Where Does Adobe Store Media Cache Files on Mac? (Exact Folder Paths, 2026)

If your Mac's storage is filling up faster than expected and you're running Adobe creative apps, media cache files are almost certainly a significant culprit. Understanding the exact adobe media cache location on Mac — across Premiere Pro, After Effects, Media Encoder, and Audition — lets you recover tens of gigabytes without guesswork or risking your actual project files. This guide covers the real folder paths, what each cache type contains, and the safest ways to clean them up on macOS Sequoia and later, whether you're on Apple Silicon or Intel.

What Are Adobe Media Cache Files?

Adobe video applications transcode and index every media file you import so playback is smooth during editing. This process produces several categories of cache files:

• Media Cache files (.mcdb, .cfa, .pek) — conforming audio (.cfa), peak audio waveform data (.pek), and the media cache database (.mcdb) that tracks them.
• Peak audio files — waveform thumbnails generated for every audio clip so the editor doesn't have to re-analyse the audio each time you open a project.
• Media Cache Database — an SQLite database that maps your source media files to their corresponding cache entries. If this database is deleted, Adobe will regenerate it the next time you open the app.
• After Effects Disk Cache (RAM Preview) — rendered frames stored to disk so After Effects can replay previews without re-rendering from scratch.

None of these files contain original footage or project data. They are purely derived caches that Adobe recreates automatically when needed.

Default Adobe Media Cache Location on Mac

Adobe stores media cache in your home Library folder, which is hidden by default in Finder. The exact paths differ slightly between applications:

Premiere Pro and Media Encoder

Both apps share the same cache folder by default:

• Media Cache files: ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Media Cache Files/
• Media Cache Database: ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Media Cache/

After Effects Disk Cache

After Effects manages its disk cache separately. By default it lands here:

• Disk Cache: ~/Library/Caches/Adobe/After Effects/<version>/

Because After Effects previews can balloon to hundreds of gigabytes, many editors redirect this folder to an external drive or a secondary internal SSD — a good habit described in the next section.

Audition

Adobe Audition writes its own waveform cache and peak files to:

• ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Audition/<version>/Media Cache/
• ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Audition/<version>/Media Cache Files/

Character Animator

Character Animator stores render-related temp data under:

• ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Character Animator/<version>/

Quick Reference: Adobe Cache Folder Map

How to Find and Check the Size of Adobe Cache Folders

Because ~/Library is a hidden directory, you can't simply navigate there in Finder by clicking around. Here are three reliable methods:

Method 1: Finder "Go to Folder"

1. Open Finder.
2. Press Shift + Cmd + G to open the "Go to Folder" dialog.
3. Paste the path you want to inspect, for example:
   ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Media Cache Files
4. Press Return. Finder opens the folder directly.
5. Select all contents (Cmd + A), then press Cmd + I (Get Info) to see the total size.

Method 2: Terminal du Command

For an instant size readout from the command line, open Terminal and run:

du -sh ~/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/Common/Media\ Cache\ Files/
du -sh ~/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/Common/Media\ Cache/
du -sh ~/Library/Caches/Adobe/

The -sh flags produce a single human-readable summary line per folder.

Method 3: Inside the Adobe App

Premiere Pro and After Effects both expose cache management in their preferences. In Premiere Pro, go to Preferences > Media Cache. You'll see the current cache location, its size, and buttons to delete unused or all cache files. This is the safest in-app route because Premiere closes any open handles before deleting.

How to Safely Delete Adobe Media Cache on Mac

There are two approaches: deleting from within Adobe's preferences (recommended) or deleting manually via Finder or Terminal.

Delete from Within Premiere Pro (Safest)

1. Quit all Adobe apps.
2. Relaunch Premiere Pro (without opening a project).
3. Go to Premiere Pro > Preferences > Media Cache.
4. Click Delete Unused to remove cache entries that no longer have a corresponding source file, or Delete All to wipe everything.
5. Click OK. Premiere will clean the files and update its database.

Delete from Within After Effects

1. Go to After Effects > Preferences > Media & Disk Cache.
2. Click Empty Disk Cache.
3. Confirm the dialog. After Effects purges the preview frames immediately.

Manual Deletion via Terminal

If the apps won't launch or you're scripting a cleanup, you can delete the contents directly. Quit all Adobe applications first, then run:

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/Common/Media\ Cache\ Files/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/Common/Media\ Cache/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Adobe/After\ Effects/

Adobe recreates these folders and the database automatically the next time an app starts. Your projects and source media are completely unaffected.

If you'd rather not hunt through multiple hidden folders by hand, a tool like Crumb can audit all of these locations at once and show exactly how large each cache is before you choose what to remove.

How to Move Adobe Media Cache to a Different Drive

If you edit with large-format footage — 4K ProRes, RED RAW, or ARRIRAW — the default cache location inside your home folder will fill your system drive quickly. Redirecting the cache to an external SSD or a secondary drive is straightforward:

In Premiere Pro

1. Open Preferences > Media Cache.
2. Click Browse next to "Media Cache Files Location" and choose a folder on your target drive.
3. Repeat for "Media Cache Database Location" if you want the database there as well.
4. Click OK. New cache files will be written to the new location immediately.

In After Effects

1. Open Preferences > Media & Disk Cache.
2. Check Enable Disk Cache and click Choose Folder.
3. Select a folder on your external or secondary drive.
4. Set the Maximum Disk Cache Size to an appropriate limit (Adobe recommends at least 20 GB; many editors set 100–200 GB on a dedicated drive).

Both Apple Silicon Macs (M1 through M4) and Intel Macs support this redirection equally. The performance difference between NVMe and a spinning hard drive is significant for After Effects previews, so always prefer an SSD.

Other Adobe Cache Locations Worth Knowing

Beyond the media cache, Adobe applications scatter several other large caches around your Mac. Understanding these helps you build a complete picture of your storage usage, as detailed in our guide on what is taking up space on your Mac.

• Lightroom Classic catalog previews: ~/Pictures/Lightroom/Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata and ~/Pictures/Lightroom/Lightroom Smart Previews.lrdata — can each reach 20–50 GB on large libraries.
• Photoshop Scratch Disk: Not a persistent cache but a temporary working file. By default it uses your system volume. Redirect it in Preferences > Scratch Disks.
• Adobe Creative Cloud app: Installer packages and update downloads live at ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/AAMUpdater/ and /Library/Application Support/Adobe/ (system-level).
• Adobe Fonts: Synced fonts land in ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CoreSync/plugins/livetype/.
• InDesign Recovery and Temp: ~/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign/ holds auto-recovery snapshots.

For a broader look at how cache files accumulate across all applications on your Mac, see our overview of what cache files are on a Mac and when it's safe to remove them.

Is It Safe to Delete Adobe Media Cache?

Yes — Adobe media cache files are entirely regenerable. Deleting them does not affect your projects, footage, or exports in any way. The only consequence is that the next time you open a project containing media that was previously conformed, Premiere Pro or After Effects will reconform those files, which takes time proportional to the amount of media. For a project with a few hours of footage this conforming process typically runs in the background over several minutes. The trade-off is worthwhile when you need to reclaim space immediately.

The one caveat: After Effects disk-cache previews represent rendered work. If a composition takes many hours to render and you delete the disk cache, you'll need to re-render those previews before you can play them back in real time. For that reason, many editors clear the disk cache only between projects or when a drive is approaching capacity, rather than as a routine weekly task.