How to clear Spotify cache to free up space on Mac

Over the past decade or so, Spotify has become a staple in everyone’s Dock on Mac. We listen to music (or podcasts) practically all the time: while working, relaxing, exercising, doing chores, and commuting. 

You might not have noticed, but as you listen to Spotify, its folder for cache files on your Mac is growing — if you’ve never had to clear Spotify cache Mac files before, the folder might take up gigabytes of space right now! 

Don’t worry! Cache files don’t take up space permanently. In fact, you can delete them at any time to free up space without affecting the functionality of the Spotify app itself. Let’s see how. 

What is Spotify cache?

In general, cache files store temporary data needed for apps to operate smoothly. Spotify, for example, stores songs you’ve played during your session, so that if you want to play them again, they don’t have to buffer and use more of your data. 

Since Spotify cache files are temporary, they are usually automatically deleted after you quit the app or restart your Mac. However, this doesn’t always happen. If you keep Spotify open and just put your laptop to sleep by closing the lid, the Spotify cache folder will keep growing. 

Sometimes, cache files might also get buggy and prevent you from downloading files properly. So there are more than a few reasons to learn how to delete Spotify cache Mac keeps accumulating. 

How to delete Spotify cache on Mac

By design, cache files are not supposed to be manipulated by Mac users, so they are tucked away deep in your Library folder structure and mixed together with other important files that could affect how your apps operate if deleted. This is why manually deleting cache files can be a problem. 

Instead, try an automatic solution like CleanMyMac X first. 

CleanMyMac X is the easiest way to take care of your Mac. This app cleans, optimizes, and protects your Mac in just a few clicks with powerful scans and pre-selected optimization scripts. You can update or uninstall apps without a trace. Find folders taking up space on your hard drive and shred sensitive files. 

You can also quickly delete cache files from any app. Here’s how to do it for Spotify: 

1. Launch CleanMyMac X
2. Navigate to System Junk in the sidebar
3. Click Scan ➙ Review Details
4. In User Cache Files, select Spotify.app Cache
5. Clean

How to clear Spotify cache Mac saves manually

To delete Spotify cache Mac stores in your Library folder, you need to first find its exact location.

One way to do it is to check your Spotify app’s settings: 

1. Launch Spotify
2. Open Preferences (⌘ + ,)
3. At the bottom, click Show Advanced Settings
4. Scroll down until you see “Offline storage location”
5. Copy the path to use in next steps

To delete Spotify cache Mac folder: 

1. Pick Go to Folder (Shift + ⌘ + G) from the menu bar
2. Paste the path you got from Spotify in the step above
3. Hit Enter
4. Move to Trash all the files in the Storage folder

How to reduce the size of Spotify cache

Since the Spotify cache tends to clear itself out from time to time, you might think that deleting it regularly sounds a bit too cumbersome. Alternatively, if you listen to a lot of music, your cache folder might grow too large too quickly. What if you figured out a way to make the cache folder smaller in general? 

The good news is that it’s entirely possible to do within Spotify’s settings. 

Open Spotify settings (⌘ + ,) and go to the “Audio quality” section. The higher quality you have your music set to, the more space the cache folder is going to take. Do you really need to listen to everything in the highest quality?

You have a few options here. First, set the “Auto adjust quality” to On, so that Spotify will adjust the quality to the available bandwidth. Then, you can set the streaming quality to either automatic or normal. Same for the download quality. You can experiment and set automatic quality for streaming, for example, but high quality for downloads, so you can just download any songs you absolutely need to listen in high quality. 

At the same time, reconsider whether you really need to have downloads on Mac that often. How many times has your Mac been offline in the past month? 

As you can see, learning how to clear Spotify cache on Mac takes virtually no time! You can do it manually by looking up the correct folder in the Library directory on your Mac, but you have to be careful not to delete any essential files. A better way to go is to use CleanMyMac X and clear Spotify cache in just a few clicks. 

Best of all, CleanMyMac X is available to you absolutely free for seven days through the trial of Setapp, a platform with more than 230 iOS and Mac apps for any task you can imagine, from managing your budget (MoneyWiz) to keeping your passwords safe (Secrets). Try every Setapp app at no cost and find your new favorites!