If Microsoft Teams is consuming gigabytes of your Mac's storage, you are not alone. Teams aggressively caches messages, media, meeting recordings, and application data — and it almost never cleans up after itself. Knowing how to clear Microsoft Teams cache on Mac correctly, for both the classic and the newer rebuilt client, can reclaim significant space and fix frustrating issues like stuck sign-in loops and stale avatar images.
Why Teams Accumulates So Much Disk Space
Teams stores several categories of local data:
- Application cache — Electron or WebView2 render cache, JavaScript bundles, images
- Media cache — downloaded files, meeting thumbnails, profile photos
- IndexedDB and local storage — chat history snapshots and user preferences
- Log files — diagnostic and crash logs that accumulate over months
None of this data is irreplaceable. Teams re-downloads what it needs on next launch. Clearing it is safe; you will not lose messages, files, or meeting history stored in the cloud.
Classic Teams vs. New Teams: Different Cache Locations
Microsoft ships two distinct Teams clients for macOS. The classic client (versions before the 2023 rebuild) and the new Teams client store their caches in completely different locations. Clearing the wrong path does nothing, so identifying which client you have is the first step.
How to tell which version you have
- Open Teams and click the three-dot menu (or the Teams icon in the menu bar).
- Go to About Microsoft Teams.
- If the version string starts with
1.x, you have classic Teams. Version24xxxor higher indicates new Teams.
Teams Cache Locations on Mac
| Client | Primary cache path | Typical size |
|---|---|---|
| Classic Teams | ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams |
1–6 GB |
| Classic Teams (additional) | ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.teams |
200–800 MB |
| New Teams | ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.teams2 |
500 MB–4 GB |
| New Teams (cache) | ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.teams2 |
100–500 MB |
How to Clear Microsoft Teams Cache on Mac — Classic Client
- Quit Teams completely. Right-click the Teams icon in the Dock and choose Quit, or run
killall "Microsoft Teams"in Terminal. - Open Finder, press Cmd + Shift + G, and paste the path below, then press Return:
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams- Inside that folder, delete the following subfolders (leave the folder itself intact):
CacheCode CacheGPUCacheblob_storagedatabasesIndexedDBLocal Storagetmp
- Also clear the secondary cache folder:
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.teams- Relaunch Teams. It will sign you in again automatically if your credentials are saved in Keychain.
How to Clear New Teams Cache on Mac
The rebuilt Teams client uses the macOS App Sandbox, which moves all data under ~/Library/Containers. The steps are slightly different.
- Quit new Teams completely.
- In Terminal, run:
rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.teams2/Data/Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft/MSTeams/EBWebView/Default/Cache
rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.teams2/Data/Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft/MSTeams/EBWebView/Default/Code\ Cache
rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.teams2/Data/Library/Caches
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.teams2- Relaunch new Teams.
If you want a clean slate — for example if you are troubleshooting a persistent sign-in problem — you can remove the entire container. Be aware this also deletes locally stored settings and you will need to sign in again:
rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.teams2Fixing Stale-Login and Ghost-Account Glitches
If Teams keeps showing an old account, loops on the sign-in screen, or displays the wrong organisation, clearing the cache alone may not be enough. The authentication token is stored separately:
- Classic Teams: Delete
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/storage.jsonand then clear the cache as described above. - New Teams: Open Keychain Access, search for msteams, and delete any entries. Then remove the full container and relaunch.
These steps resolve the majority of stuck-authentication bugs without requiring a full reinstall.
Clearing Teams Cache the Easy Way with Crumb
If you would rather not navigate deep Library paths manually, Crumb — a native macOS menu-bar cleaner — locates both the classic and new Teams cache folders automatically as part of its Uninstall and Clean workflows. It shows you exactly how much each folder weighs before you delete anything, so there are no surprises. Because Crumb surfaces the files rather than silently removing them, you stay in control of what goes.
You can download Crumb and run a one-time cleanup for free.
How Much Space Can You Expect to Recover?
Results vary widely depending on how long Teams has been installed and how heavily you use meetings and file sharing. A typical active user sees between 1 GB and 5 GB freed after a full cache clear. Users who have never cleared their cache and participate in frequent video meetings can find significantly more. macOS may also report additional purgeable space freed once the files are removed.
How Often Should You Clear the Teams Cache?
There is no fixed schedule. A reasonable approach:
- Clear the cache if Teams is acting up — slow to load, showing wrong data, or stuck on sign-in.
- Clear it once every few months as routine maintenance if Teams is a daily tool.
- Clear it before a macOS upgrade to avoid stale data causing post-upgrade issues.
Teams will rebuild its cache from the server, so performance immediately after a clear may feel slightly slower for the first few minutes while it re-downloads thumbnails and preferences.
What Is Safe to Delete — and What Is Not
- Safe to delete: Cache, Code Cache, GPUCache, blob_storage, tmp, log files, IndexedDB, Local Storage.
- Safe to delete (with minor consequence): The full container — you will need to sign in again, but no cloud data is lost.
- Do not delete: Files you deliberately downloaded and saved outside the Teams folder. Teams stores downloaded attachments in
~/Downloadsby default; those are yours and Teams will not re-create them.
Clearing the cache is a permanent action — deleted files go to Trash, so you can recover them before emptying Trash if you change your mind.
Conclusion
Microsoft Teams cache bloat is a common and fixable problem on macOS. The key is knowing which client you have — classic or new Teams — because the cache paths are completely different. A manual cleanup using Terminal takes about five minutes and is safe for all the folders listed above. If you prefer a visual approach that handles both cache locations automatically, Crumb makes the process a single click. Either way, clearing the cache regularly keeps Teams responsive and your storage under control.