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Delete iPad or iPhone Backups From Computer

Delete iPad or iPhone Backups From Computer

By Mitch Bartlett 18 Comments

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

  1. Open iTunes.
  2. Select the “Edit” menu, then choose “Preferences“.
  3. Select the “Devices” tab.
  4. Select an iPad or iPhone on the list and click “Delete Backup”.
    iTunes Delete Backup

Option 2 – Manually Remove Files

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
    iTunes Device Backup location

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Filed Under: iOS Tagged With: ipad, iPhone, itunes

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Craig A says

    April 4, 2021 at 11:24 pm

    Had to use Option 2 and it worked !
    Many thanks

    PS I tried to back up my daughters iPad and it had 26GB of stuff so it didn’t fit on my laptop C drive and jammed it up leaving the useless half a back
    Up on my C drive. Option 2 took me to the file and I selected based on the date, and deleted.

  2. jaime i tamez says

    January 5, 2021 at 8:25 am

    iTunes kept trying to use the the original (Oldest) backup….. until i deleted the old files.
    Thanks, the option 2 worked on windows 10 computer

  3. Abhishta says

    December 6, 2020 at 8:24 am

    Thanks a lot !!

  4. Vivek says

    October 3, 2020 at 1:37 am

    Thanks a lot, this article really helped me to free up my 50 GB on my C drive.
    Much appreciated!

  5. Ratish Kurian says

    August 5, 2020 at 4:27 pm

    Thank you

  6. Sergio says

    March 21, 2020 at 7:52 pm

    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?

  7. Sergio A. says

    February 29, 2020 at 3:45 pm

    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?

  8. Wren says

    February 23, 2020 at 8:53 am

    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

  9. Judith Ann Carey says

    October 24, 2019 at 2:38 pm

    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!

  10. sargurinder singh says

    July 20, 2019 at 3:37 am

    thnnku so much it worked at first step once again thank u so much

  11. Juanita Drobish says

    May 15, 2019 at 10:53 am

    Thank you so much! Worked like a charm. Clear and simple instructions

  12. jkfjdkfjdlk says

    March 7, 2019 at 8:27 am

    Thanks for this article. It helped

  13. Ajij khan says

    November 30, 2018 at 11:45 pm

    Thanks a lot !!! Very helpful article

  14. Ire says

    November 29, 2018 at 4:07 pm

    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.

  15. Ayan Gupta says

    November 21, 2018 at 11:35 am

    ouff.. great relief now.. thanks for the info buddy… c drive was almost full and now my Lapy is in good condition now……

  16. Hang says

    October 29, 2018 at 3:04 am

    Thanks for your information! I finally delete the back up!:D

  17. Ethan says

    April 2, 2018 at 3:30 am

    Great it’s work. Thanks

  18. Sierrajeff says

    August 24, 2016 at 2:07 am

    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!

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Who’s Behind Technipages?

Baby and Daddy My name is Mitch Bartlett. I've been working in technology for over 20 years in a wide range of tech jobs from Tech Support to Software Testing. I started this site as a technical guide for myself and it has grown into what I hope is a useful reference for all.

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