How to Reset and Clear the Font Cache in macOS Using Terminal

Graphic designers, software engineers, and digital publishers regularly install, activate, and remove hundreds of custom typefaces across their Mac systems. Over time—especially following major macOS upgrades, frequent third-party font management operations, or unexpected application crashes—the Apple Type Services (ATS) font cache database can become corrupted. Corrupted font caches cause severe visual rendering glitches, such as garbled text, missing glyphs rendered as question marks, duplicate font alerts in Font Book, and sudden application crashes in design software like Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and Microsoft Word.

Using the native atsutil command-line utility in macOS Terminal allows you to cleanly reset and rebuild the system font cache databases without requiring third-party maintenance software.

Recognizing Symptoms of a Corrupted macOS Font Cache

Font cache corruption manifests in distinct, repeatable application behaviors:

• Garbled or Overlapping Text: Display typography in web browsers or desktop applications renders as random symbols, overlapping letterforms, or empty rectangles (often known as “tofu” glyphs).
• Substituted Question Mark Blocks: Standard menu items, buttons, or document paragraphs display as question marks inside diamonds ().
• Invisible Font Selections: Installed and validated fonts appear correctly in Font Book, but fail to display within the font picker drop-down menus of external applications.
• Instant Application Crashes: Software like Photoshop, Keynote, or Word abruptly crashes upon launching or while scrolling past a specific font family in font menus.

Understanding the Role of the atsutil Utility

The macOS typography architecture is managed by the Apple Type Services daemon (com.apple.FontWorker). To optimize performance, the system maintains pre-compiled font metric caches across both user and root domains. The native atsutil (Apple Type Services Utility) tool allows administrative users to stop the font server, purge corrupted cache databases, and trigger a clean rebuild from original font files.

Step 1: Closing All Active Typography-Dependent Applications

Before purging font cache records, save all open work and close applications that actively maintain in-memory font handles:

1. Quit all open design software, word processors, and web browsers (such as Adobe Creative Cloud apps, Microsoft Office, Pages, Safari, and Chrome).
2. Close the native Font Book application if it is open.

Step 2: Purging the Font Cache Databases via Terminal

Execute the cache reset sequence using administrative privileges in Terminal:

1. Open Terminal by pressing Cmd + Space, typing Terminal, and pressing Enter.
2. Shut down the active Apple Type Services server process:

sudo atsutil server -shutdown

3. Enter your macOS administrator password when prompted and press Enter (keystrokes remain invisible in the terminal).
4. Remove both the system-level and user-level font cache databases:

sudo atsutil databases -remove

5. Restart the Apple Type Services server daemon:

sudo atsutil server -ping

6. Terminal will return ats server is running, confirming that the font management daemon has re-initialized with clean, empty databases ready to rebuild metrics.

Step 3: Removing Secondary Application Font Caches

Certain core applications maintain local registry caches that should also be removed when troubleshooting persistent font corruption:

1. In Terminal, remove Font Book and Font Registry user cache folders:

rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.FontRegistry*
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.FontBook*

2. For users experiencing persistent font glitches in Adobe Creative Cloud applications, remove Adobe’s local font cache file:

rm -rf ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CoreSync/plugins/livetype/.c/*

Step 4: Restarting into Safe Mode for Automated Cache Maintenance

To finalize the rebuild and ensure all system-level font tables synchronize properly:

1. Restart your Mac. A standard reboot allows macOS to rescan installed fonts in /System/Library/Fonts, /Library/Fonts, and ~/Library/Fonts.
2. Alternative Deep Clean via Safe Mode: If typography glitches persist, booting your Mac into Safe Mode automatically runs an internal directory verification and purges all font caches:
   • Apple Silicon Mac (M1/M2/M3/M4): Shut down your Mac. Press and hold the power button until “Loading startup options” appears. Select your startup disk, hold the Shift key, and click Continue in Safe Mode.
   • Intel-based Mac: Turn on your Mac and immediately hold down the Shift key until the login window appears.
3. Once the desktop loads in Safe Mode, restart your Mac normally. All font caches will be freshly rebuilt from source font files.