Help · Mac storage

iPhone backups taking up your Mac's space.

By Grant and Brad, who make Pangalin's apps · Updated 11 October 2026

If you back up an iPhone or iPad to your Mac, each backup can be tens of gigabytes, and old ones from devices you no longer own stay until you delete them.

Find and delete old backups

1. Open System Settings › General › Storage and click the ⓘ next to iOS Files. You'll see each backup with its size and date.
2. Delete backups of devices you've sold, replaced or no longer back up here. Keep the latest backup of any device you still use unless it's also backed up to iCloud.
3. You can also manage them from Finder: connect the device, select it in the Finder sidebar, then click Manage Backups….

Backups are stored in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup. Don't rename or edit the folders inside by hand.

Keep backups off your Mac

Option 1: back up to iCloud instead

In Finder, select your device and choose Back up your most important data on your iPhone to iCloud. It uses iCloud storage instead of your Mac. One caveat: an iCloud backup isn't always identical to a Mac backup, because some apps leave themselves out of iCloud backups.

Option 2: keep Mac backups on an external drive (advanced)

macOS has no setting for this. The common method is a symbolic link: the backup folder lives on the external drive, and a link in its usual place points to it. It works, but it needs Terminal and care:

1. Give Terminal access: System Settings › Privacy & Security › Full Disk Access, then turn on Terminal.
2. Copy the Backup folder to your external drive (for example into a folder called MobileSync on it), and check the copy is complete.
3. Rename the original folder to Backup-old.
4. In Terminal, create the link (replace MyDrive with your drive's name):
   ln -s "/Volumes/MyDrive/MobileSync/Backup" ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup
5. Run a backup from Finder with the drive connected. Once it works, delete Backup-old.

Things to know: the drive must be connected whenever you back up, or the backup won't run. If you ever restore a device, connect the drive first. Keep the old folder until you've confirmed a new backup worked.