How to de-clutter my massive Caches folder (228.5 GB)?

[ybmacbook]

Hi all!

I have a 6-year old Macbook Air (with 500 GB storage) which I love very much. It is still on El Capitan and I have no intention to upgrade the OS system.

It is not particularly slow, but I was astonished to find that, of the 500 GB storage, 200.56 GB is taken up by the "Other" category. After some quick googling, it appears that the "Caches" files could contribute the size of the "Other" category. And the Caches folder in my computer is apparently 228.5 GB!

I would like to reduce the clutter in my computer. I am reluctant to delete my documents. But I think I can do with deleting the "Caches", though I don't know how to do that exactly. I do not want to accidentally delete things that then cause issues. For example, I want to make sure that my Firefox still retains all the saved passwords.

Any recommendations? I am willing to pay for an app for this purpose if necessary.

Thanks!!

 

[glenthompson]

I think Onyx will clear caches along with other system management tasks. Before running such program, a good backup is recommended.

 

[dickie001x]

When did you last restart?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP --

Try this:
1. REBOOT -- a must
2. Download and run a free utility called Onyx:

Titanium Software | Operating System Utilities for Mac - OnyX

OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the startup disk and the structure of its system files, perform cleaning and computer maintenance tasks, configure some hidden parameters of many Apple applications, and more.

titanium-software.fr

BE SURE to download the right version (I think it's 3.1.9 for El Cap)

See if that helps.
If it DOES NOT help, come back and tell us.

 

[Weaselboy]

Any recommendations?

You don't need an app to do this. Just go inside that users ~/Library/Caches folder in Finder, then command-a to select all then move to trash like in my screenshot. Then empty your trash.

Then reboot and any cache files needed will be recreated the first time your run your normal apps.

 

[ybmacbook]

Hi all,
After some further googling, I found that the large Caches folder in my computer was because I had checked off "iCloud Drive" in iCloud, causing the Macbook to save a copy of my iCloud backup in the hard drive as well. What a stupid option!. I un-checked that, and that dramatically reduced the Caches folder size to 2.8 GB, and now I have 270 GB of free space in my hard drive! Yay!
Thanks!