Find and delete old iPhone backups on a Mac
· 5 min read
Local iPhone and iPad backups live in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup, one folder per device, and a modern phone’s backup runs to tens of gigabytes. Several years of old devices sitting there is one of the most common reasons a Mac’s storage does not add up. The safe way to remove them is Finder’s Manage Backups list, with the device connected.
Backups stored in iCloud are a separate thing entirely and take no space on the Mac. Deleting one kind never affects the other.
Check whether you have any
Two ways. In Terminal:
du -sh ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup/*
If that returns a permissions error, Terminal needs Full Disk Access: System Settings, Privacy and Security, Full Disk Access, add Terminal, then quit and reopen it. A No such file or directory message means you have never backed up a device to this Mac and there is nothing here to reclaim.
Or without Terminal: System Settings, General, Storage. The bar chart there breaks storage down by category, and device backups appear under an iOS files heading. Clicking through gives you a list you can delete from, though it is less informative than the Finder route below.
Delete them the supported way
- Connect the iPhone or iPad with a cable and unlock it. Tap Trust if asked.
- Open a Finder window. The device appears in the sidebar under Locations.
- Select it, then the General tab.
- Click Manage Backups.
- A list appears showing each backup with the device name and the date it was made.
- Select one, then use Delete Backup. Confirm.
The list shows every backup on this Mac, not only ones for the device you have plugged in, which is what makes this the useful screen. Old phones you replaced years ago will be sitting in it under their old names.
The same sheet has a Show in Finder option, worth using once so you can see how much a single backup actually weighs before you decide what to keep.
When the device is long gone
If you no longer own the device, you cannot reach the Manage Backups sheet through it. You can still work with the folders directly.
Open ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup with Finder’s Go, Go to Folder (Command-Shift-G). Each subfolder is named with a device identifier, not a name, which is useless on its own. Every one of them contains an Info.plist that names the device:
plutil -p "<folder>/Info.plist" | grep -iE "device name|product name|last backup"
That gives you a name, a model and a date for each folder, which is enough to decide.
Drag the folders you do not want to the Trash rather than using rm -rf. The Trash is the only undo you get here, and a mistyped path in a recursive delete inside your Library is a bad way to spend an evening. Empty the Trash when you are sure.
Stop new ones piling up
With the device connected, the same Finder General tab has the setting that produced all of this. You are choosing between backing up to iCloud and backing up to this Mac. If you already have iCloud Backup running on the phone, a second local copy is a deliberate choice rather than a default, and it is fine to switch it off.
Two related checkboxes on the same screen:
- Encrypt local backup. Keep this on if you back up locally at all. An encrypted backup includes saved passwords, Wi-Fi settings and Health data; an unencrypted one does not. Do not switch it off to save space, because the difference is small and the loss is not.
- Show this iPhone when on Wi-Fi. This is what causes backups to happen quietly when the phone is charging on the same network, which is convenient and is also how three years of backups accumulate without anyone noticing.
The other iOS folder worth checking
Downloaded iOS installer files are stored separately from backups, historically at ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates. If that folder exists on your Mac, each .ipsw inside is several gigabytes and is safe to delete: it is downloaded again if it is ever needed. Check with:
du -sh ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone\ Software\ Updates 2>/dev/null
Nothing on the phone depends on these files.
What this does not touch
Deleting a local backup changes nothing on the iPhone itself. The device keeps every photo, message and app it had a minute earlier.
It also does not touch iCloud Backup, which is managed on the device (Settings, your name, iCloud) or on the Mac in System Settings under your Apple Account. If your goal is to free iCloud storage rather than Mac storage, that is where to go and this article is not it.
If you are auditing the whole machine rather than chasing one folder, a read-only pass with something like Crumb reports device backups, local snapshots and System Data together, so you can see whether backups are actually your largest item before spending an evening on them. Nothing is removed until you approve a plan.
Old backups are rarely the only surprise. Which caches are safe to delete on a Mac covers the next layer down, and storage on a Mac and why the base model catches people out is worth reading if this keeps happening every few months.
Questions
Will deleting a backup delete anything on my iPhone? No. A backup is a copy. Removing the copy from the Mac leaves the device exactly as it was. The only thing you lose is the ability to restore the phone to the state it was in on that date, which matters if you were keeping an old backup deliberately.
Should I keep at least one? Keep the most recent backup for any device you still use, unless iCloud Backup is on and current. Delete everything older, and everything belonging to devices you no longer own. Two backups of the same phone from the same month is just duplication.
Can I move backups to an external drive? It is possible: move the Backup folder and leave a symbolic link in its place. It does work, and it is a maintenance commitment. The external drive has to be attached whenever a backup runs, permissions on the link have to survive macOS updates, and the failure mode is a backup that silently does not happen. Worth it on a Mac with a small internal drive and a dock that is always connected; not worth it on a laptop.
The space did not come back. Where is it? Check the Trash first. After that, macOS may still be holding the blocks in local Time Machine snapshots or counting them as purgeable, both of which are released on the system’s own schedule rather than the moment you ask.