Where After Effects hides its disk cache on a Mac, and how to empty it

Where it is

After Effects keeps its disk cache at ~/Library/Caches/Adobe/After Effects/, in a folder named after your version and your Mac. The Library folder is hidden by default — in Finder, hold Option and open the Go menu to see it. The cache grows every time you preview a comp, up to the limit set in Preferences, and on 4K motion-graphics work it reaches hundreds of gigabytes without you doing anything unusual.

There's a second cache that most guides skip: the media cache shared by After Effects, Premiere Pro, Media Encoder and Audition, at ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/. Those are the peak files and conformed audio, and they pile up separately.

The manual way

1. After Effects → Settings → Media & Disk Cache.
2. Click Empty Disk Cache. This clears the preview cache for every project, not just the open one.
3. Click Clean Database & Cache for the shared media cache. Premiere has its own version of the same button under Settings → Media Cache → Delete.
4. While you're there, lower Maximum Disk Cache Size if the default is bigger than you can spare.
5. Empty the Trash.

All of this is safe. Cache is rebuilt as you work; your projects, footage and renders aren't involved.

The one-click way

CacheCut checks the After Effects disk cache, the shared Adobe media cache and database, Media Encoder's cache and Premiere's, alongside DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop, Lightroom and Capture One — then shows you the size per app and moves it all to the Trash in one click. It won't clear a cache while the owning app is open; it brings the app to the front instead so you can quit it first.