Many users find that clearing the cache helps, so it’s definitely not snake oil. Keep in mind that we have different hardware configurations, various Windows settings, as well as different game settings and other installed add-ons. So, while clearing the cache can help, it’s not a cure-all for every issue in MSFS 2020/2024.
I am willing to concede that there are users for whom clearing the cache has actually or even supposedly had an effect. However, it is well known that in complex systems there are also effects that can occur purely by chance. At the end of the day, a computer is just a quantum system (to put it somewhat exaggeratedly).
What I don’t understand, however, is why and how the caches should interact with the various hardware and software variables you mentioned. For example, how should the shader caches be affected by whether I have a Brunner Yoke or Logitech pedals connected, or which game settings should interact with the WASM caches? What software processes should be involved here, and how exactly does one of the variables you mentioned affect the caches, or vice versa?
As long as no one can give me a plausible explanation, I am happy for the users who see an effect and sorry for the users who take the trouble to manually delete the caches, only to ultimately fail to achieve a permanent solution to their problem.
I can give you a few examples, they have to do with chronic data corruption.
In MSFS 2020, around SU8 or 9 I think, things were really bad. Inexplicable CTDs. People with identical hardware would have totally different experiences. (sound familiar?). This was amplified on Xbox where memory is limited, and there is not virtual memory to serve as a shock absorber.
After a few months Asobo found a handful of problems that were essentially data corruption when memory was full, and there was a pipeline of things to process that wouldn’t slow down. They found it happened when downloading content from the marketplace - as multiple packages would download in a compressed format, corruption would occur during decompression when it was trying to do too many things at the same time. But you would have no idea until a corrupted asset loaded during a flight. Asobo then changed the download process to be much more serialized, decompressing and file checking one at a time.
The solution people found was that if you always had a CTD flying in, say, Italy, when others did not - that suggested scenery data was corrupted, and to delete your Rolling Cache, or if need be, your Italy World Update and reinstall it.
Since this is essentially a pipeline scheduling issue, the corruption can and does also happen any other time there was data being written when there is a bottleneck of some sort - and that includes all the various caches.
Even now, they are experimenting with WASM - which allows for very complex simulation to be processed with less resources (their goal). WASM compiles - and if there is any kind of corruption in that compile on your device, it is pretty persistant. We don’t know what kind of checks Asobo is putting in place, but the ability to flush the WASM cache would certainly help to troubleshoot.
Also, I’ve had settings become corrupted - and they are harder to fix. Even if you uninstall MSFS, those settings get saved to the cloud, and come back when you re-install (the idea being your Log Book and Controller settings would be persistant). So if those somehow get corrupted, you need to run a command line to delete your Cloud Save data.
I think they are trying to squeeze every last drop of performance out of the simulator, and that means there aren’t as many checksums and verification processes as there would need to be for something like critical infrastructure where data integrity is 100% required. So instead, finding and fixing stuff that might be corrupted, and might account for unexplained issues, is a whack-a-mole of cache deletion for users, because it’s really the only option other than constant full clean install (when things are broken)
I’ll add another example. For certain iFly 737MX updates, the developers explicitly write that a full, new, fresh, clean installation’ is required and that you should use iFLY Manager and Uninstall feature. They don’t say this without reason. Besides removing the aircraft from the Community folder, the uninstall also clears the WASM cache.
I used to think it might have snake oil aspects too. But what really proved it for me was during one of the SU3 beta updates and/or changing a driver at the same time. In any case i was getting crazy stutters that just would not go away. Clearing all the caches fixed it, not sure which one though. In theory it could’ve also been the rolling cache.
Thanks for making this post. I was able to use this app to clean up past SU5. Hopefully this makes things right for me.
I’m not sure about this.
I think this might be the case if one assumes there is more than 1 GPU in your system.
For example your motherboard comes with an integrated graphics chip AND you have an additional gaming GPU of some sort.
Not all systems, sadly, are configured that way.
In other words, I really question if those driver files are no longer in use on a 1 graphics adapter system - like mine, unfortunately, even in Safe Mode.
If I were more adventuresome, I’d test this - maybe in the future if I get bored. 
Default Nvidia Shader Cache locations, Win 10, some of them does not exist on my system:
- C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\D3DSCache
- C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\NVIDIA\GLCache
- C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\NVIDIA\PerDriverVersion\GLCache
- C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\shadercache\
- C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\NVIDIA\ComputeCache
- C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\NVIDIA\PerDriverVersion\DXCache
- C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\NVIDIA\PerDriverVersion\GLCache
AMD Shader Cache locations:
- C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\AMD\DxCache
- C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\AMD\DX9Cache
- C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\AMD\DxcCache
- C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\AMD\OglCache
Steam MSFS cache locations:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\MicrosoftFlightSimulator\cache
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\cache
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\SceneryCache
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\SceneryIndexes
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\DCE
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Limitless\cache
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024\cache
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024\SceneryIndexes
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\ROLLINGCACHE.CCC
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024\ROLLINGCACHE.CCC
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024\Packages\StreamedPackages
optional: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024\SimObjects\Airplanes
Store MSFS cache locations:
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\SceneryCache
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\SceneryIndexes
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\cache
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\DCE
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Limitless_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\Cache
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Limitless_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\SceneryIndexes
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\ROLLINGCACHE.CCC
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Limitless_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\StreamedPackages
optional: …\SimObjects\Airplanes