CapCut is eating all my hard drive - how do I get files to store on an external hard drive?

Hi,

There seems to be an error which says Wrong path. External device is not supported. Select a local path.

Why CapCut is blocking your external drive?

• CapCut (on desktop) currently does not support writing caches or proxy/render files directly to external drives.

• It insists on a local system path (your Mac’s internal /Users/... folders).

• This is why you are getting the “Wrong path” error when pointing to /Volumes/....

Workarounds / Solutions

Option 1: Symbolic link (best fix)

You can trick CapCut into thinking it’s writing to your internal drive while actually storing files on your external drive.

1. Quit CapCut.

2. Move the Cache folder to your external drive. Example:
   /Volumes/ExternalDrive/CapCutCache

3. Open Terminal and create a symbolic link back to the original location:

    

   ln -s /Volumes/ExternalDrive/CapCutCache ~/Library/Application\ Support/CapCut/Cache

   (Adjust path depending on where CapCut stores its cache, which your screenshot shows under /Users/TouchCast/.../Cache/.)

4. Restart CapCut. It will write to what it thinks is the internal cache folder, but the data actually lives on the external drive.

Option 2: Move finished exports only

• Keep CapCut’s cache/proxy files local (CapCut requires it).

• But move your exported projects and final videos manually to your external drive.

• This won’t stop the cache from growing, but it keeps your internal drive from filling up with large exports.

Option 3: Regular cache cleaning

Inside CapCut > Settings > Performance, set:

• Auto clear → 5 GB (or less).

• Manually clear cache often (Rendering cache size = 0 when emptied).

This won’t redirect storage but prevents CapCut from ballooning to hundreds of GB.

Best long-term fix: symbolic link (Option 1). That way you keep working seamlessly, but your external drive absorbs the heavy cache files.

We can see from your screenshot that your external drive is called: /Volumes/Q-Branch

We willl redirect that entire Cache folder to your external drive.

1. Quit CapCut

Make sure it’s closed.

2. Create a new cache folder on your external drive

Open Terminal and run:

mkdir -p "/Volumes/Q-Branch/CapCutCache"

3. Move the existing CapCut cache to your external drive

mv "/Users/TouchCast/Library/Application Support/CapCut/Cache" "/Volumes/Q-Branch/CapCutCache"

4. Create a symbolic link (the trick!)

ln -s "/Volumes/Q-Branch/CapCutCache" "/Users/TouchCast/Library/Application Support/CapCut/Cache"

5. Restart CapCut

Now all those heavy proxy, remux, and prerender files will live on Q-Branch.

What this does:

• CapCut still “thinks” it’s writing to your internal /Users/.../Cache folder.

• But really, everything goes straight to /Volumes/Q-Branch/CapCutCache.

Reminder:

• Don’t eject Q-Branch while CapCut is open.

• If you do, CapCut may rebuild a new cache locally.

If you want to double-check that the symlink is set up correctly before launching CapCut again.

After running the move + symlink commands, run this in Terminal:

ls -l "/Users/TouchCast/Library/Application Support/CapCut"

You should see something like this in the output:

Cache -> /Volumes/Q-Branch/CapCutCache

That arrow (->) means the Cache folder is now just a “pointer” to your external drive.

Extra Check

You can also run:

du -sh "/Users/TouchCast/Library/Application Support/CapCut/Cache"

If the link is correct, this will show the size of the folder on Q-Branch, not your internal drive.

Once confirmed, reopen CapCut and keep an eye on your external drive you should see new cache files appearing inside /Volumes/Q-Branch/CapCutCache.