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Guide

How to clear the Capture One cache on a Mac

Capture 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.

Where the cache lives

  • Catalog: inside the catalog itself. Right-click the .cocatalog file, choose Show Package Contents and open Cache.
  • Session: in the CaptureOne folder inside each image folder of the session, in a folder named Cache.

It holds Thumbnails (.cot), Previews (.cop) and focus masks (.cof).

Where Capture One keeps thumbnails and previews in a catalog or session.

Delete it

  1. Quit Capture One.
  2. Open the Cache folder as shown above and move its contents to the Trash.
  3. Open the catalog or session. Capture One builds previews again as you browse, which is slower at first.

What not to delete

Keep the Settings folders of a session (named like Settings166). Capture One never changes your raw files, so every adjustment is stored there. Keep the .cosessiondb and .cocatalog files too. When you back up a session, you can leave out Cache and Trash.

Make previews smaller

Previews are made at the size set in Capture One > Settings > Image > Preview Image Size. Capture One recommends matching your display, such as 3840 px for a 4K screen. To apply a new size to existing images, select them, right-click and choose Regenerate Previews.

The faster way: Caretaker

Caretaker clears Capture One's caches in ~/Library/Caches and shows how much they take. It also finds large files and duplicate files across your drives. Caches are deleted for good, since Capture One makes them again; large and duplicate files go to the Trash first and can be restored for 90 days.

Caretaker's Clean page: safe to clear, system junk and creative app caches, in dots.
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Questions

Will deleting the Capture One cache delete my edits?

No. Edits are in the catalog or the session's Settings folders. The cache only holds thumbnails and previews.

Why is my Capture One catalog so big?

The catalog package includes the Cache folder with a preview of every image. A large Preview Image Size makes it bigger.