What Is ~/Library/WebKit on Mac?
Your user folderUpdated
- Full path
~/Library/WebKit
- 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.
Web views and their data
Plenty of Mac apps are partly web pages. Sign-in windows, help panels, settings screens and entire app interfaces are often drawn by an embedded web view using WebKit, the same engine behind Safari. Like a browser, a web view lets the pages it shows store data: logged-in state, preferences, offline content and caches.
For apps that aren't sandboxed, WebKit puts that data in ~/Library/WebKit/<bundle ID>/WebsiteData. Sandboxed apps keep the equivalent inside their own folder under Containers. A typical app folder contains:
| Subfolder | What it stores |
|---|---|
LocalStorage | Key-value data pages save, often including login state |
IndexedDB | Larger structured data, such as offline content or drafts |
ResourceLoadStatistics | Data for WebKit's tracking prevention |
MediaKeys and salts | Keys for protected media playback |
Default and others | Further storage WebKit creates on recent macOS versions |
You may also see top-level Databases and WebPush folders, which WebKit uses for older-style web databases and web push registrations.
What clearing it does
Nothing in macOS depends on these folders. Removing one affects only the app it's named after:
- Pages inside that app forget data they stored locally, which can sign you out of a web-based login.
- Offline content or unsynced drafts kept in IndexedDB can be lost if the service didn't sync them.
- The app's web screens load a bit slower the first time, then the folder is recreated.
For an app you've already uninstalled, its folder is pure leftover. Sizes vary from a few kilobytes to hundreds of megabytes for apps built mostly as web content.
Inspecting without changing anything
ls ~/Library/WebKit
du -sh ~/Library/WebKit/* | sort -h
Folder names are bundle IDs, so com.example.Notes belongs to the app with that ID. To find an app's ID, run osascript -e 'id of app "AppName"'.
Clearing an app's website data
- Check whether the app has its own option first. Look for "Clear cache", "Reset" or "Sign out" in its settings, since that clears the right data in the right order.
- Otherwise, quit the app completely.
- In Finder, choose Go → Go to Folder… and enter
~/Library/WebKit. - Move that app's folder to the Trash, then open the app and sign in again if asked.
For sign-in problems, cookies are often the real culprit. Look for the same bundle ID in HTTPStorages and Cookies as well.
When uninstalling an app
WebKit data is one of many folders an app leaves behind when you drag it to the Trash, next to Application Support, Caches and Preferences. Each is covered in uninstalling apps completely. Don't remove folders whose names start with com.apple. unless you're troubleshooting that specific Apple app.
Sources
- WKWebsiteDataStore (Apple Developer Documentation)
- Clear your cache and cookies in Safari on Mac (Apple Support)
- Mac OS X directories: the Library folder (Apple File System Programming Guide)
Frequently asked questions
Is Safari's browsing data in this folder?
Generally no. Safari keeps its website data in its own locations and you clear it from Safari → Settings → Privacy → Manage Website Data. This folder is mainly used by other apps that embed web views.
Where are the cookies for these apps?
Usually not here. Apps that use Apple's networking stack keep cookies and HTTP storage under ~/Library/HTTPStorages, with older ones in ~/Library/Cookies. Clearing only WebKit data may therefore leave you signed in.
Why is there a WebKit folder for an app I've never seen open a web page?
Many apps show sign-in screens, help pages, onboarding or news panels as embedded web views. Even a single screen like that creates a website data folder here.