Video Editing Workstation: Taming Cache on Big Projects

Where each NLE keeps its cache

Premiere Pro and After Effects share the Adobe Media Cache under %APPDATA%\Adobe\Common — conformed audio (.cfa) and peak (.pek) files that grow with every new clip you import. Both let you relocate and purge it under Preferences → Media Cache, which matters because that folder can quietly pass 100 GB on documentary-scale projects. After Effects adds its own disk cache on top, with the size and location set in Preferences → Media & Disk Cache.

DaVinci Resolve keeps its cache and working databases under AppData in your user profile as well, and prefers managing its own house: the Playback menu's Delete Render Cache commands clear optimized media safely from inside the project. The common rule is simple — every major NLE's cache is regenerable data, which means purging it costs you time at next render, never footage.

Rules that keep a workstation alive

The difference between an editing machine that hums and one that stutters is usually not the CPU — it is where the cache lives and how much of the disk is left. These rules are boring, and they are the whole game.

• Give cache its own SSD — separate from the OS drive and from the drive holding source media
• Relocate each app's cache in preferences once, not per project, and point them all at the same dedicated drive
• Purge between projects: media cache rebuilds when needed, so stale cache from last month is just rented disk space
• Keep 15–20% of the cache and scratch drives free — SSDs slow down dramatically when nearly full
• Exclude cache and media folders from real-time antivirus scanning; scanning a 40 GB conform folder mid-render is pure latency
• Keep Windows Search indexing away from footage folders — thousands of clips being crawled helps nobody

The purge, and keeping Windows out of the way

Purging is safe when the application is closed: delete the contents of the media cache folder and Premiere rebuilds what it needs on next import, spending a few minutes re-conforming audio. Inside Resolve, prefer its own Delete Render Cache commands, and export optimized media consciously rather than letting it accumulate across a season of projects.

The Windows side has two rules of its own: set active hours so Windows Update does not restart mid-render, and treat the cache folders as a between-projects cleanup target — in Kleaner PRO these app caches are recognized as regenerable, so a sweep before archiving a project takes a minute instead of an AppData hunt. Back up projects and media religiously; cache you can always rebuild, but the project file has exactly one life.

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