How to Clear the Steam Cache on Mac (Download & Shader Cache)

If Steam is misbehaving — crashing on launch, refusing to update a game, or showing corrupt download errors — clearing the Steam cache on Mac is usually the first fix that works. Steam maintains several cache layers on macOS: the download cache you can clear from inside the client, and a set of shader and depot caches stored deep in ~/Library that the client never touches on its own.

What Steam Caches Exist on macOS?

Before deleting anything, it helps to know what you are dealing with. Steam stores cache data in a few distinct locations on Mac:

• Download cache — temporary files used while a game downloads or updates. Stored inside Steam's own app data directory.
• Shader cache (shadercache) — compiled GPU shader programs per game. Stored in ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/shadercache/. These regenerate automatically the first time you launch a game after deleting them.
• Depot cache (depotcache) — encrypted chunk data from partially downloaded game files. Stored in ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/depotcache/. Safe to delete; Steam re-fetches what it needs.
• App cache — HTML, image, and config caches for the Steam client UI. Stored in ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/appcache/.
• System-level caches — Steam also drops items in ~/Library/Caches/com.valvesoftware.steam which accumulate over time.

None of these contain your game saves or library. Save data for most Steam games lives in ~/Library/Application Support/ under the game's own folder, or is synced via Steam Cloud. Clearing cache folders does not affect your purchased games.

Method 1: Clear the Steam Download Cache from Inside the Client

This is the safest starting point and handles the most common case — a stuck or corrupted download.

1. Open Steam and click Steam in the menu bar, then choose Settings.
2. Click Downloads in the left sidebar.
3. Scroll down and click Clear Download Cache.
4. Confirm when prompted. Steam will sign you out and relaunch.
5. Sign back in. Your library and game files are untouched.

This clears the temporary chunk data Steam accumulates during downloads. If your issue was a broken update, this is usually enough.

Method 2: Delete the Shader Cache Manually

The shader cache can grow to several gigabytes on a Mac with many games installed, especially after driver or macOS updates regenerate shaders. Deleting it is safe — Steam rebuilds it the next time each game launches, which may cause a short stutter session the first time you play.

Using Finder

1. Quit Steam completely (Steam > Quit Steam).
2. Open Finder and press Cmd + Shift + G to open Go to Folder.
3. Paste: ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/shadercache
4. Press Enter. The shadercache folder opens, showing one subfolder per App ID.
5. Select all subfolders and move them to Trash. Do not delete the shadercache folder itself — just its contents.
6. Empty Trash.

Using Terminal

# Quit Steam first, then run:
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Steam/steamapps/shadercache/*/

The trailing /*/ removes the contents of shadercache without removing the parent folder, which is the safe pattern.

Method 3: Clear the Depot Cache

The depot cache holds encrypted content chunks that Steam downloads before assembling a game update. If a large update stalled or a game's files became inconsistent, clearing this folder forces Steam to re-download cleanly.

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Steam/depotcache/

Unlike the shader cache, you can safely delete the entire depotcache folder. Steam recreates it automatically.

Method 4: Clear the App Cache and System-Level Caches

If the Steam client UI is glitching — blank store pages, missing avatars, login loops — the app cache is the culprit.

1. Quit Steam.
2. In Finder, press Cmd + Shift + G and go to: ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/appcache
3. Delete the contents of the folder (not the folder itself).
4. Also check ~/Library/Caches/com.valvesoftware.steam and delete its contents.
5. Relaunch Steam.

Which Cache Is Safe to Delete? Quick Reference

Finding Steam's Caches Without Navigating Deep Folders

If you would rather not navigate several levels of ~/Library manually, Crumb can help. Its disk visualizer surfaces the largest folders on your Mac — including Steam's shadercache and depotcache directories — so you can see exactly how much space each is using at a glance. The Uninstall tab also locates leftover files from apps, which is useful after you have already removed a game from your library but Steam's support files are still on disk. If you are unsure whether a particular Steam subfolder is safe to remove, Crumb's built-in "Is this safe to delete?" AI will explain what the folder is and the risk of removing it before you commit to anything.

You can download Crumb and use it to locate these folders without any Terminal commands.

What Does Not Help (Common Mistakes)

• Deleting the Steam app itself does not clear caches — those live in ~/Library, separate from the app bundle in /Applications.
• Reinstalling Steam without first clearing ~/Library/Application Support/Steam leaves all cached data in place. If you reinstall to fix corruption, delete that folder too (back up your steamapps first if you want to keep game files).
• Clearing caches will not fix a network or firewall problem. If downloads fail consistently on multiple games, check Steam's download region under Settings > Downloads.

After Clearing: What to Expect

The first time you launch a game after clearing the shader cache, you may see a brief "compiling shaders" pause or the game may feel choppier than usual for the first few minutes. This is normal — the GPU is rebuilding the shader programs it needs. Subsequent launches are back to normal. Everything else — game saves, achievements, installed DLC — is unaffected by any of the cache deletions described here.

Clearing the download cache signs you out of Steam once, and that is the only disruption you should expect from the client-side clear. Everything else is transparent to Steam once it relaunches.

Conclusion

Clearing the Steam cache on Mac is straightforward once you know which folders to target. Start with the built-in Download Cache option inside Steam's Settings for most problems. If you are reclaiming disk space or fixing persistent shader issues, the shadercache and depotcache folders under ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/ are the ones to clean — both are safe to delete and rebuild automatically. Just be sure Steam is fully quit before touching anything in ~/Library, and avoid the steamapps/common folder unless you intentionally want to remove installed games.