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Paul
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: New York City
 
2004-05-30, 18:02

Optimizing Cached Safari Files (if Safari has gotten really slow): by Paul

Safari stores its cache in a folder in your library at ~/Library/Safari/ . Inside this folder should be four files and one folder.

The Bookmarks.plist file is where your bookmarks are stored and should be backed up.

The Downloads.plist file is where a history of your recent downloads is stored. You can easily purge this file by using the "clear" button in the downloads window of Safari.

The Form Values file is where autofill values are stored. This file can get very large after filling out a lot of forms online and can lead to slowdowns when selecting forms on webpages. This file can be periodically trimmed by going to the autofill prefpane within safari and editing "Usernames and passwords" or "Other forms". The former is listed by the webpage and user name while the latter is grouped by domain. Be sure to only delete items that you are sure you will not need.

The History.plist file is where your browsing history is kept. This file can easily be purged by using the clear history command in the history menu.

The Icons folder is where a cache of every website favicon (the little picture at the beginning of a web address) that you have ever loaded on your computer. This folder gets extremely large and can cause slowdowns while browsing. It is recommended to try and keep this folder under control as it can easily balloon to thousands of files and 10-20 megs in size (each file is tiny, a few k). One option would be to periodically delete the folder (just move it to the trash). But a better one is to delete all of the subfolders and then make the Icons folder read only.

To do this open the empty folder in the finder and "GetInfo" on it (command-I) and go to the "Details:" tab in "Ownership & Permissions:"
click the lock to authenticate and change the Owner's Access to "Read only". From now on this folder should stay empty and you shouldn't have to worry about keeping it clean.

This is only a temporary fix and could be modified in future updates of Safari but as of 10.3.4 this tweak will work perfectly.

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People really have got to stop thinking there is only one operating system, one economic system, one religion, and one business model. -EvilTwinSkippy (/.)

Last edited by Paul : 2004-05-30 at 18:39.
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