Pulling Content Out Of OS X Cache.db Files

I’m not sure when, but most likely when Leopard was released, applications started storing their cache files as sqlite databases (usually named Cache.db). For example, Safari has its cache at:

~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db

Apps that haven’t caught up yet are still using the less-efficient .cache files. Though not as efficient, these files are easier to access, just toss it onto BBEdit and you can see the contents. Try doing this with a 100+MB .db file and prepare to wait.

There probably is a GUI app to extract data from .db cache files, but I’m too lazy for that. OS X has everything you need already built in so fire up Terminal.app (I’ve been playing with Visor lately) and dig into your cache:

# cd ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/
# sqlite3 Cache.db

You’ll be in the sqlite interactive mode:

sqlite> select * from cfurl_cache_response;
sqlite> select receiver_data from cfurl_cache_blob_data where entry_ID = [1234];

To output the data to a file use the following:

sqlite> .output test.html
sqlite> select receiver_data from cfurl_cache_blob_data where entry_ID = [1234];
sqlite> .exit

That should do it. Any questions? Leave a comment.