The Application Support folder on Mac: what's in it and what's safe

The Application Support folder on a Mac holds the files apps create and manage for you: libraries, databases, downloaded content, settings and, often, things you made in the app. It's in your Library folder, with one folder inside for each app or developer.

It isn't a cache, so it isn't safe to empty. Deleting the whole folder, or the folder of an app you still use, can erase your data and reset the app as if it were new. That's why the folder as a whole is never one to clear.

What is often safe is narrower: the folder of an app you've already removed, once you've checked nothing in it matters, and cache folders that some apps keep inside their own Application Support folder. Large items such as AI models, virtual machines and games are best removed in the app that made them.

This post explains what lives in Application Support, how to tell its parts apart, and how to free space there without losing anything you'd miss.

What is the Application Support folder?

Every Mac app needs somewhere to keep the files it manages on your behalf. Apple's guidelines for developers give that job to Application Support, separate from caches, preferences and your documents.

What does Apple say belongs there?

Apple's File System Programming Guide describes Application Support as the place for app-specific data and support files that an app creates and manages for the user, and says they can include files that contain user data.

By convention, each app puts its files in a folder named after its bundle identifier, such as com.example.MyApp, and creates that folder when it needs it. In practice many apps use their own name or their developer's name instead: Google, Adobe, Slack, Steam.

How is it different from Caches and Preferences?

The Library folder separates kinds of app data by purpose. Knowing which folder is which tells you most of what you need about removing things from it.

Folder in Library	What Apple says it's for	Safe to clear?
Caches	Data that can be regenerated as needed	Yes: apps rebuild it
Application Support	Data an app creates and manages for you, possibly your own	Only after checking
Preferences	Your settings for each app	No: it only resets apps
Containers	Home folders of sandboxed apps	Only for removed apps, after checking
Logs	Records for troubleshooting	Yes: new ones are written

Apple tells developers that apps should never rely on cache files existing. There's no such promise for Application Support: an app expects what it put there to still be there.

Why does Application Support count as System Data?

Storage settings sorts your disk into categories such as Applications, Documents and Photos. Files in your Library folder that don't belong to one of those land in System Data, and Application Support is usually one of the larger parts of it.

There are exceptions. iPhone and iPad backups live in Application Support but count under iOS Files, and GarageBand's sound library counts under Music Creation. The System Data guide lists the other parts of that category, and how to clear System Data step by step puts them in order.

Where is the Application Support folder on a Mac?

There isn't just one. Your own is in your Library folder, a shared one is in the Library folder at the top of your disk, and sandboxed apps keep theirs inside their containers.

How do you open it in Finder?

1. In Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder.
2. Type ~/Library/Application Support and press Return.

You can also hold down the Option key, choose Go › Library, and open Application Support from there. The Library folder is hidden by default, which is why it doesn't appear in your home folder without one of these steps.

Why are there several Application Support folders?

Location	Whose data	What you need to change it
~/Library/Application Support	Yours, for each app you use	Nothing extra
/Library/Application Support	Shared by every user on this Mac	An administrator's password
~/Library/Containers/…/Data/Library/Application Support	A sandboxed app's own, inside its container	Nothing extra, but macOS may limit other apps

The first is the one that grows. The shared folder holds things apps install once for everyone, such as sound libraries, drivers' support files and updaters. The third exists because a sandboxed app sees its container as its whole Library, so its Application Support folder lives there.

How are the folders inside named?

You'll see three patterns. Some folders are named after the app, such as Slack or Steam. Some are named after the developer and hold several apps, such as Google, which can contain folders for Chrome, Google Drive and Google's updater.

Others use a bundle identifier, such as com.developer.appname, in reverse-domain form. Folders whose names start with com.apple belong to macOS and Apple's apps.

How to tell what a folder belongs to

Before you decide anything about a folder, you need to know whose it is. Application Support can hold a hundred folders or more, and their names follow a few patterns once you know them.

How do you read a bundle identifier?

A bundle identifier reads like a web address written backwards. In com.developer.appname, the middle part names the developer and the last part names the app. That's often enough to recognise it.

An app's helpers use the same start with something added, such as .helper, .agent, Updater or LoginItem at the end. A folder like that belongs to the same app as the main identifier, even when it's listed separately.

Which folders belong to macOS?

Not every folder of Apple's starts with com.apple. macOS and Apple's apps also use plain names, and those are easy to mistake for leftovers.

Folder	What it belongs to	What to do
com.apple.…	macOS services and Apple's apps	Leave it
AddressBook	Your contacts	Leave it; manage contacts in Contacts
CallHistoryDB	Your call history	Leave it
MobileSync	iPhone and iPad backups	Manage in Storage settings
Lowercase names ending in d, such as contactsd	Usually macOS's background services	Leave it

Several of these are protected: apps without your permission can't even list what's inside. That's macOS guarding personal data such as your contacts, not a sign that anything is wrong.

Folders from command-line tools

Developer tools that follow Mac conventions keep their data in Application Support too, often in lowercase folders named after the tool. pipx, for example, keeps each Python command-line app it installs in its own environment in ~/Library/Application Support/pipx/venvs.

Those environments are Review first: removing one removes that command-line app. Other tools keep settings, caches or history in their folder. Uninstall the tool first, then decide about its folder.

What if a folder has no obvious owner?

Switch Finder to list view and look at the Date Modified column. A folder that hasn't changed in years, with a name that matches no app you have, is likely left over from an app you removed. Searching Spotlight for the name sometimes finds the app it came from.

Still check what's inside before removing it. If you can't tell and it's small, leave it: a few megabytes aren't worth the risk. If it's large, copy it to an external drive first, then move it to the Trash.

What takes up space in Application Support?

Most folders in Application Support are small: a database, a few settings files, a list of recent items. A handful of kinds can be very large, and they're the ones worth looking at.

What are the usual large items?

Kind	Example folder	Level	Where to remove it
iPhone and iPad backups	MobileSync/Backup	Review first	Storage settings or Finder's device window
Web-based apps' caches	Slack/Cache, Code/CachedData	Safe	Finder, with the app quit
Media caches	Adobe/Common/Media Cache Files	Safe	Finder, or the Adobe app's settings
Browser site data	Google/Chrome/Default/IndexedDB	Usually safe	The browser's own settings
AI models	Google/Chrome/OptGuideOnDeviceModel	Usually safe	The app's own setting
Games	Steam/steamapps	Review first	Steam's library
Virtual machines	Claude/vm_bundles	Usually safe	The app's own menu

• iPhone and iPad backups10–200 GB · Review first
• Steam games10–300 GB · Review first
• Adobe media cache5–100 GB · Safe
• Claude's Cowork virtual machine10–21 GB · Usually safe
• AI models inside apps4–16 GB · Usually safe
• Slack or Discord caches1–10 GB · Safe
• GarageBand and Logic sounds2–70 GB · Usually safe
• One removed app's leftovers0.1–15 GB · Review first

Typical ranges on Macs that have these items, from the research behind the app's catalog. Most Macs have only a few of them, and many folders in Application Support are a few megabytes.

iPhone and iPad backups

Backups you make to this Mac in Finder are stored in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup, one folder for each device. Each can be tens of gigabytes, and backups of devices you no longer have stay until they're deleted.

A backup may be the only copy of what's in it, and an encrypted one also holds saved passwords, Wi-Fi settings and Health data. Delete old ones from iOS Files in Storage settings, or from Finder's window for a connected device. The iPhone backups guide covers both.

Apps built on web technology

Many popular apps, such as Slack, Discord, Visual Studio Code, Cursor and the Claude desktop app, are built with Electron, which runs a web browser engine inside the app. Electron's documentation says its user data folder defaults to a folder named after the app in Application Support.

The same documentation notes that the browser engine may write a very large disk cache there. That's why these apps keep folders named Cache, Code Cache and GPUCache inside their Application Support folder, rather than in your Caches folder. Those cache folders are Safe: the app downloads or rebuilds what it needs.

Why does a code editor's folder keep growing?

Code editors built on Electron, such as Visual Studio Code and Cursor, keep more than a web cache. CachedExtensionVSIXs holds copies of extension packages they downloaded, and a logs folder keeps a folder for each recent session.

VS Code trims old code caches, extension downloads and logs on its own. Your settings, installed extensions and workspace data live in other folders and aren't part of those caches. Clearing the caches makes the editor start a little slower once, and earlier sessions' logs are gone.

Browser profiles

Chrome, Edge, Brave, Firefox and other browsers keep each profile in Application Support: bookmarks, history, saved passwords, extensions and the data websites store. Most of that is yours, so a browser's folder is never one to remove while you use the browser.

Websites' offline data, such as service worker caches and IndexedDB databases, can grow large. It's Usually safe: clearing it can sign you out of sites and remove offline copies of web apps. Clear it in the browser's settings, site by site or all at once.

AI models, virtual machines and games

Chrome can download Gemini Nano, its on-device language model, into ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/OptGuideOnDeviceModel. Local AI apps such as GPT4All and Jan keep their models in their own folders here, and they're Review first: they come back only by downloading again.

Some apps run a whole virtual machine from Application Support. Claude's Cowork feature keeps one in ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/vm_bundles, and Rancher Desktop keeps its Linux machine here too. Steam installs games in ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps by default, and games are often tens of gigabytes each.

Media caches, cloud drives and updaters

Premiere Pro, After Effects and Media Encoder create media cache files for footage you import, in ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common. They stay after a project is finished, so they grow over time, and they're Safe: the apps rebuild what they need when you open a project.

Google Drive for desktop keeps each account's database and cache in a folder called DriveFS. It's Review first: Google notes that changes waiting to upload sit in that cache and can be lost if it's cleared.

Google's updater keeps the last update package for each Google app in a crx_cache folder, so the next update can be smaller. It's Safe: without it, the next update downloads the full package. Some apps built with Electron also leave a downloaded update waiting in a folder ending in -updater, which is Safe too.

Is it safe to delete the Application Support folder?

No, not as a whole. It holds every app's data and settings, and apps expect it to exist. Inside it, the answer depends on whose folder it is and what's inside.

What happens if you delete an app's folder?

The app loses everything it kept there. The next time it opens, it may behave as if it were installed for the first time: no settings, no sign-in, no history, no library.

For some apps that's a nuisance. For others it's a loss: a note-taking app's local database, a chat app's message history, a password manager's local vault or a game's saves can live only there.

Signal Desktop is a clear example. It keeps its own encrypted copy of your messages and attachments in its folder in Application Support. If that folder is removed, you have to link Signal Desktop to your phone again, and only the history still on your phone can be transferred.

Which subfolders are safe to clear?

What you find	Example	Safe?	How
Cache folders inside an app's folder	Discord/Cache, Code/GPUCache	Yes	Quit the app, move them to the Trash
Update downloads	Google/GoogleUpdater/crx_cache	Yes	Move them to the Trash
Media caches	Adobe/Common/Media Cache Files	Yes	Quit the app first
Models, games, virtual machines	Steam/steamapps	After deciding	In the app that made them
Databases, profiles, libraries	Google/Chrome/Default	No	Leave them, or manage them in the app
The folder of an app you removed	com.example.app	After checking	See the steps below
Folders named com.apple	com.apple.sharedfilelist	No	Leave them to macOS

Which folders hold your own data?

Look for signs of work you can't download again: files with names you gave them, databases, folders called Projects, Library, Documents, Backups or Profiles, and anything with dates spread over months or years. Quick Look shows many file types without opening the app.

A folder made only of Cache, Logs, Crashpad, GPUCache and similar names is a different story. Those are working files the app makes for itself.

Can you reset a misbehaving app by deleting its folder?

Sometimes, but it's a blunt fix. You lose everything the app kept there, including things you may not think of as settings. Many apps offer a reset of their own, such as Figma's Help › Troubleshooting › Reset Figma and Restart, which clears its local data the way Figma intends.

If an app has no reset and its developer suggests removing its folder, move the folder to the Trash rather than deleting it. If the app comes back worse, you can put the folder back.

How to free space in Application Support

Work from the largest folders down, and use each app's own controls before Finder.

Step 1: find the largest folders

1. Open ~/Library/Application Support in Finder, as above.
2. Choose View › as List, then View › Show View Options, and select Calculate all sizes.
3. Click the Size column heading so the largest folders come first.
4. Open the largest ones and repeat, until you can see what's actually large inside them.

Finder needs time to add up large folders. Let the sizes fill in before deciding anything.

Step 2: use the app's own setting first

Most large items have an owner with a button for them. Using it lets the app remove what it can safely remove and keep track of what's gone.

• Chrome's AI model: in Chrome, click the More menu, choose Settings, then AI Innovations, and turn off On-device AI. Chrome deletes the model and doesn't download it again while the setting is off.
• Steam games: in Steam, click Library, Control-click a game you no longer play, and choose Manage › Uninstall.
• Spotify's cache: in Spotify, click your profile picture, choose Settings, scroll to Storage, and click Clear cache.
• Claude's Cowork machine: in Claude, choose Help › Troubleshooting › Delete Cowork VM Bundle and Restart.
• GPT4All models: in GPT4All, click Models in the sidebar, then Remove next to a model you no longer need.

Step 3: clear the cache folders of web-based apps

1. Quit the app, including any icon it has in the menu bar.
2. Open its folder in Application Support, such as Slack, discord or Code.
3. Find the folders named Cache, Code Cache and GPUCache, and for code editors also CachedData and CachedExtensionVSIXs.
4. Move those folders to the Trash. Leave everything else in the app's folder.
5. Open the app and check it works, then empty the Trash.

The app takes longer to open the first time while it rebuilds its caches, and loads images again. With Slack and Discord, you stay signed in.

Step 4: remove the folder of an app you've deleted

1. Check the app is really gone: look in Applications and search for it with Spotlight.
2. For a developer's shared folder, such as Google or Adobe, check you don't still use another of their apps. Remove only the subfolder of the app you deleted. Even uninstalling Creative Cloud in Adobe's order leaves folders here.
3. Open the folder and look for anything you made: documents, projects, exports, a library or a database.
4. If there's something you might want, copy it somewhere safe first.
5. Move the folder to the Trash, and wait a while before emptying it.

The guide to uninstalling apps properly lists the other places an app leaves files, such as its caches, logs and login items.

The shared folder at /Library/Application Support

The Application Support folder at the top of your disk is shared by every user of the Mac. Apps put things there that they install once for everyone, and most items belong to an administrator or to macOS.

What's usually in it?

GarageBand keeps its instruments, drummers, Apple Loops and lessons in /Library/Application Support/GarageBand, and Logic Pro 11 or earlier and MainStage 3 use the same sound library. Updaters, such as Google's, keep a folder here too, and so do the support files of drivers and helper tools that came with apps.

Folders named after Apple and macOS, such as those starting with com.apple, are part of macOS. Leave them alone even when they look unused.

How do you remove GarageBand and Logic sounds?

Use Storage settings rather than Finder. Choose Apple menu › System Settings, click General, then Storage, click the information button next to Music Creation, select the content you don't need, and click Delete.

To get sounds back, open GarageBand and choose GarageBand › Sound Library, then Download All Available Sounds or Reinstall Sound Library. Songs that use removed instruments or loops play without them until you do.

Logic Pro 12 and later keep their sounds in a Logic Pro Library bundle in your Music folder, made as a copy that shares storage with these files. While that bundle exists, removing the shared files frees little space.

Removing items there

Removing anything from /Library/Application Support needs an administrator's password. Only remove the folder of an app you've removed, and only after the same checks as for your own Application Support folder. If an app has an uninstaller, it usually removes these shared files properly.

Application Support on macOS 27 and macOS 26

Recent versions of macOS protect some apps' data from other apps. This can change what you see when a disk tool or an app tries to read or remove folders in Application Support.

What does macOS 27 protect?

Apple's release notes for macOS Golden Gate say XProtect may now restrict access to app data that malicious software commonly targets. Access to files created by other developer teams' apps may be denied by default, and you can manage it in Privacy & Security settings.

Eclectic Light's look at the new policy file found it covers the Application Support folders of Chrome, Brave, Edge, Firefox, Discord and some cryptocurrency wallets. Apple describes what it protects as app data that malicious software commonly targets.

What does that mean in practice?

The protected apps work as before, and so does their own way of clearing data. Another app, such as a disk tool, may not be allowed to read or remove their folders, even when you ask it to.

So for those browsers and Discord, clear caches and site data in the app's own settings. Apple describes this protection as new in macOS 27, but the app's own setting is the better route on macOS 26 Tahoe too.

What about sandboxed apps?

Apps from the App Store are usually sandboxed, so they keep their Application Support folder inside their container in ~/Library/Containers, not in your main Application Support folder. macOS has protected containers from other apps since macOS Sonoma.

If an app you use doesn't seem to have a folder in Application Support, look for its container. The same rules apply there: caches can go, data needs checking.

Do you need Full Disk Access to see everything?

Finder can show you your own Application Support folder. Disk tools and other apps may need Full Disk Access, in System Settings › Privacy & Security, to measure the protected parts, and on macOS 27 some browsers' data folders can only be changed by an app that has it.

Mistakes to avoid

Most problems with Application Support come from treating it like a cache. These are the common ones.

Removing the whole folder, or a whole developer folder

Moving the whole Application Support folder to the Trash resets every app on your Mac at once. Moving a developer's whole folder, such as Google's, can take more than you meant: Chrome's profiles, Google Drive's uploads in progress and its updater sit side by side.

Removing a folder because its app looks unused

An app you haven't opened in months may still hold the only copy of something. A folder with a strange name may belong to a helper of an app you use every day. If you can't tell what a folder belongs to, leave it.

Clearing Preferences to save space

The Preferences folder is separate from Application Support, and its files aren't caches either. They're small, so removing them frees almost nothing, and the apps you use lose their settings. Saved Application State is the same: tiny, and only about how windows reopen.

Deleting instead of moving to the Trash

When you clear anything in Application Support, move it to the Trash and leave it there for a few days. If an app turns out to need something, you can put it back. Emptying the Trash is the one step you can't undo.

Pasting a command to clear it

Guides that ask you to paste a Terminal command to clear Application Support remove files with no way back and no chance to check them first. Everything here works in Finder and in the apps themselves.

Moving the folder to another drive

Apps look for their data where macOS tells them Application Support is. If you move an app's folder to an external drive in Finder, the app doesn't follow it: it usually starts fresh with a new, empty folder.

Some apps that keep large data have their own setting for where it goes. When an app offers one, use it. When it doesn't, the data stays on the startup disk.

If you removed something you needed

Mistakes in Application Support are usually recoverable, as long as you moved things to the Trash rather than deleting them outright.

Put it back from the Trash

1. Quit the app the folder belongs to, so it doesn't make a new folder in the meantime.
2. Click the Trash in the Dock.
3. Select the folder and choose File › Put Back.
4. Open the app and check that your data is back.

Restore it from Time Machine

If you've already emptied the Trash and you back up with Time Machine, the folder is probably in your backups.

1. In Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder, type ~/Library/Application Support and press Return.
2. Open Time Machine, using Spotlight to find it.
3. Use the arrows next to the window to go back to a backup from before you removed the folder.
4. Select the folder and click Restore. It returns to its original place.

Quit the app first here too. Time Machine may also have kept the folder in its local snapshots, so a recent removal can be restored even without the backup disk connected.

Let the app get it back

Some data lives on a server as well as on your Mac. Messages in Slack and Discord, files in Google Drive and saves in Steam Cloud come back when you sign in again. A library, a database or a vault kept only on this Mac doesn't.

An example of a careful cleanup

Say you've stopped using a video editor and removed the app. Its folder in Application Support is one of the largest. Inside are folders called Cache and Logs, a Presets folder and a Projects folder with files dated over two years.

The cache and logs can go. The presets are small and worthless without the app. The projects are your work: copy them to an external drive first, or export them from the app before you remove it next time. Then move the whole folder to the Trash and leave it there for a week.

How the app does it

Wombit scans your disk, explains every item in plain language, and moves what you choose to the Trash, where you can put it back. Select any folder in Application Support in the map or list, and it says what the folder is, how safe it is to remove, and what removing it costs.

Application Support folders are Review first: they're explained, never checked for you. Known parts inside them get their own entries, such as web-based apps' caches and Adobe's media cache, which are Safe, and Chrome's on-device model, which is Usually safe.

• ~/Library/Application Support/*

  Application Support folders

  Data that apps create and manage for you, such as libraries, databases, downloads and settings, in a folder for each app.

  Review first · Explained only: the app shows you how

• ~/Library/Application Support/Slack/{Cache,Code Cache,GPUCache}

  Slack cache

  Web content, compiled scripts and graphics data that the Slack app caches so it opens faster.

  Safe · Moves it to the Trash

• ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/{Media Cache Files,Media Cache}

  Adobe media cache

  Conformed audio, peak and index files that Premiere Pro and other Adobe video apps create for imported media.

  Safe · Moves it to the Trash

• ~/Library/Application Support/Google/{Chrome,Chrome Beta,Chrome Dev,Chrome Canary}/OptGuideOnDeviceModel

  Chrome on-device AI model

  The Gemini Nano language model Chrome downloads in the background to run AI features on your Mac.

  Usually safe · Explained only: the app shows you how

The uninstaller lists the leftovers of apps that are already gone and shows why each file belongs to that app. Application Support, Containers and Group Containers start unchecked and are marked as places that may hold your data. On macOS 27, items macOS doesn't let it change are listed as Not allowed by macOS and left alone.

Finding and explaining everything is free. Cleanup and the uninstaller are PRO: one payment of $4.99 with lifetime access. Every Pro tool's review is free to open, so you see what would go and why before you buy.