How do I delete old iPhone backups from my Mac?

Connect any device, open it in Finder and click Manage Backups to see every backup with its date. Or check the folder directly: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup - each hash-named folder is one device.

How much space do iPhone backups take?

20-100 GB per device, including backups of phones you sold years ago. A deleted backup is gone for good, so keep the latest backup of devices you still own.

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Delete old iPhone backups from your Mac

CacheCleaner guides · Updated July 18, 2026

Every device you ever backed up via Finder (or iTunes) still has a full backup on disk – 20-100 GB each, including phones you sold years ago. They live in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup.

The supported way

Connect any device, open it in Finder (or just open Finder → General tab for a connected device).
Click Manage Backups… – you'll see every backup with its date.
Select the stale ones → Delete Backup.

No device at hand? The folder route works too:

du -sh ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup/*

Each hash-named folder is one device. The device name is inside its Info.plist. Deleting a folder deletes that backup.

What you lose

⚠️ A backup is the only copy of that device's state at that moment – once deleted it is gone for good. Keep the latest backup of devices you still own; delete backups of devices you no longer have (they can never be restored to anything anyway... unless you buy the same model and want your old data back).

Note: macOS may need permission

MobileSync is protected – Terminal or third-party apps need Full Disk Access (System Settings → Privacy & Security) to even see the folder sizes.

CacheCleaner (full version) lists each backup by device name with its real size, marked with ⚠️ and never pre-selected – deleting a backup is a decision, not a default.

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