Learn how to delete your iPod or iPhone backup from your computer. Doing so might save you a bit of hard drive space. It’s also good to keep things clean if you no longer sync the device with your computer any longer.
Option 1 – From iTunes
- Open iTunes.
- Select the “Edit” menu, then choose “Preferences“.
- Select the “Devices” tab.
- Select an iPad or iPhone on the list and click “Delete Backup”.
Option 2 – Manually Remove Files
- Navigate to the following location on your computer depending on your OS:
- Windows 10/8/7 – C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
- MacOS – ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
Note: From Finder, hold “Option” and select “Go” to access the “Library” folder.
- A folder with a bunch of random letters and numbers will be in the “Backup” directory. Delete that entire folder, and it will remove the backup from your computer.
Sergio says
My MacBook Pro has 2 partitions, each 250GB. The main one has only 28GB left even after I had deleted over 100GB of stuff. The “about this Mac” reading did not change,
Then I saw your article on removing mobile backups. I deleted the Backups folder after several years of occasional backups. No problem in the removal.
But the “about this Mac” and the “Get Info” continue reporting about 28 GB space left.
No adjustment at all after all my deletions.
I know I’ve deleted quite a bit, but my MBP does not recognize the new space, and I’m pretty sure even updating from High Sierra can cause me big trouble.
Any idea of how I can make my MBP “remeasure” and/or recognize the actual free space?
Sergio A. says
Thank you for your article on removing old iOS backups.
One question:
Once I remove the entire folder with old backups, if I run a new iTunes backup…. will a new folder be created with only that one backup in it?
Wren says
Literally thank u so much, just bought my computer and had to reset my ipad. It started backing it up and used up ALL of the space and i didnt know how to fix it so i started crying… thank u for this info
Judith Ann Carey says
Hi! I just wanted to say thank you so much! My computer was almost out of storage! It only had 21 GB left of storage and now it has 279 GB left! Deleting the backups literally saved my computer and I would have never figured out how to delete them on my own so thank you!
sargurinder singh says
thnnku so much it worked at first step once again thank u so much
Juanita Drobish says
Thank you so much! Worked like a charm. Clear and simple instructions
jkfjdkfjdlk says
Thanks for this article. It helped
Ajij khan says
Thanks a lot !!! Very helpful article
Ire says
Thanks a lot for this information. Apparently i have back ups as far back as 2012 and this had taken a significant space on my hard drive , making it impossible to to back up my recent phone.
Ayan Gupta says
ouff.. great relief now.. thanks for the info buddy… c drive was almost full and now my Lapy is in good condition now……
Hang says
Thanks for your information! I finally delete the back up!:D
Ethan says
Great it’s work. Thanks
Sierrajeff says
Thank you! I had 3 failed iPhone restores, because of insufficient hard disk space – and of course, with each failed attempt, iTunes used up more and more hard disk space until I had *zero* space left! Major fail, Apple! 3 hours later – deleting programs and documents, defragmenting, etc., still not enough space – but thankfully, I find this info!