• Apps
  • iOS

An iPad app on this Mac was 1.4 GB, and its hidden container another 1.7 GB

iPad and Mac Catalyst apps keep everything in a sandbox container Finder does not show. Measured: a video editor at 1.43 GB plus 1.71 GB of data.

5 min read

Apple Silicon Macs run iPhone and iPad apps, and many App Store apps are iPad apps rebuilt for the Mac with Mac Catalyst. Both behave like their mobile versions in one important way: projects, caches and downloads live inside the app's sandbox, not in Documents or Movies.

How to recognise one

  • Catalyst apps have a container folder beginning with maccatalyst., and their Info.plist lists device family 6, the Mac.
  • iPhone and iPad apps running unmodified sit in /Applications with a small wrapper, and keep data in ~/Library/Containers under their iOS identifier.
  • Neither shows its projects anywhere Finder normally looks.
ls ~/Library/Containers | grep '^maccatalyst\.'
du -sh ~/Library/Containers/maccatalyst.* 2>/dev/null | sort -h

# Is an app Catalyst? Device family 6 means Mac
plutil -extract UIDeviceFamily json -o - /Applications/VN.app/Contents/Info.plist

Where the space goes

For a video editor, the container holds imported clips, rendered previews and exported videos that were never moved out. For a game, it is downloaded levels. For a note or reading app, offline copies. The pattern is always the same: the app manages the files, so nothing else will ever clean them up.

Getting it back

  • Use the app's own delete. Deleting projects inside the app is the safe route, because the app's database stays consistent.
  • Export, then clear. Export finished work to Movies or an external drive, then remove the project in the app. See moving files to an external drive.
  • Deleting the app leaves the container behind. Remove the container too, or the space stays used.

Mobile editors on the Mac are compared in CapCut and mobile editors, and containers in general in Library Containers taking up space.

Common questions

Where do iPad apps store data on a Mac?

In ~/Library/Containers, in a folder named after the app. Mac Catalyst apps' folders begin with maccatalyst.

Why is an iPad app on my Mac so big?

Because its projects, caches and exports are kept inside its container. On the Mac measured one video editor held 1.71 GB there.

Does deleting an iPad app remove its data?

No. The container in ~/Library/Containers is left behind and has to be removed separately.

How do I know if a Mac app is Mac Catalyst?

Its container folder begins with maccatalyst, and its Info.plist lists UIDeviceFamily 6.

Read next