After Effects Disk Cache Folder (Adobe After Effects Disk Cache)

Bottom Line: It is 100% safe to empty the After Effects Disk Cache. Clearing it will NOT delete your .aep project files, compositions, motion graphics templates, or raw video assets.

What is the After Effects Disk Cache Folder?

Located at %LocalAppData%\Adobe\After Effects (or custom scratch drive location), Adobe After Effects Disk Cache is created when rendering motion graphics, 3D elements, and visual effects.

When you press Spacebar to preview compositions in After Effects, the application renders preview frames and caches them to disk so playback is real-time. Because high-resolution motion graphics contain raw uncompressed video frames, working on a few projects will fill the disk cache up to 50 GB, 100 GB, or 200 GB+.

Can You Delete After Effects Disk Cache?

✅ Yes, it is completely safe to delete.

• No project damage: Your project files, assets, expression scripts, and plugins are completely safe.
• Official Adobe feature: After Effects includes a dedicated menu command specifically to empty this disk cache safely.

How to Safely Clean Up After Effects Disk Cache

Method 1: Empty Disk Cache inside After Effects (Recommended)

1. Open Adobe After Effects.
2. Go to top menu: Edit > Purge > All Memory & Disk Cache… (or After Effects > Purge > All Memory & Disk Cache on Mac).
3. Click OK to confirm emptying the disk cache.

Method 2: Limit Maximum Disk Cache Size

To stop After Effects from hoarding hundreds of gigabytes in the future:

1. In After Effects, go to Edit > Preferences > Media & Disk Cache.
2. Under Disk Cache, adjust Maximum Disk Cache Size to 20 GB or 30 GB.
3. Click OK.

Related Guides

• Learn about deleting Photoshop Scratch Disks.
• How to clean up Premiere Pro Scratch Disks.
• Check if you can clean DaVinci Resolve CacheClip.