Application Support taking up space on a Mac: what is safe to clear

24 September 2026 · 7 min read

The Application Support folder is where apps keep the data they need to run: settings databases, offline copies, downloaded content and, for some apps, caches that belong elsewhere. It grows because apps add to it and rarely clean up after themselves. To see which app is responsible, open ~/Library/Application Support in Finder, switch to list view and turn on Calculate all sizes. Only remove whole folders for apps you have already deleted; for apps you still use, clear space from inside the app.

That last rule is the one that matters. Deleting the folder of an app you use is not cleaning a cache. It can be deleting the only copy of that app’s data.

There are two folders with this name

Your own, at ~/Library/Application Support, inside your home folder. This is the one that usually grows, and the one you can change without an administrator password.

The shared one, at /Library/Application Support, at the top level of the disk. Apps put data here that every account on the Mac uses, such as audio plug-ins, sound libraries and support files for printers and other hardware. Changing it needs an administrator password.

Every other account on the Mac has its own copy of the first folder as well. On a shared Mac, the space may be in someone else’s.

In Storage settings, much of this data is counted outside the Applications category, often under System Data, which is part of why that figure can look so large and so vague. What System Data is on a Mac breaks that category down.

See which app is using the space

1. In Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder (Shift-Command-G).
2. Type ~/Library/Application Support and press Return.
3. Press Command-2 for list view.
4. Press Command-J to open View Options and tick “Calculate all sizes”.
5. Click the Size column heading to put the largest folders at the top. Give it a minute; sizes fill in as Finder counts.

From Terminal, this lists the twenty largest folders:

du -sh ~/Library/Application\ Support/* 2>/dev/null | sort -h | tail -20

Run it again with /Library/Application\ Support/* for the shared folder.

Most folders are named after the app. Some use a reverse-domain name like com.developer.appname, which still tells you whose it is. Folders starting with com.apple. belong to macOS and Apple’s own apps.

What you usually find at the top

iPhone and iPad backups. A folder called MobileSync holds local device backups, and each one can be as large as the device’s data. Find and delete old iPhone backups covers removing them through Finder, which is the right way.

Apps built on web technology. Many chat, collaboration and code-editing apps are web pages inside an app wrapper, and they keep a browser-style cache in their Application Support folder, in subfolders with names like Cache, Code Cache, GPUCache and Service Worker. These rebuild themselves.

Browser profiles. Browsers other than Safari keep whole profiles here: history, bookmarks, extensions, saved site data and cache, sometimes one profile per person.

Sound libraries. GarageBand’s downloaded instruments and loops live in the shared folder, under /Library/Application Support/GarageBand, with loops in /Library/Audio/Apple Loops. If you never make music, that space is doing nothing for you.

Leftovers from deleted apps. Dragging an app to the Trash removes the app and leaves its folder here. Uninstalling an app completely covers finding the rest of what it left behind.

What is safe to remove, and what is not

Usually safe:

• The folder of an app you have deleted and do not plan to reinstall.
• Cache subfolders inside an app’s folder, removed while the app is quit. The app rebuilds them and may be slower the first time you open it.
• Sound libraries and similar downloaded content for apps you do not use, removed along with the app.

Not safe:

• The whole folder of an app you use. That is its data: local databases, notes that may not be synced anywhere, settings, sometimes its license. Delete it and the app may start over from nothing.
• Anything named com.apple. or otherwise used by Apple’s apps. Contacts, call history and other system data live in this folder, and removing them damages those apps.
• Device backups deleted by hand, rather than through Finder’s device window.

When you do remove something, do it gently:

1. Quit the app the folder belongs to.
2. Move the folder to the Trash, rather than deleting it outright from Terminal.
3. Use the Mac as normal for a day or two.
4. Empty the Trash once nothing has complained.

Before any of that, look inside the app. Many apps that store a lot here have a setting to clear their cache or manage downloaded content, and using it is always safer than deleting the folder yourself.

Why the space comes back

Caches regenerate. Clearing a chat app’s cache gives you the space back until you have used the app for a few weeks, and then most of it is back. That is normal and not a sign anything went wrong. Your Mac fills up again a week after you cleared it explains which kinds of data return and which stay gone, and which caches are safe to delete covers the Caches folder, the one that is meant for this.

The permanent gains come from removing leftovers, old backups and content for apps you no longer use.

Getting a second opinion before you delete

The hard part is not finding the big folder. It is knowing what a folder with an unfamiliar name does, and whether anything breaks without it.

Crumb is a menu bar disk cleaner whose audit is read-only and covers the whole Mac rather than just the home folder, including System Data broken into its parts. Its Ask Crumb feature lets you point at a file or folder: it explains what the item is, whether it regenerates, and what breaks if it is gone, then proposes a plan. Nothing is deleted until you approve that plan. Its Uninstall tool removes an app along with every leftover. The audit and one full cleanup are free; $9 once unlocks the rest, including Uninstall and Ask Crumb, on up to 2 Macs. Why a disk cleaner should show you the plan first explains why that approval step matters.

Questions

Is Application Support the same as the Caches folder? No. ~/Library/Caches is meant for data that can be rebuilt. Application Support is meant for data the app expects to keep, although some apps store caches there anyway.

Can I move Application Support to an external drive? It is not worth it. Apps expect the folder at its usual path, some break when it is redirected, and every app that uses it fails whenever the drive is not connected.

Why can I not see my Library folder? It is hidden by default. Hold Option while you open Finder’s Go menu and Library appears in the list.