SystemRequires admin/root
Font Cache
Font rendering systems keep on-disk indexes and compiled lookup data so apps do not have to rescan every installed font on every launch. These caches store font metadata, glyph metrics, family/style mappings, and platform-specific fontconfig or ATS records that speed up menu population, text layout, and fallback selection; Kudu removes those stale cache files so Windows, macOS, or Linux can rebuild them cleanly without touching installed fonts, documents, accounts, or settings.
Why clean Font Cache?
- Stale font family and style indexes cause newly installed fonts to be missing from app font menus until the cache is rebuilt
- Corrupted glyph metric records lead to clipped text, overlapping characters, or incorrect line spacing in apps that otherwise use the right font file
- Outdated fallback mappings make CJK, emoji, or symbol characters render as empty boxes or the wrong typeface after font changes
- Duplicate or conflicting cache entries cause the wrong weight or italic variant to appear, so documents suddenly look different without the font files themselves being changed
- After removing or replacing fonts, old cache records can keep apps pointing at nonexistent faces, producing substitution warnings, layout shifts, or slow startup while the system retries lookups
- On Linux, stale fontconfig caches force repeated rescans of font directories, which shows up as slow app launches and delayed population of font pickers
- Cleaning requires admin or root access because these cache locations are system-managed, but rebuilding only refreshes index data and does not delete installed fonts or user files
What gets cleaned
Cache paths Kudu targets
Windows
%WinDir%/ServiceProfiles/LocalService/AppData/Local/FontCache |
macOS
/Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS |
Linux
~/.cache/fontconfig |
Frequently asked
Common questions about Font Cache
Related cleaners
Free & open source
Download Kudu and reclaim your disk space.
Available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. No account required, no feature gates, no telemetry without consent. All cleaning targets are open source and community-auditable.