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Guides.
Free up space, clear the caches of creative apps, get back an earlier version of a project, and keep your footage safe on a Mac.
Creative app caches.
How to clear the Premiere Pro media cache on a MacPremiere Pro keeps conformed audio, waveforms and indexes for every clip you've ever imported. Over months that can be tens of gigabytes. All of it is made again when needed.How to empty the After Effects disk cache on a MacAfter Effects saves rendered frames to disk so playback is faster next time. By default it can use 10% of the disk, up to 100 GB.How to delete the DaVinci Resolve render cache on a MacDaVinci Resolve renders effects and grades into a cache so playback stays smooth. The cache and optimized media sit in a CacheClip folder that can grow very large.How to delete Final Cut Pro render filesFinal Cut Pro keeps render files, optimized media and proxies inside each library. Deleting them can free tens of gigabytes. Your original media stays.How to clear the Lightroom Classic cache on a MacLightroom Classic keeps two kinds of files you can clear: the Camera Raw cache, 5 GB by default, and the previews stored next to your catalog. Previews often grow far larger than the cache.How to fix "scratch disks are full" in Photoshop on a MacPhotoshop writes to a scratch disk when it runs out of memory. The error means that disk, usually your startup disk, has too little free space left. The fix is more space or another disk.How to delete old Adobe app versions on a MacWhen an Adobe app updates to a new year's version, the old one can stay installed beside it. Each copy of Premiere Pro, After Effects or Photoshop takes several gigabytes.How to clear Blender cache and temp files on a MacBlender itself keeps little cache. The space goes to bakes saved next to your .blend files, backup copies like .blend1, and temporary files. Each is cleared differently.How to clear the Ableton Live cache on a MacWhen you use an MP3 or other compressed file, Live decodes it to an uncompressed WAV and keeps it in its decoding cache. Live deletes old files on its own, but the cache can still grow large.How to free up space from the Logic Pro sound library on a MacWith every sound pack downloaded, Logic Pro's sound library takes tens of gigabytes. You can delete packs you don't use, or move the whole library to an external drive.How to clear the Capture One cache on a MacCapture One keeps thumbnails and previews of every image in a Cache folder. Capture One says it can be deleted: it rebuilds the files the next time you view the images, and your edits stay.
Get back an earlier version.
How to recover a previous version of a Photoshop file on a MacAfter a crash, Photoshop reopens the recovery data it saved, by default every 10 minutes. It doesn't keep older versions of a local PSD you saved over. For that you need Time Machine or a cloud document.How to recover a Premiere Pro project from Auto SavePremiere Pro saves a copy of your project every 5 minutes and keeps the last 20, in an Auto-Save folder next to the project. Each copy is a full .prproj you can open.How to recover an After Effects project from Auto-SaveAfter Effects saves a copy of your project every 20 minutes by default and keeps 5, in a folder named Adobe After Effects Auto-Save next to the project. It starts after your first manual save.How to recover an Illustrator file on a MacAfter a crash, Illustrator reopens unsaved files with Recovered in the name. If they don't appear, the backups are in a DataRecovery folder in your user Library.How to recover an InDesign file on a MacInDesign saves your changes to a recovery folder about once a minute. After a crash, restart InDesign and it reopens the document with [Recovered] in the title bar.How to recover an Ableton Live Set from a backupAbleton Live keeps the last ten saved versions of each Set in a Backup folder inside the Project folder. Each one has the date and time in brackets after the Set's name.How to recover a Blender file from Auto SaveBlender saves a backup of your file every 2 minutes by default, and keeps the previous save as a .blend1 next to your file. Both can be opened from Blender.How to restore a DaVinci Resolve project backupDaVinci Resolve can save a backup of each project at set times, but only if Project Backups is on in Preferences. Backups are restored from the Project Manager.
Disk space.
Why is System Data so big on my Mac, and how to reduce itIn Storage settings, System Data is everything that doesn't fit another category: caches, logs, local snapshots, and files apps keep for themselves. It can reach a hundred gigabytes.How to find large files on a MacA few large files often take more space than thousands of small ones. macOS can list them for you in Storage settings, and Finder and Terminal can search by size.How to find duplicate files on a MacmacOS doesn't come with a duplicate file finder. Finder can help you spot likely copies, and a checksum tells you for sure. Photos has its own Duplicates view for your library.How to uninstall apps completely on a MacMoving an app to the Trash removes the app, but not the settings, caches and support files it saved in your Library. Those can take more space than the app itself.How to delete Time Machine local snapshots on a MacTime Machine saves a snapshot of your startup disk about every hour and keeps it for 24 hours. macOS deletes them as space is needed, but you can remove them yourself.How to remove downloaded iCloud Drive files from a MacWhen you open a file in iCloud Drive, a copy stays on your Mac. Remove Download deletes that copy and keeps the file in iCloud. Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive work the same way.How to delete Xcode DerivedData and old simulators on a MacXcode keeps build files in DerivedData, a simulator for every device and OS you've used, and runtimes for each OS version. Together they can take over a hundred gigabytes.How to free up Docker disk space on a MacDocker Desktop keeps every image, container, volume and build cache in one large disk image on your Mac. It grows as you pull and build, and doesn't shrink by itself.
Drives and footage.
How to offload camera cards safely on a MacA copy that looks complete can still hold a broken file. You only find out in the edit, after the card is formatted. Verification checks every file before you do.How to test an SSD or external drive's speed on a MacThe speed printed on the box is a best case. To know what a drive does on your Mac, with your cable and port, write and read a few gigabytes and time it.What SSD speed do you need for 4K and 8K video editing?One stream of 4K ProRes 422 HQ at 30 fps is 884 Mb/s, about 110 MB/s, by Apple's figures. The drive has to keep up with every stream you play at once, with room to spare.How to archive a video project to an external driveCopying the project file alone leaves the media behind. Each editing app has a command that gathers the project and the media it uses into one place you can copy.
Fonts, plug-ins and handoff.
How to collect all files of a Premiere Pro project into one folderA Premiere Pro project only points to media, which can sit on several drives. Project Manager copies the project and the media its sequences use into one folder.How to package an InDesign fileFile > Package copies an InDesign document, its linked images and its fonts into one folder, so a printer or colleague can open it with nothing missing.How to delete duplicate fonts on a MacTwo copies of one font can make apps pick the wrong version or show fonts as missing. Font Book finds duplicates and checks fonts for damage.How to find and fix missing fonts in InDesign and Illustrator on a MacWhen a document uses a font your Mac doesn't have, InDesign and Illustrator show a Missing Fonts dialog and draw the text in a substitute. Fix it before you print or export.How to find missing plug-ins in an Ableton Live SetWhen a Live Set uses a plug-in that isn't on your Mac, Live still opens the set and tells you which plug-ins it couldn't find. Those devices stay in place but don't play.
Speed and health.
How to keep a Mac awake during a long export or renderA Mac goes to sleep when it's idle, and a long export can count as idle. Turn off automatic sleep for the night, or keep the Mac awake for exactly as long as the export runs.Why is my Mac slow, and how to fix itA slow Mac usually has one cause you can see: an app using the processor, memory pressure, a nearly full disk, or Spotlight indexing after an update. Activity Monitor shows most of them.How to remove login items on a MacLogin items are apps that open when you log in. Background items are helpers that run even when their app is closed. You turn off both in System Settings.How to find what woke your Mac from sleepmacOS logs every wake and its reason. One Terminal command shows what woke your Mac, and when.How to flush the DNS cache on a MacYour Mac remembers the address of every website it looks up. If a site moved, that memory can point to the old address. Flushing it makes the Mac look up each site again.How to rebuild the Spotlight index on a MacIf Spotlight can't find files you know are there, rebuild its index. Adding the disk to Spotlight's privacy list and removing it again makes macOS index it from scratch.How to check battery health on a MacBookmacOS shows battery health in System Settings and the cycle count in System Information. Apple designs a Mac battery to keep up to 80% of its original capacity at its maximum cycle count.How to check your Mac for adwareAdware on a Mac usually arrives with a free download and hides in four places: a configuration profile, a browser extension, a login item, or an app you didn't mean to install.
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