Is it safe to delete old iPhone and iPad backups on a Mac?

By Mohit Nippanikar, who makes SiftMac

1. Where they are, and how big

When you back up an iPhone or iPad to your Mac (in Finder, rather than to iCloud), the backup goes here:

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

To look, choose Go › Go to Folder in Finder (⇧⌘G) and paste that path. Each backup is one folder, often tens of gigabytes, named with a long device code rather than “Mohit’s iPhone”, so you can’t tell from Finder which device or date it is. macOS never removes old ones for you, which is why a Mac that has backed up a few phones over the years can be carrying several.

To see the sizes in Terminal:

du -sh ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup/* 2>/dev/null

If Terminal says “Operation not permitted”, give it Full Disk Access first (System Settings › Privacy & Security › Full Disk Access).

2. Which ones to keep

Two more things to weigh. An encrypted backup also holds things a plain one doesn’t, such as saved passwords and Health data. And if the device also backs up to iCloud, the copy on your Mac is a second copy, so removing old ones carries less risk.

3. Delete one with the device plugged in

This is Apple’s way, and it shows each backup’s device and date:

1. Connect the iPhone or iPad to your Mac with a cable, and open Finder.
2. Click the device in Finder’s sidebar. If asked, tap Trust on the device and enter its passcode.
3. In the General tab, click Manage Backups.
4. Right-click the backup and choose Delete. Or choose Archive to keep it safe from being replaced by later backups.
5. Click OK.

The list shows backups of every device, not just the one connected, so you can clear out old phones’ backups this way too.

4. Delete one without the device

1. Choose Apple menu › System Settings › General › Storage.
2. Find iOS Files (it only appears when there are backups or update files) and click its ⓘ button.
3. Select the backups you don’t need and click Delete.

You can also delete a backup’s folder in Finder, but the folder names don’t say which device or date they are. Use one of the two lists above instead.

5. The other big iPhone files: software updates

When Finder updates or restores an iPhone or iPad, it downloads the whole system, several gigabytes, into ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates (or iPad Software Updates). Those .ipsw files are Safe to delete: Finder downloads a fresh one when it next needs it. They show up under iOS Files in Storage settings too.

Questions

Does deleting a backup on my Mac delete anything on my iPhone?

No. It removes only the copy on the Mac. The iPhone, and any iCloud backup of it, stay as they are.

Can I get a deleted backup back?

Not from macOS: Apple says a deleted backup can’t be recovered. A Time Machine backup of your Mac from before you deleted it might still have a copy. If you’re unsure, archive it instead of deleting it.

Will my next backup be slower?

The first backup after deleting all of a device’s backups copies everything again, so it takes longer. Deleting only older ones changes nothing.

What about backups in iCloud?

Those are separate, and they use your iCloud storage, not your Mac’s. Manage them in System Settings › your name › iCloud.