Background
I actively use my MacBook Pro for development, and I need to update Xcode. My Mac is starting to max out on the data that I have stored on it (512GB). I only have 19GB free.
I have CleanMyMac installed and I run the scan and it says to "Clean Up Junk" which mostly consists of 32GB of User Cache. If you would like a screenshot of the output from the scan, feel free to let me know and I can attach it.
Question:
Is it safe to say remove this? I have read articles where people say its okay but I cant grasp the full picture consequences of what will happen if I do. I just wanted to hear from someone before moving on any farther.
Best Answer
Clearing any cache, unless it has gone seriously awry, is a very temporary stop-gap.
It doesn't hurt anything really, but the cache will simply refill next time you run whatever process needed to cache the data. Cache is there to prevent excessive access times - it's right there when your machine needs it rather than on the other side of the world on some server.
Clearing it will temporarily reduce your data footprint, in extremis if you need space for a large download/install, which Xcode is, but is not a permanent solution to the fact that your drive is critically low on space.
General rule of thumb is to always keep 10-15% free at all times, so you really need to farm something out to other storage.
For further reading, I'd have a look at How can I figure out what's slowly eating my HD space?