How To Clear the Spotify Cache

William Stanton Read more May 1, 2022

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If you use Spotify regularly, you have probably noticed your hard drive filling up even though you haven’t downloaded anything new. That’s because Spotify caches files on your computer to allow its app to run faster. While this is very convenient, it can become a problem if you’re always low on disk space.

In this article, you will learn more about cache memory, find out how Spotify uses it to improve its service and discover tips to clear the Spotify cache on your computer or phone.

What Is Cache Memory?

In computing, cache memory represents the portion of the total storage space which is used by software (or even hardware) to store certain data in order to speed up the data extraction process. In other words, cache memory allows the software to retrieve the information that you have requested faster, simply by storing and “remembering” data while you are using the software.

Although cache memory helps software run more smoothly, it can significantly slow down your computer, tablet, or mobile device after a while. As you can guess, problems occur when the cache memory isn’t cleaned.

Since Spotify is one of the most popular digital music services nowadays, its users should know how to clean its cache. Otherwise, it can “eat” their device’s storage, leaving them with insufficient space to install new software. If you’d like to offload all of your downloaded songs rather than clear the cache we have an article on that here.

How Does Spotify Use Your Device’s Memory?

Spotify uses the available memory for two reasons. The first reason is to store temporary music, or snippets of music for streaming, also known as caching.

The second reason is to store the downloaded music in case you use Spotify Premium and want to have your library available for offline streaming.

Of course, we are interested in the first reason, so let’s explain it a bit further.

Whenever you stream a song from Spotify, the software will store the track somewhere in your device’s memory. By doing this, Spotify will be able to play that same song from the cache memory directly instead of connecting and streaming it from the server.

This means that the more you use Spotify, the less memory your device will have. That’s why cleaning your device’s cache memory every now and then is necessary.

The following section will show you how.

Cleaning the Spotify Cache

Since Spotify is available for almost all operating systems, the steps to clean your Spotify cache depend on the OS your device is running.

Clear Spotify Cache on Mac

If your device is running macOS, you will need to take the following steps to delete the Spotify cache:

Open Finder and click ‘Go’ at the top of your Mac. Then click ‘Computer.’

Double-click on your Macintosh and select ‘Users.’ Then select which profile you’re clearing the cache on.

Select the Library folder.

Search for the Cache folder and open it.

Look for “com.spotify.client”.

Delete the folder located inside “com.spotify.client”. You can drag and drop this to the trash bin, or use Control+click to access the menu to delete the file.

In case you also want to clear the offline files cache, you should follow these steps:

Go into Library.
Select Application Support.
Click on Spotify.
Delete the “watch-sources.bnk” file.

Clear Spotify Cache on Windows

Windows users can get Spotify either from the streamer’s official website or from the Windows store. The cache deletion process will depend on where you have downloaded your version of Spotify from.

If you have downloaded Spotify from the official website, do the following:

Go to your local disk (usually labeled C).
Select Users.
Select your username folder.
Click on AppData and choose Local.
In the Local folder, click on Spotify.
Delete the Storage folder.

If you got the app from the Windows Store, here’s what to do:

Type “%appdata%” into your computer’s search bar.
In the address bar, click on AppData then select Local.
Click on Packages.
Select SpotifyAB.SpotifyMusic_zpdnekdrzrea0.
Open LocalCache and enter the Spotify folder.
Open Data.
Delete all files and folders found in the Data folder.

Clear Spotify Cache on iPhone

In order to clear the Spotify cache, you will need to visit your phone’s Settings and tap General. Tap iPhone Storage, and locate ‘Spotify.‘ Tap it and select ‘Offload App.’

As with clearing the cache on other devices, this will remove any unnecessary stored files and data. Performing these steps shouldn’t remove any of your playlists within the app or your login credentials.

Assuming you’re still having an issue with Spotify’s storage you can delete and reinstall the app brand new, but you will need to sign in again.

Clear Spotify Cache on Android

If you are an Android user, do the following to clear your Spotify app cache:

Go to Settings on your phone and tap on Apps (or Applications depending on the version of Android OS).
Locate and tap on Spotify.
Tap ‘Storage.’
Tap ‘Clear Cache.’

Similar to the iOS instructions above, doing this will not remove your login credentials (but the ‘Clear Data’ option will). If you continue to have storage issues with Spotify, clear the data or delete and reinstall the app altogether.

Clear Cache in Spotify

You can also clear the Spotify cache from within the application. The instructions vary slightly depending on which OS you’re using but they start the same.

Open Spotify and tap on the Settings cog in the upper right-hand corner.

If you’re using iOS tap ‘Storage.’ Then, tap ‘Delete Cache.’

If you’re using an Android tap ‘Clear Cache.’

Free More Space on Your Device

Regardless of what device you are using, ensuring that there’s always enough storage space is crucial if you want the device to work properly.

Like every single piece of software that you run on your device, Spotify relies on memory to deliver optimal service without taking up too much of your bandwidth. Whether you’re looking to free up storage space or delete songs you’ve downloaded for offline listening, you can do so by clearing the Spotify cache.