How to Clear the Mac App Store Cache

The Mac App Store is one of those apps you only think about when it stops working. Stuck on “Loading…”, downloads frozen at 0%, updates not showing — the usual symptoms. Most of these are cache problems, and clearing them is faster than waiting for Apple to fix whatever’s stuck on their end.

Here’s the actual cache layout for the App Store on macOS Sonoma 14 and Sequoia 15, plus the commands that work when the app itself is misbehaving.

Where the App Store caches data

The App Store on Mac uses several cache locations:

• ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore/ — primary cache
• ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstoreagent/ — App Store agent cache
• ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.commerce/ — purchase processing cache
• ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.storeagent/ — store agent cache
• ~/Library/Application Support/App Store/ — app data
• /private/var/folders/ — system-level App Store cache (harder to find, paths include random hashes)

System-level paths use temporary identifiers, so they’re not predictable. The user-level caches above are where the manual clearing focuses.

The fastest fix: Cmd+Option+R

If the App Store is just not loading content, try this first:

1. Open the App Store.
2. Hold Cmd+Option+R while clicking on the Featured or storefront.
3. The App Store reloads and refetches its data.

This is Apple’s built-in soft refresh. It clears the in-memory cache and reloads from Apple’s servers. About 60% of “App Store stuck” problems resolve here.

Manual cache clear

If Cmd+Option+R doesn’t help:

1. Quit the App Store (Cmd+Q).
2. Open Finder, press Cmd+Shift+G.
3. Paste ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore/.
4. Move everything inside to the Trash.
5. Repeat for ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstoreagent/ and ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.commerce/.
6. Empty Trash.
7. Reopen the App Store.

The App Store rebuilds the cache by fetching from Apple’s servers. You stay signed in.

The Terminal command for stuck downloads

If apps are stuck downloading or updating, the cliutil that ships with macOS can help:

killall storeaccountd
killall storedownloadd  
killall storelegacy

Run those from Terminal. They kill the background daemons that handle App Store downloads. macOS automatically restarts them, often unsticking whatever was frozen.

If a specific download is wedged:

1. In the App Store, find the stuck download.
2. Click the X to cancel.
3. Restart the download.

If the cancel doesn’t work, the kill commands above usually help.

Skip the manual huntSweep clears every cache across every app in one pass — Slack, Spotify, Discord, browsers, and the rest. Download Sweep free →

Clearing the App Store update cache

If updates aren’t showing, or apps that should have updates show “Open” instead of “Update”:

1. Quit App Store.
2. Run in Terminal: defaults delete com.apple.appstore
3. Reopen App Store.
4. Click your name in the bottom-left → check for updates.

The defaults command resets App Store preferences, including the updates cache. You may need to re-set things like notification preferences afterward, but the updates list will be fresh.

When the App Store won’t open at all

Rare but happens:

1. Restart your Mac. Always worth trying.
2. Check date and time. If your Mac’s clock is way off, App Store won’t authenticate.
3. Apple System Status: status.apple.com — verify the App Store service isn’t down.
4. Sign out of App Store → sign back in.
5. As a last resort, create a new test user account on your Mac and try opening the App Store there. If it works, the problem is profile-specific.

Clearing the receipt cache

App Store apps validate against receipts. Sometimes those get corrupted. If you’re seeing apps repeatedly “verifying” or refusing to launch:

1. Quit the affected app.
2. Right-click the app in /Applications → Show Package Contents.
3. Navigate to Contents/_MASReceipt/.
4. Don’t manually delete the receipt — but knowing it exists helps when troubleshooting.

For receipt issues, the standard fix is reinstalling from the App Store (Purchased tab), which refreshes the receipt.

There’s a faster waySweep finds and clears caches across every app you use, all at once. Try Sweep free →

Network considerations

App Store problems are sometimes network problems pretending to be cache problems. Quick checks:

1. VPN: disable temporarily — App Store sometimes routes incorrectly through VPNs.
2. DNS: try switching to 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 in System Settings → Network → Advanced → DNS.
3. Firewall: check if your firewall is blocking storeaccountd or storedownloadd.
4. Proxy: corporate proxies can interfere with App Store connections.

If the cache clear doesn’t help and the network is fine, the issue might be on Apple’s end. Wait an hour and try again.

Resetting the entire App Store cache nuclear option

If everything else has failed:

1. Quit App Store.
2. Open Terminal.
3. Run: rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore/
4. Run: rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstoreagent/
5. Run: rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.commerce/
6. Run: rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.storeagent/
7. Run: defaults delete com.apple.appstore
8. Restart your Mac.
9. Open App Store and sign back in.

This is a full reset. The App Store will re-cache everything from scratch.

How much space does the App Store cache take?

Not much, surprisingly. Even on heavy users with lots of installed apps, the App Store caches usually total under 500MB combined. The bigger storage issue is usually leftover installer packages from Apple updates, which live elsewhere:

• ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate/ — old update downloads (can be GB)

To check: du -sh ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate/

If that folder is several GB, it’s old macOS update installers Apple already used and forgot to clean up. Safe to clear.

When clearing the cache helps

• App Store stuck on “Loading…”
• Downloads frozen at 0%
• Updates not showing
• “Featured” tab not loading
• Search returning no results

When it doesn’t help: Apple ID issues, payment method problems, content unavailable in your region, or genuine outages on Apple’s side.

How often to clean

The App Store cache isn’t worth proactively cleaning on a schedule — it doesn’t grow unboundedly. Clear it when you have a problem.

Other macOS system caches accumulate more steadily. The Software Update cache is the worst offender for size.

Worth automating?

For just the App Store cache, no — clear it manually when you have an issue.

For the broader macOS cache hygiene (Software Update leftovers, system caches, app caches across your installed apps), automating saves real time. Sweep covers all of these in a single scan, including the system-level caches Apple keeps in places that aren’t easy to find. Free download for macOS Sonoma 14 and Sequoia 15.

Bottom line

App Store cache lives in ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore/ and a few related folders. The fastest fix is Cmd+Option+R inside the App Store. If that fails, kill the background daemons (killall storeaccountd) or clear the cache folders manually.

The cache itself is small. The fix is usually about unsticking state, not freeing space.