iPhone/iPad backups on iMac Pro taking too much space

There is no easy to way reduce device backup size on a Mac.

You can move them off onto an external drive, but you would need to move them back onto the iMac whenever you'd want to use them.

There's also a way to redirect the backups to an external drive so Finder can still use them while not being stored on the iMac's internal drive.

click here ➜ Relocate iOS Device Backups - Apple Communities User Tips

iMazing can save your iPhone/iPad backups to an external drive, relieving the necessity of saving them to the internal drive..

I use iMazing. It works great but you do need to read the guides to properly set up external backups.

iMazing saved my Calendar from destruction when for some reason Catalina wouldn't sync my iPhone Calendar. After recovering my Calendar and eventually replacing my iMac and moving to macOS Monterey & Sonoma it's working again but I still use iMazing for backups. It has also enabled me to easily export Calendar, Contacts, Photos, Messages and more.

FWIW, I would not suggest using the symlink method as described earlier. It may or may not work and even if it works now it may not after some future macOS update or upgrade. I have had no success using symlinks to/from locations in ~/Library folders on macOS subsequent to Catalina.

rjtiedemann wrote:

HOW the heck did APPLE allow this condition to occur for both photos and Ipad/Iphone backups. I prefer an Apple solution to this rather than new EMOJIs.

They didn't allow anything to occur, they made it this way by design when iPhone and iPad backups were pretty small and hard drives were pretty large in comparison. They just have never bothered to create an option since the to move them off of the limited internal hard drives on Macs.

You can offer Apple feedback at https://apple.com/feedback if enough people do, they may offer a way to move them off the internal drive.

I found this in Google. https://www.imore.com/how-move-your-iphone-or-ipad-backups-external-hard-drive

Has anyone tried using this terminal magic to create a proper pathway.  (create a symlink — or symbolic link)

It the same processes with symlinks the user tip I posted above above discusses. Yes it works o.k and keeps the backups on the external drive. The article on imore goes into a bunch of other unnecessary steps you really don't need and make it seem very complicated.

You only need to move the backup folder to an external drive, and then symlink that original folder on the Mac so it points to the location on the external drive. That's it, it's a 2 step process with a single terminal command.

If you are manually syncing and backing up your iOS devices to your Mac..?

see > Locate and manage backups of your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Before deleting any of the backups from that location, use Get info to make sure that you are only deleting the old backups and not the most recent backup.

If you choose to delete all stored iOS backups, be sure to create one new backup for each device.

Old Toad wrote:

Phil0124 wrote:

click here ➜ Relocate iOS Device Backups - Apple Communities User Tips

That link takes me to an old User Tip by turningtest2 regarding iPhoto libraries: Make a split library portable

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/0f8204eb-ac1a-42c0-a630-586154c871e7

There's a section in that user tip dealing with "Relocating iOS Backups".

Here's a more specific link that should take you to that place in the User Tip.

click here ➜ Relocating iOS Backups

I backup my iPhone 12 Mini to my Mac and what is reported by the system as 65.29 GB of audio, apps and documents and data takes up 13.51 GB on my Mac. That's a pretty good reduction of space required.

rjtiedemann wrote:

i think TIME MACHINE for the iPad and IPhone devices is a possible direction. Selling a non upgrade able Mac with 256GB is not cool unless you can off load data.

Time Machine already backs up the iPhone and iPad backups on a Mac. But direct backing up to a time machine drive over the network may possibly be an option. Again, you can offer Apple feedback and if enough people do, they may implement the option in a future update.

The symlink process is a way but…. dangerous if done wrong, requires skills I presently don’t have and makes my head hurt. VERY NOT APPLE LIKE.

No danger exists really. Worst that could happen is you sum link the wrong folder. In which case, it's easy to undo, by simply deleting the sym link from the folder. No real danger of anything other than that happening. You don't want to be sym linking the root drive though.

Also: I don’t get emojis either, hate texting to my children who have forgotten how to use the phone for voice calls.

The easy answer is just get the 4TB MAC next time and use time machine.

That's the easiest but most expensive option. Specially with the price increase on sold state storage and emory chips looming on the horizon even for Apple.

rjtiedemann wrote:

I noticed that my Iphone and Ipad backup on my 2TB IMac Pro is getting fairly large. How can you back up all our I-DEVICES on my work station to free up space for work? We are also backing up to the cloud.

The system was fine when Ipads & Iphone were small.

Just how large is "fairly large"?

What is the backup size for each device?

How much free space do you have on your boot drive?

rjtiedemann wrote:

I back up 2 - iPhone Pros and 2 - iPads for my wife and I. So I guess Apple wanted us to all be single.

Actually Apple wants you to backup your iOS devices to iCloud and then pay to upgrade the iCloud storage.

The more data you have to back up, the more space it will take. There is no magic that will allow you to store more stuff in less space.

Phil0124 wrote:

click here ➜ Relocate iOS Device Backups - Apple Communities User Tips

That link takes me to an old User Tip by turningtest2 regarding iPhoto libraries: Make a split library portable