[vja4him]

According to MacAddict, October 2005, page 20, it is a good idea to clear out the caches. They specifically recommend to clear out the two main cache folders in Mac OS X: 1) /Library/Caches, and 2) /username/Library/Caches.

Before I clear out all those cache folders, I thought I'd ask for advice. Thanks.

-- vjamacaddict

[Barry]

If your computer is slowing down or giving you trouble, clearing out the caches is one of the things to try. If your computer is working OK, no need to clear anything. if you don't leave your computer on in a non sleep state overnight, download and run a program like Onyx or MacJanitor to run the nightly maintenance scripts. There are nightly, weekly and monthly scripts.

[alphasubzero949]

CLIX

Very useful for not only cleaning caches and performing other tasks, but helping you to learn the actual commands.

[jay3ld]

Originally Posted by Barry

If your computer is slowing down or giving you trouble, clearing out the caches is one of the things to try. If your computer is working OK, no need to clear anything. if you don't leave your computer on in a non sleep state overnight, download and run a program like Onyx or MacJanitor to run the nightly maintenance scripts. There are nightly, weekly and monthly scripts.

my computer goes to sleep after about 1/2 hour of non use...
could i set Energy Saver to automatically start my computer up at 2:45 and then put it back to sleep at 5?? this way allowing it to run those scripts?

[CharlesS]

Cleaning caches is, for the most part, something you should only do if you are experiencing problems. For example, if you are having problems with icons not showing up correctly or documents not finding the applications they are supposed to open with, then it might be a good idea to clear out the LaunchServices cache. However, if you are not having problems, you should not do this, because clearing the LaunchServices cache will delete all stored information about the applications on your system and what document types they can open. It will also clear all your default document-application binding preferences. For example, if you have .doc set to open with MS Word as the default application, clearing the LaunchServices cache may cause it to default back to TextEdit. Additionally, any other default applications you may have set will be cleared. So if everything is working fine, I'd recommend leaving the caches alone.