3

CCleaner for Android cleans regular cache and "hidden" cache.

What do they mean by "hidden" cache?

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

Other apps mention that as well, e.g. the cleaners of Avast and AVG – so it seems this isn't specific to the app. I would guess they refer to the apps' "private cache" (i.e. a cache directory inside the apps' private space in /data/data/<package_name>).

This developer article might give some insight. Quoting (emphasis mine):

By default, Android Extensions adds a hidden cache function and a storage field to each container (Activity, Fragment, View or a LayoutContainer implementation) written in Kotlin. The method is pretty small so it does not increase the size of APK much.

Another insight from our sister site:

… but other then that it's all saved on hidden cache partition.

Which suggests there's some special hidden cache partition somewhere – or the writer of that answer got it a bit wrong (which I think is the case).

A third variant: Some apps create "hidden cache folders" on the SD card. Now guess what "hidden" means here? sdcard/Android/data/<some_app>/.cache – a hidden directory (leading dot in the name) called .cache.

No straight answer, sorry – but my guess is it's referring either to the first or to the last of these 3 options. Highest likelyness is the latter – which seems to be confirmed by the SD Maid wiki¹:

"Hidden caches" targets cache like files that are in non-default cache directories, e.g. videoCache, .cache.

One thing for sure: they're NOT talking about geo-caching with that 😁

¹ thanks to SSS for this pointer!

Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    From the SD Maid wiki, it seems to be variant 3. Ran it on my device, interestingly it also caught APKs from Aptoide under the /sdcard/.aptoide/apks folder. The folder's size is much bigger than the Aptoide size shown in Android app info, meaning that it is a special folder and clearing the cache, data, or uninstalling the Android app might not make the "Hidden Cache" go away (hence the use of the Cleaner).
    – SSS
    Jun 19, 2018 at 21:58
  • Good pointer, @SSS – that was my strongest guess as well, just found no literal proof. Will integrate that with my answer.
    – Izzy ♦
    Jun 19, 2018 at 22:33

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .