# Is it safe to delete ~/.cargo/registry?

- URL: https://moreroom.app/folders/cargo-registry
- Item: Cargo registry cache
- Location: `~/.cargo/registry`
- Verdict: Safe to remove — Rebuilt or re-downloaded automatically when needed.
- Comes back on its own: yes
- Typical size: 1–10 GB
- Source: MoreRoom rules catalogue (2026-10-17), by Yando Pte. Ltd.

## What is it?

Cargo’s registry folder holds the crates.io index, every downloaded crate archive (`cache`) and their unpacked sources (`src`), shared by all your Rust projects. Recent Cargo versions clean long-unused downloads on their own, but it can still grow to several gigabytes.

## What happens if you delete it?

Cargo downloads the index and the crates each project needs on its next build, which takes time and bandwidth. Projects build normally afterwards; builds with `--offline` fail until the crates are fetched again.

## How to remove it properly

Make sure no `cargo` command or rust-analyzer is running, then move `~/.cargo/registry` to the Trash with Finder’s Go › Go to Folder…. Do not remove `~/.cargo/bin`, which holds rustup, cargo and the tools you installed.