, member: 396914"] You are mixing a lot of terms together that don't make much sense. "Cache" is data that is downloaded, or kept, by an application so that it doesn't have to download it again next time it needs it. So, the Safari (or any browser) cache would be the most recent visits to a website, for example. If the actual site doesn't respond in time, the cached version is put up for you, in some case. To you, it ends up looking like you can't get the page to update, which is true at that moment. Leftovers from uninstalling an app are not generally "cache" but various bits and pieces that the app may have put in some locations in order to run properly. These might include launch daemons, plists, and snippet of code called "helpers." What App Cleaner does is look for those bits and pieces and shows them all to you when you drag the app to the AppCleaner window. Then clicking on the "Remove" button moves all of what is found to the Trash, and when you empty the Trash, the files are erased. AppCleaner is pretty good. And free. You can get it here: [URL="https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/"]AppCleaner[/URL] The operating system also uses cache(s) to speed up things for you. Those caches are generally the files you have most recently used, or a list of them, so that if you open them again, it can retrieve them from cache faster. There are also results of various operating system function that are stored in cache so they don't need to be retrieved/recalculated again. These caches the system will purge periodically, so you don't have to do anything about them. If you still feel you HAVE to clean (a trait a lot of Windows users have when they come to the Mac) then, again, you can get OnyX from here: [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html[/URL] and use it with the defaults as set by the developer. It will empty various cache and history files for you. It's not really necessary to do very often, maybe once every six months or so, but I haven't done it in over a year now because the system cleans up pretty well at every cold start. [/QUOTE]
Verification
Name this item. 🍎
Post reply
Forums
Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Operating System
Cleaning the cache
Top
