Learn how to delete the Apple Music cache to regain storage space on your iPhone, iPad, Android phone, and Mac or Windows PC.
Apple Music uses caches to improve streaming efficiency. The more music stream, the more storage space the chance consumes. Modern operating systems like iOS and macOS automatically delete caches to free up storage space when needed. You can also delete your Apple Music cache manually, if you know where to find it, and that’s where our step-by-step tutorial comes in handy.
What is the Apple Music cache? How does it work?
Both iTunes and the built-in Music app store audio streams in the chase to avoid unnecessarily wasting your bandwidth and time when playing these tracks again. Apple’s implementation of streaming requires a song to be fully downloaded. Other data like album artwork is cached in separate sub-folders within the cache folder:
- fsCachedData: cached album artwork for streamed songs and other items
- SubscriptionPlayCache: caches of streamed songs
You can safely delete both folders to reclaim storage space without breaking any functionality. The Music app will simply recreate these folders the next time you launch it, and save temporary data in it as needed.
Delete Apple Music app cache on macOS and Windows
To delete the Apple Music cache on a computer, Mac owners will click the Finder in the Dock and press the Command + Shift + G keys (or click the Go > Go to Folder menu), then paste the folder path (see below) and press the Enter key:
- macOS Catalina and later:
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Music - macOS Mojave and earlier:
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.itunes
PC owners will navigate to the following location in Windows Explorer, replacing USERNAME with their Windows account name: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\iTunes\.
Now select the fsCachedData and SubscriptionPlayCache folders, right-click them and choose Move to Trash (Mac) or Delete (Windows), then empty the Trash (Mac) or Recycle Bin (WindowS) to delete them permanently.
And that’s it! You’ve just reclaim storage space on your computer lost to temporary Apple Music caches. Depending on your listening habits and the size of your library, you may have gained anywhere between a few megabytes to one or more gigabytes of storage space.
Don’t worry, the Music app will recreate folders for caching album artwork and other data, as needed. But make sure to avoid touching other files and sub-folders in the Apple Music cache because they’re needed for the Music app and iTunes to work properly.
To clear the cache for Music Store instead, click Music > Settings in the Music app’s menu, select the Advanced tab, and click Reset Cache.
Clear the Apple Music cache on iOS and Android
On your iPhone, go to Settings > Apps > Music and turn off Sync Library. Wait a few minutes so iOS can free up storage space consumed by the caches, then turn Sync Library on again. If that doesn’t work, sign out of your Apple Account and then back in. Android users can go to Settings > Apps > See all apps > Apple Music > Storage & Cache and tap the Clear Cache button.
Deleting the Music app from the device will also remove the caches, along with any purchased and downloaded music. If you only stream music, this action won’t affect you, but I don’t recommend doing this just to free up storage space on your iPhone!
Also, check out: