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2026 Guide

How to delete browser caches & bloat (2026 Guide)

Chrome, Brave, Edge, and Arc keep a second pile of website data that Apple's Storage settings and even Chrome's own "Clear browsing data" often miss. If you use more than one Chrome profile, that pile is duplicated for every person on the machine. This guide shows how MacMop's Browser Bloat scanner finds it, what is safe to delete, and what CacheStorage actually is.

Scan every Chrome profile in one pass

MacMop lists CacheStorage, IndexedDB, and more — without touching passwords or bookmarks.

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Why this matters if you have multiple Chrome profiles

Each Chrome profile is a separate user on disk: Work, Personal, a client account, a kids profile. Chrome stores them as folders named Default, Profile 1, Profile 2, and so on under ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/.

Clearing cache in the profile you have open only cleans that profile. The other nine keep their service-worker caches, offline Google Docs data, and compiled JavaScript. That is why a Mac with many Chrome profiles can hide several gigabytes that never show up in Chrome Settings.

MacMop reads Chrome's Local State file so the table shows the name you actually gave the profile (Work, Personal) plus the folder name, so you can tell them apart.

What Browser Bloat looks like in MacMop

Open MacMop → Browser Bloat → Scan Browser Data. You get a total across every Chromium profile, a safety tag on each row, and filters for browser, profile, type, size, and age.

MacMop — Browser Bloat

Browser Bloat

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Browser Bloat: 2.4 GB found across 10 browser profiles

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Persistent website app data. Deleting it does not remove passwords or bookmarks.

SafeCache — delete anytimeReviewCaution

3 items — 957 MB total

Domain / FileSizeProfileTypeSafety
CacheStorage
~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Profile 1/Service Worker/CacheStorage
457 MB
Work
Profile 1
CacheStorageSafe
docs.google.com
~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Profile 2/IndexedDB/https_docs.google.com_0.indexeddb.leveldb
312 MB
Personal
Profile 2
IndexedDBReview
Code Cache
~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Code Cache
188 MB
Person 1
Default
Code CacheSafe
Recreation of MacMop's Browser Bloat screen. Profile names come from Chrome; folder names like Profile 1 stay underneath.

How to clean it (2 minutes)

  1. Quit Chrome, Brave, Edge, or Arc so files are not locked.
  2. Open MacMop and run Browser Bloat.
  3. Filter to Safe if you want a no-drama cleanup (Cache, Code Cache, GPU Cache, CacheStorage, ScriptCache).
  4. Use the profile filter if you only want to clean Work, or only an unused profile.
  5. Click Delete All Safe or tick rows and Delete Selected.

Rows marked Review (IndexedDB, File System) can reset a site's offline data. Caution (Local Storage / Session Storage) can log you out of that site. Passwords, cookies, bookmarks, and history are never in this scanner.

File type deep dive: CacheStorage

A typical large row looks like this:

~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Profile 1/Service Worker/CacheStorage

This is the browser Cache API used by service workers — the same mechanism PWAs and many Google, Microsoft, and Figma tabs use to keep assets offline. Inside the folder, Chrome stores opaque hashed origin directories. You will not see tidy names like "youtube.com"; you will see long IDs. The parent CacheStorage folder is the unit MacMop reports.

QuestionAnswer
What is usually in it?Cached scripts, images, fonts, and API responses that a site's service worker saved for faster loads and offline use.
Is it safe to delete?Yes. MacMop marks CacheStorage as Safe. Chrome rebuilds it the next time those sites run a service worker.
What you might noticeThose sites may load a bit slower once, or briefly feel "fresh" instead of instant. Offline PWAs may need a network trip to refill the cache.
What is not deletedPasswords, cookies, bookmarks, history, extensions, and the rest of the Chrome profile. Only this cache tree.
Why it gets hugeEvery profile keeps its own copy. Heavy web apps (Google Workspace, Figma, Notion, YouTube) write a lot here and rarely prune it themselves.

Related folders in the same profile: Service Worker/ScriptCache (also safe), Cache and Code Cache (HTTP and compiled JS caches, also safe). Do not delete the parent Chrome Application Support folder — that is the whole browser profile.

How to match Profile 1 to a name in Chrome

  1. Switch to that Chrome user, then open chrome://version.
  2. Read Profile Path. The last segment is the folder name.
  3. The avatar in the top-right of Chrome is the display name MacMop shows in the Profile column.

Clean every profile without guessing folders

MacMop is a native Mac app. Browser Bloat is built for people who keep more than one Chrome profile.

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