How to clear DaVinci Resolve's cache on a Mac

Where the cache actually is

Resolve writes render cache and optimized media into the first location listed under DaVinci Resolve → Preferences → System → Media Storage. On a fresh install that's your Movies folder, so the files end up in ~/Movies/CacheClip and ~/Movies/ProxyMedia. If you've pointed a project somewhere else, the per-project location is under Project Settings → Master Settings → Working Folders.

Two things live next to each other there and only one of them is disposable. CacheClip is render cache — Resolve rebuilds it automatically the next time you play the timeline. ProxyMedia is regenerable too, but re-rendering proxies takes real time, so treat it as a second-tier cleanup. The Gallery folder is not cache at all: it holds your saved grades and stills. Leave it alone.

The manual way

1. Open the project and choose Playback → Delete Render Cache → All. (Unused keeps cache for clips still on the timeline.)
2. For optimized media, Playback → Delete Optimized Media.
3. Quit Resolve, then check ~/Movies/CacheClip in Finder. Resolve sometimes leaves .dvcc files behind after the menu command — those can go in the Trash.
4. Empty the Trash. macOS doesn't free the space until you do.

Do this per project, and do it while the app is closed if you're deleting from Finder. Clearing a cache underneath a running session is how you get a beachball.

What you should never delete

Your project database (~/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve), the Gallery stills, and anything in your actual media folders. Cache is only the stuff Resolve can rebuild on its own — render cache, optimized media, proxies, and the app's own cache folder in ~/Library/Caches.

The one-click way

I got tired of doing the above every few weeks, for Resolve and for After Effects, Premiere, Photoshop and Lightroom on top. So I wrote CacheCut. It reads Resolve's cache location straight from Resolve's own settings — so it finds the cache even when it lives on a separate scratch drive — measures every cache folder it knows about, and moves them to the Trash in one click. Nothing is deleted outright, gallery stills and projects are never touched, and if Resolve is still open it brings the app to the front so you can quit it first.

Two users sent me their first scans: 101 GB and 85 GB of cache they didn't know they had. How cool is that?