Did you get a new Mac this holiday season? Are you hoping to clean up your old one before migrating a lot of crud? Even if you just want to clean house, check your storage for iOS Files, which I previously mentioned in Tech Check. The category is mentioned ever so briefly in this Apple support article.
Previously, you may have backed up your iPhone and/or iPad on your Mac. It’s unlikely you need these because you probably now rely on regularly updated backups stored in iCloud. Or, at the very least, you might not need the backups of devices you’ve since retired and replaced.
Client Notes
Terry reached out for help with Time Machine reporting her backup drive full, even though she hasn’t used much space on her Mac. I noticed her storage includes a lot of old backups of iPhones, likely unneeded as her current iPhone is probably backed up in iCloud.
Meanwhile, I worked extensively with Nancy and Ani to restore their GoDaddy-created Microsoft Exchange email accounts, which stopped working on their iPhones. For both, this required waiting an hour to re-add the accounts because Stolen Device Protection was enabled. (I updated my article to discourage using this feature.)
Show Storage Usage
On macOS 13 and later, go to System Settings > General > Storage. On macOS 12 and earlier, go to About This Mac > Storage > Manage.
Get Info on iOS Files
In either of these spots, wait for your Mac to calculate usage. When it settles on a figure for each category, look for iOS Files and get more information. That is, in System Information, click on the category; in System Settings, double-click the category or click the 
next to it.
Most, if not all, of the items listed are backups of mobile devices you now or previously owned. Each shows the date last accessed, which is usually the date the backup was last updated. You might also have software update files for these devices, probably unnecessary after installing.
When you upgrade and move to a new device, and run a backup on your Mac, your Mac archives the last backup of the prior device and creates a fresh copy of the new one. For example, the older backup of Gazelle (above) is my iPhone 12 mini that I replaced in fall 2023 with my current iPhone 13 mini.
Delete iOS Files
One reason you might hold onto an old device backup is if you had photos that didn’t get imported to your library before retiring the device.
If you don’t know how you would benefit from a device backup on your Mac and you know you don’t intentionally create or update them, feel free to delete them to recover the storage space.
Depending on the size of your backups, wait patiently after clicking Delete. It may take your Mac a moment to complete the process of deleting these large bundles and there’s no need to click Delete more than once.
How much storage are you able to clear by deleting iOS Files? Is it in the 50–100GB range that I’ve found on my Mac or 500GB+, as some clients have discovered? Share your experience in the comments…
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