Why are cache.db and other cache files appearing on my main Hard Drive?

Question

Why are cache.db and other cache files appearing on my main Hard Drive?

Is this something with the Safari 6.2 update? Why are these files suddenly appearing on my top level Hard Drive? If they are something that Safari uses and has used the past 10 years or whatever, fine-- but I don't want them appearing on my main HD.

Thanks for any comments on how to eliminate them and whether anyone else seeing this.

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Monday 13 October 2014

10:17 - CDT USA

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), Also Mac SE running 6.0.4-love it!

Posted on Oct 13, 2014 8:18 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 15, 2014 12:30 PM in response to Stephen Schulte1

Well I installed Safari 6.1.6 and that didn't solve anything. WHY IN THE WORLD ARE THESE 3 CACHE FILES APPEARING ON MY TOP LEVEL HD -- instead of in the caches folder in my user folder/home folder/library----- DRIVING ME CRAZY!

If I do not delete them they seem to stay and not update. BUT if I trash them--- new ones appear -- seems I need to be connected to the www in order for that to happen--- SEEMS to be related to Safari but not 100% certain…

REALLY COULD USE SOME HELP or suggestions here.

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Wednesday 15 October 2014

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Answer 2

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Oct 15, 2014 12:51 PM in response to Stephen Schulte1

Can you work out when the files are created?

Delete them, reboot. See if they re-appear when logging in. Make sure NO apps are set to open on login.
Give it a few minutes & then open Safari - does that make them appear?
Create a new user (in System Preferences > Users & groups), login as that user & see if they also reappear (delete them before you logout).
Reboot into safe mode - see if they reappear
Try each user in Safe mode to see if there is any difference.

OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?

What this will tell you…

A login or startup item may be the cause?
Is Safari is the actual culprit?
Is it only in your account (login items may be the reason)
Safe boot disables many non-essential extensions & startup items - if it stops you need to look for what starts in a normal boot.
Ditto for the above, but with some extra info on which user it effects.

I don't think 'cache.DB' is only used by Safari, other apps may be responsible.

Don'at forget to disable all Safari extensions & retest if it looks like the culprit.

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Answer 3

Oct 15, 2014 12:57 PM in response to Drew Reece

Thanks for the detailed reply, Drew. I will not mark helpful now, I'll wait and hopefully can mark SOLVED shortly-- (don't think we can do both for the same person).

OK I have tried some of these things already but certainly not all. Just need some time to do this-- it may be the weekend… I'll try the reboot without any apps set to open now--

Thanks and again, more soon and I will follow-up here!

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Wednesday 15 October 2014

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Answer 4

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Oct 15, 2014 2:17 PM in response to Stephen Schulte1

No problem take your time 🙂

Post back if you want help with any of those steps. Maybe someone will post with experience of this too.

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Answer 5

Oct 16, 2014 1:00 PM in response to Drew Reece

Here's an interesting quick-thing I did: I made 3 new folders and each has the same name as the cache files. Those files sit there as folders and don't get replaced. BUT if I take one away (or 2 or 3) then the ones I remove are soon replaced by the cache file of the same name.

Weirder than weird--- I'll do what you suggested later this week or weekend-- just gotta solve this.

I sure hope Yosemite preserves window sizes and other cmd-J "window options" better than ML. I have many folders that I have to reset to icon view etc. etc. 1--2x/day! What a pain but that is another post…

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Answer 6

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Oct 16, 2014 4:40 PM in response to Stephen Schulte1

Run Disk Utility on the disk & see if reports any errors, I'd use recovery mode to be able to repair any reported errors, use the First Aid tab to run both the permissions & the verify/repair tasks.

It is possible to list open files, the 'lsof' command will do that in Terminal. It could indicate what process created it, but it is complex & the normal output is overwhelming. How are you in Terminal?

Otherwise fseventer will give you a GUI of filesystem changes.

http://fernlightning.com/doku.php?id=software%3Afseventer%3Astart

It may be simpler to try look at what is stored in the db file. It could be a sqlite database.

There are several SQLite readers on the App store, or grab http://sqlitebrowser.org

Browse the data, look through the various tables & see if you can get any idea on what could be creating that. Bear in mind it may include browsing or other history so take care if you post any screenshots or data from it.

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