Is it OK to delete old iPhone & iPad manual backup files?

1. I honestly don't know why itunes does his.

2. Yes you can delete them.

3. Ok I know there is no 3 but remember Google is your friend, several articles asking the same thing.

There won't be any problem deleting all of the older backups.

As for the number of files in each backup and the amount of

space used is all dependent on your installed apps and how

they keep their data.

I checked, I only have a single (most recent) backup file

for my 4S. However I haven't done manual backups so

that might be why there are so many. There have been

a few occasions when I have done manual, however I

still only have the one folder.

BTW, when you open iTunes, how many backups are shown

in Preferences->Devices. If all those backups are shown there,

then that would probably be the best place to remove them.

If not, then just remove the older ones from the folder, but not

the most recent one indicated in iTunes.