If iOS Files is taking up a large amount of storage on your Mac, it usually means your Mac has stored local iPhone & iPad backups or iOS/iPadOS firmware files.
You can check the iOS Files category in System Settings > General > Storage, then remove old device backups you no longer need. For a safer way to manage local iPhone and iPad backups, use Finder > your device > General > Manage Backups.
Before deleting a backup, make sure you no longer need it for restoring or transferring data to an iPhone or iPad.
What Are iOS Files on Mac?
On a Mac, iOS Files usually includes things like iPhone or iPad backups, along with iOS/iPadOS software files. If you've ever backed up your iPhone or iPad to your Mac, those backups are typically saved here:
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
Backups accumulate over time, especially if you've backed up multiple devices or have older backups you no longer need. If you're running low on storage, checking for old iPhone or iPad backups can be a good place to start.
How to Check How Much Space iOS Files Use?
On modern Macs, it's easy to check your iOS files space consumption:
- Go to the Apple logo > System Settings.
- Tap General > Choose Storage > iOS Files.
- The iOS Files on my MacBook Air consume 42.67 GB. It's necessary to delete or clear unnecessary iOS files.
Delete iOS Files on macOS with Finder Backups
It's quite easy to delete iOS files on Mac. The thing is, how do you know it's time to delete them or when should you delete them? When you're confronted with "Your startup disk is almost full", or stuck with a frozen or slow Mac, it's time to delete iOS files on Mac to free up some storage space for better Mac performance.
To delete iOS files on Mac and avoid error code 43 on Mac, you need to access them on Mac first, which means you need to know where iOS files are stored on Mac. Here's how to locate your iOS files on Mac and how to delete iOS files on Mac:
Note: If you fail to delete the iOS files on your Mac, read on: How to delete files on Mac that won't delete?
- Connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac > open Finder.
- Under the General tab, click Manage Backups to see a list of your backups.
- Select the backup you no longer need > right-click it and choose Delete.
- Click "Delete Backup" to confirm the deletion.
Delete iOS Files on Older Macs with Library Files
To delete iOS files on older Macs running macOS Mojave or earlier, you can also try a manual way, which can delete iOS backups from your Library files.
- Open Finder.
- Press Command + Shift + G keys to open Go to Folder.
- Type ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ and press the Enter key.
- Choose the folders corresponding to the backups you no longer need, right-click them and choose Move to Trash.
So easy, right? And there may be some update files inside it, you can delete together. Type ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates then remove.
Note: This is a legacy method to delete iOS files on older Macs. For modern Macs, you should turn to Finder to remove iOS files and free up space in Macintosh HD.
Is It Safe to Delete iOS Files on Mac?
Yes, you can delete an iPhone or iPad backup from your Mac if you no longer need that backup. Deleting a local backup does not delete the current data from your iPhone or iPad, but it removes that backup as a restore source. If the backup is your only copy of important data, keep it or create another backup before deleting it.
Keep it in mind: Deleting the Mac backup ≠ deleting data from the iPhone.
What Happens If You Delete an iPhone Backup?
| Action | Result |
| Delete Mac's local backup | That backup can no longer be used to restore the device |
| Delete the backup from Mac | Does not erase the current data on the connected iPhone |
| Delete an old backup | Free the storage occupied by that backup |
| Delete your only backup | You lose that backup as a recovery/restore option |
| Delete iCloud backup | Different from deleting a Mac backup |
How to Free More Mac Storage?
After deleting iOS files on Mac, you can clean up Other storage to optimize Mac space, and other files including large files, Downloads, unused apps, duplicate files, similar photos, system junk, caches, etc.
iBoysoft Cleaner, developed by a professional Mac software team with nine years of experience, can help you further free up Mac space. It uses AI-powered scanning to analyze your Mac and identify cleanable files. It presents the detected files for your review, including system junk/components, temporary files, caches, trash, logs and more.
To make cleanup easier, removable system junk is automatically selected, while personal files, such as those in your Downloads folder, are left for you to review and decide whether to keep or delete.
iBoysoft Cleaner can also help you uninstall unwanted apps, find and remove large files, clean up duplicate or similar photos, and manage login items—all from one place.
Here's how to use iBoysoft Cleaner to safely free up your Mac storage:
Step 1. Download, install, and open iBoysoft Cleaner version 2.0.
Step 2. Click "System Junk" > tap "Smart Scan" to scan your Mac disk.
Step 3. Once the scan is complete, this Mac disk cleaner displays the cleanable files. In this case, it found 1.3 GB of system junk and automatically selected it for removal. These files have been analyzed by iBoysoft Cleaner and are safe to delete without affecting macOS.
Personal files, such as those in Downloads, won't be selected automatically. You're the one to decide what to keep or remove.
Step 4. Click the blue "Remove" button in the lower right corner to 1-click clear the system junk.
The same applies to large files, duplicate files, similar photos, and applications—you can scan them first and decide what you want to delete.
Accidentally Deleted an Important File?
If you accidentally deleted unrelated Mac files while cleaning storage, you might need Mac data recovery software to recover them.
iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac can recover deleted files and lost files from APFS, HFS+, exFAT, and FAT32 drives, including formatted, inaccessible, corrupted, and unmountable drives. The file types include photos, videos, audio, documents, Email, archives, and others.
It works with internal disks, external hard drives, USB drives, SD cards, and more on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, compatible with macOS 27 Golden Gate - Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.
Note: Stop using the affected drive before data recovery. Do not repair, erase, format, or save new files to the disk before iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac scans it.
Share our post if you learn how to delete iOS files on Mac, and remember to use iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac if you lose files on Mac.
FAQs
- QIs it safe to delete iOS files on Mac?
-
A
iOS files on Mac are backups of your iOS devices like iPhone/iPad. So if you have backed them up elsewhere, it is safe to delete iOS files from Mac as you want to free up Mac space.
- QCan you move iPhone backups to an external drive?
-
A
Yes, but simply dragging a backup folder to another drive does not automatically change where Finder stores future backups. If you want to store Mac backups on another drive, use a supported backup-management approach and verify the backup before deleting the original.
- QWhere are iOS files stored on Mac?
-
A
Your backups are stored in a MobileSync folder. You can find them by typing '~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync' into Spotlight.
Each backup is named with random letters, which makes it hard to know which folder corresponds with which device. But you can check the 'Date Modified' column to view the most recent backup.
- QiOS file still taking up space after deletion, why?
-
A
Possible causes are:
1. Another backup remains
2. Firmware files remain
3. Storage calculation hasn't refreshed
4. Another category is consuming the space
5. macOS storage calculation hasn't updated yet