Is it okay to delete old iPhone backup from MacBook Pro to free up the storage?

spencer vex wrote:

My late 2018 MBP is running out of storage space. In an attempt to clear some space, I went into Storage in System Settings to see what was available to delete. I noticed there was 49GB in "iOS Files". When I click on that it shows two items, an old iPhone10 back up and a folder titled with a really long number with "zero KB" in it. The iPhone10 backup is a whopping 49GB so I am thinking it will be good to delete it. My concern is that there are no other iPhone backups in there, even though I thought I had backed up my iPhone13 at some point since then. I just recently transferred all photos/videos to the Photos app, so I could clear up space on the phone, because it was maxed out. I had thousands of photos and videos as I run a small business and rely on shooting videos and photos for social media posts, and those do not always get deleted from the phone in a timely manor. Anyway, the last time I accessed that iPhone10 backup was in 2020. Would it be ok to delete it? And then should I backup my current phone after that is deleted?

Yes, it should be fine to delete that backup. You can always create a new one at any time.

One more question, there is 25GB of "Messages" showing in Storage as well. Looks like basically my entire text history. Is there a reason why I would want to keep that in my MBP?

Only you can answer that. Do you need to access your messages there? Otherwise, no, there's no real need to have that there.

All of the photos and videos I have sent seem to be in there. Should I delete the entire 25GB of "Messages"?

You can. Up to you.

Why would I need them on my Mac?

No way to know. Would you? Have you ever needed them before? Only you can possibly know what you need or don't need.

Or should I go through and just delete the videos and photos in them? Will this affect the text history on my phone, or just on the Mac?

It should not affect the iPhone.

spencer vex wrote:

Anyway, the last time I accessed that iPhone10 backup was in 2020. Would

it be ok to delete it?

And then should I backup my current phone after deleted?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: OK to delete old iPhone backup from MBP?

Makes sense to me...

its nice to have at least one backup of your iphone.

If you update you iPhone through the Finder when connected it will delete the last backup and create a new backup before it upgrades the iOS.

I like to have one "archive" — this does not get deleted in the same way.

In order to save drive space recent iOS backs are over-written, unless you manually alter the name or from Manage Backups Control click and “Archive” the backup.

delete any old backup you do not want.

ex.

I have never used the iCloud to backup my iPhone since I have the basic free 5GB limit...



ref: Back up iPhone - Apple Support

spencer vex wrote:

If I do delete that old backup, and then do a new backup, that will then put all those messages back onto my Mac I suppose. So I will need to delete them again? Or will the backup process allow me to pick and choose what gets backup from the phone to the Mac?

No, the backups are self contained. Making a new backup would not add messages to the messages App. Messages aren't even included in the backup.

click here ➜ Backup methods for iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

If you are using the same Apple ID for the iPhone and the Mac, messages are synced.

Also if you have Text Message forwarding turned on on your iPhone, it will forward SMS and MMS messages to the Mac.

You can turn it off in Settings ➜ Apps ➜ Messages ➜ Text Message Forwarding on the iPhone.

Do you use Time Machine regularly? If so try the following:

I keep he latest snapshot.