How to Clear the Zoom Cache on Mac and Reclaim Recordings & Storage (2026)

If you have ever opened About This Mac and wondered why your drive looks so full, zoom storage mac usage is often a surprising culprit. Zoom quietly accumulates local recordings, meeting logs, background images, cache blobs, and crash reports across several Library folders — easily reaching 5–15 GB on an active machine running macOS Sequoia or Tahoe. The good news is that most of it is genuinely safe to delete, and the cleanup takes less than ten minutes when you know where to look.

Why Zoom Uses So Much Space on macOS

Zoom is not a lightweight app. Every video call involves buffered video frames, audio jitter buffers, and a persistent cache of avatars, reaction thumbnails, and whiteboard assets. On top of that, Zoom stores:

• Local recordings — uncompressed or lightly compressed .mp4 and .m4a files saved to ~/Documents/Zoom by default. A single 60-minute 1080p call can be 1–3 GB.
• Application cache — stored in ~/Library/Application Support/zoom.us/ and ~/Library/Caches/us.zoom.xos/.
• Virtual backgrounds — custom images and video loops copied into ~/Library/Application Support/zoom.us/data/VirtualBkgnd_Custom/.
• Meeting logs and telemetry — text logs inside ~/Library/Logs/zoom.us/.
• Crash reports — located in ~/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/ with filenames beginning with zoom.

Together these folders can balloon well beyond what most users expect, especially on Apple Silicon Macs where Zoom runs fast and people leave it open all day.

Folder Map and Typical Sizes

The table below shows every relevant path and a realistic size range based on moderate use (several calls per week, recordings enabled occasionally).

How to Clear Zoom Cache on Mac: Step-by-Step

Follow these steps in order. Quit Zoom before you begin — clearing files while Zoom is running can cause it to immediately recreate them or, in rare cases, corrupt its settings database.

1. Quit Zoom completely. Click the Zoom menu bar icon, choose Quit, or press Cmd+Q in the Zoom window. Confirm no Zoom process remains by checking Activity Monitor.
2. Open Finder and navigate to the cache folder. Press Cmd+Shift+G, paste ~/Library/Caches/us.zoom.xos, and press Return. Select all contents (Cmd+A) and move them to the Trash.
3. Clear the Application Support cache subfolder. Go to ~/Library/Application Support/zoom.us/. Inside you will see folders such as data, logs, and CrashPad. Move the logs folder and the CrashPad folder to the Trash. Leave the data folder unless you specifically want to reset virtual backgrounds and chat history.
4. Delete old logs. Navigate to ~/Library/Logs/zoom.us/ and delete the entire folder contents.
5. Handle local recordings. Go to ~/Documents/Zoom/. Each sub-folder here is a separate meeting. Back up any recordings you want to keep — to an external drive or cloud storage — then delete the rest.
6. Empty the Trash. Right-click the Trash icon in the Dock and choose Empty Trash. Space is not reclaimed until you do this.
7. Relaunch Zoom. It will rebuild its cache from scratch on the first call. You will not need to re-enter your credentials, and your calendar integrations will remain intact.

Doing It from Terminal

If you prefer the command line, the following commands remove the cache and logs in one pass. They do not touch your recordings or account settings:

rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/us.zoom.xos
rm -rf ~/Library/Logs/zoom.us
rm -rf "~/Library/Application Support/zoom.us/logs"
rm -rf "~/Library/Application Support/zoom.us/CrashPad"

Run each line individually in Terminal, or chain them with &&. These paths are accurate for Zoom 5.x and the Zoom 6.x client released in 2025–2026.

Managing Local Recordings Without Losing Them

Local recordings are almost always the biggest category of Zoom storage on a Mac. Before deleting anything in ~/Documents/Zoom/, consider these strategies:

• Upload to the Zoom cloud — Zoom Pro and higher plans include cloud recording. Open the desktop client, go to Recordings, select a local recording, and choose Convert then upload. Once confirmed on the cloud, delete the local copy.
• Archive to an external drive — Simply drag meeting folders from ~/Documents/Zoom/ to an external SSD or NAS. The folder structure Zoom creates (date + meeting name) makes it easy to retrieve later.
• Change the default save location — In Zoom Settings → Recording, click Change next to the local recording path and point it at an external volume. Future recordings land there automatically and never consume internal SSD space.
• Enable cloud recording by default — In your Zoom account settings on the web (zoom.us/profile/setting), enable Automatic recording to cloud. This prevents local files from accumulating at all.

What Will You Actually Lose?

This is the question most users have before they delete anything. Here is an honest breakdown:

• Cache folders — Zoom rebuilds these automatically. You lose nothing except having to wait a few extra seconds on the first call while avatars and UI assets re-download.
• Log files — Useful only if you are debugging a connection issue with Zoom support. Deleting them has no functional impact.
• Virtual backgrounds — Any custom image or video you imported will be gone from the picker. You can re-import them if needed.
• Local recordings — These are permanent. Zoom does not back them up anywhere. Delete only after you have confirmed backups.
• Settings — If you delete the entire ~/Library/Application Support/zoom.us/ folder (not just the cache subfolders), Zoom resets all preferences: audio/video settings, background noise suppression, keyboard shortcuts, and calendar integrations. Avoid this unless you specifically want a full reset.

How Much Space Can You Expect to Recover?

Results vary widely depending on how heavily you use Zoom and how long it has been since you last cleaned up. Users who record calls locally and never prune them can reclaim 10–30 GB. For a typical user who just wants to clear caches and logs without touching recordings, expect 300 MB to 2 GB. Either way, it is worth checking — understanding what is taking up space on your Mac across all apps often reveals Zoom as one of the top three offenders alongside Xcode derived data and browser caches.

Preventing Zoom Storage from Creeping Back

Clearing Zoom storage is not a one-time fix unless you change a few defaults:

• Disable local recording — In Zoom Settings → Recording, uncheck Local Recording if you do not need it. Hosts can still record to the cloud.
• Set a calendar reminder to prune recordings monthly — Open ~/Documents/Zoom/ once a month, archive what you want, and delete the rest.
• Keep only the backgrounds you use — Virtual background videos are large. Zoom stores a copy of every file you import, so import only what you actually use.
• Run a periodic cache audit — A tool like Crumb can audit all of these folders at once and show you exactly what is safe to delete before anything is removed, making the monthly cleanup faster and less error-prone.

Zoom vs. Other Communication Apps: Cache Comparison

For context, here is how Zoom's storage footprint compares to other popular communication apps on macOS. These figures represent active business users after six months of use:

If you want a broader look at how cache files work on a Mac and which apps tend to be the worst offenders, that guide covers the underlying mechanics in detail.

Quick Reference: Zoom Folders to Clean

Bookmark this short list for your next cleanup session:

• ~/Library/Caches/us.zoom.xos/ — safe to delete entirely
• ~/Library/Logs/zoom.us/ — safe to delete entirely
• ~/Library/Application Support/zoom.us/logs/ — safe to delete
• ~/Library/Application Support/zoom.us/CrashPad/ — safe to delete
• ~/Library/Application Support/zoom.us/data/VirtualBkgnd_Custom/ — delete unused backgrounds
• ~/Documents/Zoom/ — back up first, then delete old meeting folders

With the cache and logs cleared, Zoom will feel just as responsive — it rebuilds what it needs on the next launch — and your SSD will have meaningfully more room for everything else.