What Is ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins on Mac?
Your user folderUpdated
- Full path
~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins
- Scope
- Your user folderInside your home folder — one copy per user account.
- Freshist & this folder
- Freshist checks this folder when uninstalling an app. When you uninstall an app, Freshist looks here for items that belong to it. Matches on the app's bundle ID can be pre-selected; name-only guesses are labeled “not sure” and never pre-selected. Removed items go to the Trash, so you can undo.
From Freshist's own cleaning rules — the same catalog the app uses.
What used to live here
Before browsers had built-in video, PDF viewing and rich graphics, they relied on plug-ins: native code bundles that drew content inside a web page. Apple's file system guide describes the Internet Plug-ins folder as holding "plug-ins, libraries, and filters for web-browser content." On macOS these followed the NPAPI standard and came as .plugin or .webplugin bundles.
Familiar examples were Adobe Flash Player, the Java browser plug-in, Microsoft Silverlight and various media and meeting plug-ins.
| Folder | Scope |
|---|---|
/Library/Internet Plug-Ins | All users, where most installers wrote |
~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins | Your account only |
Why it's obsolete
Browsers phased the model out for security and stability reasons:
- Safari 12 (2018) stopped running most NPAPI plug-ins, keeping Flash as the exception.
- Safari 14 (2020) removed Flash support as well.
- Adobe ended Flash Player support on December 31, 2020.
Today the folder is usually empty. If yours isn't, what you're seeing is almost certainly left over from an older macOS setup, carried along by Migration Assistant.
Inspecting it read-only
ls -la ~/Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins
du -sh ~/Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins
To see a bundle's version and when it was built, read its info file:
plutil -p ~/Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/Name.plugin/Contents/Info.plist | grep -i version
Replace Name.plugin with the real name. A build date from the early 2010s and a name like Flash Player or JavaAppletPlugin tell you all you need: nothing current will load it.
Removing old plug-ins
Since no current browser loads them, removal has no visible effect on browsing:
- Quit your browsers.
- In Finder, choose Go → Go to Folder… and enter
~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins. - Move outdated plug-ins to the Trash.
- Repeat in
/Library/Internet Plug-Insif you want the system-wide copies gone too; Finder asks for an administrator password.
If a vendor uninstaller still exists, such as an old Java or Flash uninstaller, using it also removes the related preference panes and update agents. Those agents may have left files in LaunchAgents and Preference Panes.
What not to delete
Leave the Internet Plug-Ins folder itself in place. If you run an unusual legacy app that embeds its own web view and relies on a specific plug-in, check with its developer first. That's rare enough that, for most people, any file here is safe to remove.
Sources
- macOS Library Directory Details, Apple File System Programming Guide
- Adobe Flash Player End of Life, Adobe
- Safari 14 Release Notes, Apple Developer
- Safari 12 Release Notes, Apple Developer
Frequently asked questions
Do Chrome or Firefox use Internet Plug-Ins?
Not anymore. Both browsers removed support for NPAPI plug-ins years ago and rely on built-in features and extensions instead.
What's the difference between a plug-in and a browser extension?
A legacy plug-in was native code that rendered content such as Flash inside a page. Extensions run within the browser's extension system and are managed in the browser's settings, not in this folder.
Is there anything in this folder that modern software still uses?
Occasionally an old installer drops a file here for compatibility, but no current version of Safari loads it. If you find something recent, check the developer's documentation before removing it.