activity monitor showing cached files even after deleting them what should i do

Activity monitor it's showing more cached files even after deleting

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.4

Posted on Apr 24, 2025 3:09 AM

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Posted on Apr 24, 2025 4:47 AM

It seems that you may be confusing “cached files” as shown in Activity Monitor, with “cache files”. You can delete the latter but not the former.

The “cached files” mentioned in Activity Monitor are files that were used and the OS keeps in memory, to permit quicker access if they are used again. You should not try to free memory because the OS manages it, and using anything that tries to free or purge memory works against the OS and may result in worse performance and crashes.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 24, 2025 4:47 AM in response to _Chaitanya_

It seems that you may be confusing “cached files” as shown in Activity Monitor, with “cache files”. You can delete the latter but not the former.

The “cached files” mentioned in Activity Monitor are files that were used and the OS keeps in memory, to permit quicker access if they are used again. You should not try to free memory because the OS manages it, and using anything that tries to free or purge memory works against the OS and may result in worse performance and crashes.

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activity monitor showing cached files even after deleting them what should i do

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