Old iPhone and iPad backups on your Mac

Updated · Dmytro Virych

Full copies of devices, often ones you no longer own. Every device you have ever backed up to this Mac with Finder or iTunes is still here in full, and the space counts as System Data.

What a local backup is

When you connect an iPhone or iPad and back it up to this Mac rather than to iCloud, Finder writes a complete copy of the device into a folder in your Library. The copy holds messages, photos that were not in iCloud, app data and settings. It is what you would restore from if the device were lost.

Nothing removes it afterwards. Back up a new phone and the old phone's copy stays. Sell the phone and the copy stays. That is the right default for a backup and the reason this category exists: the copies of devices you no longer own are exactly as large as they were the day you made them.

Why it counts as System Data

The backups live inside your Library folder, which Apple's storage bar does not break out as a category of its own. So a phone's worth of data lands in the grey block, where nothing tells you it is a backup, let alone which device it belongs to.

How to find them

With the device connected, click it in Finder’s sidebar and choose Manage Backups. Finder lists every backup on this Mac by device name and date, including devices that are not connected.

Without a device to hand, the backups are folders you can open directly. In Finder, choose Go, then Go to Folder, and paste:

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

Each folder inside is one device, named by a long identifier rather than by the device’s name. Select a folder and press the space bar, or use Get Info, to see its size and the date it was last changed, which is the date of the last backup.

Before you delete one

If you still own this device, back it up to iCloud first.

That sentence is the whole safety rule, and it is the one the app shows on this category's screen. A backup of a device you still use is the only copy of whatever was not in iCloud when it was made. Turn on iCloud Backup on the device, wait for it to finish, and only then remove the local copy.

A backup of a device you have sold, given away or recycled is different. It cannot be restored to a device you no longer have, and the newer device already has its own backup. Those are the copies this page is about.

How MacMemory shows them

Backups appear under Old iPhone and iPad backups with the label You decide. They are never ticked in advance, whatever their age: the app cannot know which phones you still own, so it does not guess. Each row shows the device’s name where the backup records one, and the date it was last backed up. The category needs Full Disk Access to be read at all, and until that is granted the row shows a lock rather than a size, because a folder the app cannot see is not empty.

What you tick is moved to the Trash, not deleted, so a mistake can be undone until you empty it.

How to delete an old iPhone or iPad backup by hand

Two routes, both in Finder. Use the first when the device is to hand and the second when it is not.

  1. Check the device is backed up elsewhere. You decide

    If you still own the device, back it up to iCloud first. On the device, open Settings, tap your name, then iCloud, then iCloud Backup, and run a backup. Skip this step for a device you no longer have.

    Undo: Nothing is removed at this step.

  2. Delete through Finder, with the device connected. You decide

    Connect the device, click it in Finder's sidebar, choose Manage Backups, select the backup and click Delete Backup. Finder removes the folder for you.

    Undo: None. Finder deletes the backup outright rather than moving it to the Trash. Be sure of the device before you click.

    More about old backups

  3. Or move the folder to the Trash. You decide

    Without the device, open the backups folder and move the device's folder to the Trash. Use Get Info on each folder to check its date before you choose; the most recent one usually belongs to a device you still use.

    Location: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

    Undo: In the Trash until you empty it. Put it back and Finder will see the backup again.

    More about old backups

The shortcut

MacMemory does the steps above from one screen. It scans for free, lists what it finds with one plain sentence per row and the same two labels — Safe to delete and You decide — and moves what you tick to the Trash. Four exceptions are stated on the row that offers them: Time Machine snapshots, the Trash itself, Docker images, which only Docker can remove, and unused simulators, which only Xcode can erase, are removed outright. Mail, backups, snapshots and the Trash need Full Disk Access to be read at all, and a category it cannot read shows a lock rather than a zero.

Nothing it deletes is beyond what this page describes. What it saves you is the Terminal. What it costs · Questions people ask

Sources