How To Clear the Cache in Plex

Heather August 10, 2018

Plex is a powerful media center server that lets you set up a personalized media library online and then access it from all of your devices – PCs, tablets, laptops, smartphones, or whatever you have. It’s like having your own cloud-based media channel that only you can access. Plex comes in both free and paid versions (there are a number of features of the paid version, but the main one is that the paid version of the mobile apps lets you watch full-length videos, while the free mobile apps will only let you watch video for one minute).

Once you’ve set up your Plex account, you’re assigned a virtual server on Plex’s system. Then, you can start uploading all your movies, music, photos and more, which you can then view wherever you’ve got Plex Installed – just stream your content from your virtual server.

As with any streaming service, device or application, sometimes things may become lagged or seem sluggish during playback. This is often caused by having a large amount of data in the application cache. The cache is where Plex stores files locally to speed up your access to them. For example, if you’re watching a show, Plex might download the entire show to your cache directory as you’re watching, and then actually play the show from your local device’s cache. However, if the cache becomes full of many files and file fragments, it can slow down playback because the Plex app has to look through all those cache files every time you ask it to do something. Periodically clearing out your cache eliminates this problem and can improve the performance of your Plex client apps.

In this article, I’ll show you how to clear the cache on Plex. Note that you have a separate cache for each device you use. You don’t necessarily need to clear the cache on every device every time – just on the device you want to use.

Locating Caches on Plex

The location of the cache directory varies depending on the operating system on the device where you’ve got Plex installed.

Windows

On a Windows PC, your cache is located in your user directory. Open an Explorer window and navigate to “%LOCALAPPDATA%Plex Media ServerPlug-in SupportCaches”

In the Caches directory there will be subdirectories for the various shows and movies you’ve been watching. You can delete the individual directories or all of them at once, it’s entirely up to you.

MacOS

If you’re using a Mac for your Plex installation then in your Macs finder do the following.

Click on Go then navigate to Go to Folder and select it.
Next enter ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Caches in the Go to the Folder text entry box. Then, click the Go button.
Delete the folder where you want the cache cleared.

It’s that easy!

Linux

There are many different Linux variations. However, the location of a Plex server on Linux is usually something like this:

· $PLEX_HOME/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Caches

As with Windows and Mac, delete the subdirectories that you’d like cleared.

Android

Plex also allows you to install its application on your Android smartphone or tablet. If you’d like to clear the cache of the app on your phone or tablet, it’s very easy to get that accomplished. The exact screens and command names may vary slightly depending on your version of Android, but in general:

Swipe down on the top of your Android device and tap on settings, the gear-shaped icon.
Next, under phone tap on Apps or Applications.
Then select application manager.
Select All Apps in the dropdown. Scroll down until you see the Plex app listed.
Tap on it and choose storage.
Finally, tap the clear cache button. That’s it – your Plex app cache is now clear.

You may now carry on and continue viewing or listening to your media.

Conclusion

When you start to see sluggish behavior on your Plex server, one easy fix for the problem is to clean out its cached data. Now you know how to do that for Windows, Mac or Linux operating systems and Android. All you need to do is navigate to the plug-ins cache location on your computer and delete the appropriate directories. On Android head to the Applications section, find the Plex app, and tap the clear cache button.