Storage CleanerIs it safe to delete Application Support on Mac?
Short answer: no, not as a whole. ~/Library/Application Support holds apps' real data: databases, downloaded content, settings, chat history and sometimes your projects. Deleting it can lose work. It is safe to remove the folder of an app you've uninstalled, and the cache sub-folders inside some apps (editors and Electron apps especially).
What's inside
One folder per app, named after the app or its developer. On our test Mac it held 2.1 GB in 54 folders, with three apps taking most of it. On developer Macs, code editors and AI tools are usually the biggest.
| What | Where | Safe to delete? |
|---|---|---|
| Folders of apps you've uninstalled | ~/Library/Application Support/<App> | Yes, dragging an app to the Trash leaves these behind |
| Editor caches (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf) | …/Code/Cache, …/CachedData, …/Code Cache, …/GPUCache | Yes, with the editor quit. Keep User/ (settings, snippets) |
| JetBrains old versions | …/JetBrains/<IDE><old version> | Yes for versions you no longer run |
| Chat apps, notes, databases | Messages-style apps, note apps, local databases | No: this is your data |
| App settings and licenses | Varies by app | No, unless you want to reset the app |
| Apple folders | com.apple.*, CloudDocs, Knowledge | No: managed by macOS |
See what's using the space
du -sh ~/Library/Application\ Support/* 2>/dev/null | sort -h | tail -15Clean it safely
- Match each large folder to an app. If the app is still installed, leave it unless you know the sub-folder is a cache.
- For apps you've removed, move their folder to the Trash. Check
~/Library/Caches,~/Library/Containersand~/Library/Preferencesfor the same name too. - For editors, quit the editor and move only the cache folders listed above to the Trash.
- Keep the Trash for a few days before emptying it, in case an app misses something.
Only the safe parts. Storage Cleaner cleans only the known cache folders inside Application Support (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, JetBrains and more), never app data, and moves them to the Trash with Undo.
Try Storage Cleaner freeFrequently asked
What happens if I delete an app's Application Support folder? The app starts as if freshly installed: settings, downloaded content and local data are gone. For some apps that includes documents or chat history you can't get back.
Why are there folders for apps I deleted? macOS doesn't remove an app's data when you drag the app to the Trash. Those folders are safe to delete.
Is Application Support part of System Data? Yes. See why System Data is so large.
Related: Is ~/Library/Caches safe to delete? · Is ~/Library/Containers safe to delete? · Why System Data is so large.