srustom wrote:
I need expert opinion about the role of the Application support direcotry and if it is important to keep all those directories or i can delete them from time to time?
Is there a way to automatically to empty Application support directory from time to time?
For example, i have ZOOM app installed on my laptop and I deleted its folder from application support. Will this will affect the application and I might need to reinstall it ?
Is there a difference between Application support and cache directories please?
Only delete folders from the Application Support folder for apps you no longer use and don't plan to use unless you are going to install it again. Do not delete anything else in this folder and there could be dire consequences to your apps if it were automatically deleted from time to time.
If you deleted a folder from here for an app you use, such as Zoom, then yes you should reinstall Zoom. Each app chooses what they want to include in their Application Support folder and it will depend on the app how it responds after the information it is expected to find is not missing.
There is a difference between the Cache and Application Support folder. The Cache folder is temporary and the app expects that the information that has been saved there may soon be gone. The Application Support folder is not temporary and the applications saves information there for it to function properly and expects it to be there. The app may crash or simply not allow for a feature that you would normally expect from the app.
It depends on the app what it will put there and you do not have any control over that. For example Adobe products likes to put pics and clip art that can be imported into your projects. Without the data, you would have nothing to import. Microsoft saves templates for documents such as Word, so if you created a new Word document, you would not be able to use any of the templates and could only start a document from scratch.
