iPhone backups created through Finder (or the old iTunes) land in a specific hidden folder on your Mac — and if you have never cleaned it out, it may be consuming tens of gigabytes you did not know about. Knowing where iPhone backups are stored on a Mac is the first step to reclaiming that space safely.
The Exact iPhone Backup Location on a Mac
Every local iPhone (and iPad, and iPod touch) backup lives here:
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/BackupThe tilde (~) is shorthand for your home folder (for example, /Users/yourname). Inside Backup you will find one subfolder per device, each named with a long alphanumeric identifier — not a friendly device name. Each subfolder contains the full backup data for that device at the time of the last sync.
Why the Folder Is Hidden by Default
Apple hides the ~/Library folder to protect users from accidentally deleting system and application data. In macOS, user Library folders are flagged with the hidden attribute, so they do not appear in a normal Finder window. This is intentional — the contents are not meant for casual browsing — but it does make finding your backups unintuitive.
How to Open the MobileSync Folder in Finder
You do not need Terminal to get there. Finder's Go to Folder command accepts hidden paths directly:
- Open a Finder window.
- In the menu bar, click Go → Go to Folder… (or press ⇧⌘G).
- Paste the following path and press Return:
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup- Finder opens the
Backupfolder. Each subfolder is one device backup. - To see how large each backup is, right-click a subfolder and choose Get Info, or select it and press ⌘I.
Opening It from Terminal
If you prefer the command line, this opens the folder directly in Finder:
open ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/BackupTo list each backup subfolder and its size on disk:
du -sh ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup/*The output shows one line per device backup with its total size — a quick way to see which backups are worth investigating.
How Big Are iPhone Backups, Typically?
Backup size depends on how much is on your iPhone. A phone with a full camera roll and many apps can produce a backup of 20–60 GB or more. If you have backed up multiple devices, or kept backups across several years of upgrades, the MobileSync/Backup folder can quietly grow to well over 100 GB.
Which Backups Are Safe to Delete?
This is the part that matters most, because deleting a backup is permanent. Once it is gone, it cannot be recovered unless you have a Time Machine or other external backup of your Mac.
| Backup type | Safe to delete? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Old backup from a device you no longer own | Yes, generally | Confirm the device UDID matches nothing you still use |
| Duplicate backups of the same device | Yes — keep only the newest | Older ones are superseded once a new backup completes |
| The only backup of your current iPhone | No | Delete only after you have a fresh iCloud or local backup |
| Backup of a device you might restore in the future | Caution | If there is any chance you need to restore, keep it |
The Recommended Way to Delete Backups
Rather than deleting raw folders from MobileSync/Backup in Finder, use the built-in macOS interface so the system tracks what is removed correctly:
- Open Finder and connect your iPhone, or open Finder and select your device from the sidebar if it is already trusted.
- Alternatively, open System Settings → General → iPhone & iPad Storage (on macOS Ventura and later, or System Preferences → General on earlier versions).
- On macOS Sonoma / Sequoia / macOS 26, go to Finder → select your iPhone in the sidebar → Manage Backups. Right-click any backup and choose Delete Backup.
This approach ensures macOS removes the backup cleanly. If you delete the raw folder manually, macOS may not update its internal records immediately.
Finding the MobileSync Folder Even Faster
If you want to see the MobileSync/Backup folder alongside all the other large directories consuming space on your Mac, Crumb can help. Its Visualize tab scans your entire disk and presents a size-sorted map of the largest folders — the MobileSync backup folder shows up immediately alongside other common space hogs like Xcode device support files, Docker images, and old downloads. It is a faster way to gauge exactly how much disk space your iPhone backups are taking before you decide what to remove.
That said, Crumb does not delete iPhone backup folders for you — use Finder's Manage Backups dialog for that so macOS handles the removal cleanly.
iCloud Backups vs. Local Backups
It is worth clarifying the difference, because they are in completely different places:
- Local (Finder) backups — stored in
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backupon your Mac. Completely offline. Encrypted if you choose. - iCloud backups — stored on Apple's servers, not on your Mac at all. Managed through Settings → [your name] → iCloud → iCloud Backup on the iPhone itself. They do not appear in
MobileSync/Backup.
If you only use iCloud backups and have never synced your iPhone to Finder or iTunes on this Mac, the MobileSync/Backup folder may be empty or may not exist.
Keeping the MobileSync Folder Under Control
A few habits that prevent the folder from ballooning over time:
- After upgrading to a new iPhone, delete the old device's backup once you have verified everything transferred correctly.
- If you switch to iCloud Backup exclusively, the local backup folder will stop growing — but any existing local backups remain until you delete them manually.
- Periodically check the size of
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backupwith ⌘I or theducommand above. - If you want a broader view of what is consuming space across your entire Mac — not just MobileSync — tools like download Crumb and use the Visualize tab to get a complete picture in seconds.
Summary
iPhone backups on a Mac live in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup. The folder is hidden by default but reachable in seconds via Finder's Go to Folder (⇧⌘G). Before deleting anything, confirm which backups belong to devices you still own and make sure you have a current backup elsewhere. Cleaning up old or duplicate backups is one of the most reliable ways to recover significant disk space on a Mac — just do it through Finder's Manage Backups dialog rather than deleting raw folders.