Apple Storage Conundrum
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Apple Storage Conundrum
Not about the wonderful fruit that keeps the doctor away, but the Cupertino based Tech behemoth ;-)
I make regular backups from my iPhone to my MacBook Pro to keep things safe should I have a mishap with said phone. All good so far.....On looking closely a few days ago I noticed that I had hardly any MBP storage left! How could this be ???
Plenty of space beforehand and nothing downloaded of note. On further investigation it turns out that the contents of the iPhone have been stored in 'ios files' (as expected) AND within the App storage of the MBP HD, although this should be under 7GB's normally. When I look at said 'App storage' only the Apps show, but the apparently duplicated ios files are in there and taking up a large chunk of memory. I haven't done anything different than normal, but as ever you never know! Has anyone else experienced this ?
I make regular backups from my iPhone to my MacBook Pro to keep things safe should I have a mishap with said phone. All good so far.....On looking closely a few days ago I noticed that I had hardly any MBP storage left! How could this be ???
Plenty of space beforehand and nothing downloaded of note. On further investigation it turns out that the contents of the iPhone have been stored in 'ios files' (as expected) AND within the App storage of the MBP HD, although this should be under 7GB's normally. When I look at said 'App storage' only the Apps show, but the apparently duplicated ios files are in there and taking up a large chunk of memory. I haven't done anything different than normal, but as ever you never know! Has anyone else experienced this ?
How do you make those backups? Do you connect the phone to your MacBook and select 'Back up now' in the relevant Finder window? In that case the backups should only be under iOS files (within the 'manage storage' dialog). What is 'app storage' on your MacBook? Do you mean the 'applications' folder? Your iOS backups should not be in there, unless you're somehow manually copying stuff next to the regular backup process.
Thread Starter
I connect the iPhone by cable to the MBP and it automatically syncs with the finder window as you mentioned. I have no idea how, or for that matter why there seems to be some connection to the apps. I've hopefully included a screen shot that was accessed via 'About this Mac'/storage/manage storage. The Applications amount in reality is simply the total minus the ios files total.
I don't think that what's under applications is from your phone. If you click on that line, you will see the installed software with the storage amount per application, these are the programs you have installed on your MacBook and the associated data. You can always clean up in that department if you want to, but if you want to save some space I would click on iOS files and see if you cannot clean up some of the backups in there. I tend to keep only the latest backup in there. If you have an iPhone with 128Gb or more storage and it is pretty full, it could of course just be one backup file.
You do have a lot of stuff under applications (although mine also shows over 80Gb in that department) so it could be useful to click on that line and see which bits of software are taking up the space. Looking at my list, having some larger bits of software (Microsoft stuff, Adobe applications) easily ramps up the total in that department. Feel free to show (or e-mail me if you don't want to post it) a screenshot of the first bit of the list under 'applications'. It might provide some further insight into this conundrum.
You do have a lot of stuff under applications (although mine also shows over 80Gb in that department) so it could be useful to click on that line and see which bits of software are taking up the space. Looking at my list, having some larger bits of software (Microsoft stuff, Adobe applications) easily ramps up the total in that department. Feel free to show (or e-mail me if you don't want to post it) a screenshot of the first bit of the list under 'applications'. It might provide some further insight into this conundrum.
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So, the 'lot of stuff under applications' is the erroneous duplication of the ios files. When I click on Applications in the above picture ALL I see are Apps, the largest one being 1.15GB and the rest getting smaller all the way down to MB sizes. That's the thing, it shows as 108GB on the outside, yet on 6GB (true total) when looked at from the inside, so to say.
I wouldn't mind if it were just some numerical error, but it actually has taken up 102GB's of memory storage and that seems very unusual. I know that it's the ios files duplication, because when I deleted the iPhone backup a few days ago, the Applications folder went back to 6GB's approximately. As soon as I repeated the iPhone back up, the Applications became bloated again by the invisible invader.
I wouldn't mind if it were just some numerical error, but it actually has taken up 102GB's of memory storage and that seems very unusual. I know that it's the ios files duplication, because when I deleted the iPhone backup a few days ago, the Applications folder went back to 6GB's approximately. As soon as I repeated the iPhone back up, the Applications became bloated again by the invisible invader.
Allright, in that case I think it is more an accounting error than a duplication, but we'll have to check that. If you go to 'About this Mac'/storage/' you'll see how much empty space there is on your drive. Note that number and then go to 'Manage storage' and 'iOS files' and delete the backup. Give your system some time for the dust to settle (I find that it sometimes takes a while before the grand total numbers change) and check how much the free storage has changed, it should have gone up by 102.78 Gb. Also, check if your applications size is still showing 108.61 Gb, it should be down to something realistic for your system. I suspect that the files are not really duplicated but just stored in such a way that they are counted twice.
You can also use the method described here: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204215 to locate and delete your phone backups. This way you might be able to see whether there is a single backup file or more than one.
You can also use the method described here: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204215 to locate and delete your phone backups. This way you might be able to see whether there is a single backup file or more than one.
Last edited by Jhieminga; 20th May 2022 at 14:00. Reason: Added info from Apple support.
Thread Starter
So, ios files deleted and 'applications' now showing approx 6GB's.
Using the link you provided, the iPhone backup is gone (as expected). Everything back to normal, except I've no back up of the iPhone now ;-) There seems to be some accounting error as you said, but as to why, it would appear to be something software related, rather than something I've managed to do. Perhaps it's a bug that arrived in one of the last few updates and Apple haven't got round to fixing it.
Using the link you provided, the iPhone backup is gone (as expected). Everything back to normal, except I've no back up of the iPhone now ;-) There seems to be some accounting error as you said, but as to why, it would appear to be something software related, rather than something I've managed to do. Perhaps it's a bug that arrived in one of the last few updates and Apple haven't got round to fixing it.
As far as I can tell the backups are stored under ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ (or somewhere else depending on your OS version). That appears to be somewhere within the applications storage 'area' of the drive, which does make sense as Apple likes to keep all files related to certain applications within app-specific containers. Because of this, the files produced by backing up your phone are counted towards the 'applications' total.
The 'manage storage' dialog is meant to provide an overview that enables you to quickly identify areas that could benefit from cleaning up. The list presented there is not meant to be a complete overview nor do the categories promise to be 'exclusive'. I see how this can lead to puzzles like this, but I do not think that this is a bug. If you want a more complete overview of what's stored where on your drive, there are other third party apps that can deliver that. Personally, I don't bother with this. I too back up my phone to my MacBook but have never seen this as an issue. It probably explains my 80+ Gb value for 'applications' but the more important issue is whether your total storage has enough free space. As long as you've got enough room to play on your drive, I would just back up your phone as normal and only keep an eye on the total storage in use.
Just curious, did the change in the size of the empty space reflect a single instance of those backup files?
The 'manage storage' dialog is meant to provide an overview that enables you to quickly identify areas that could benefit from cleaning up. The list presented there is not meant to be a complete overview nor do the categories promise to be 'exclusive'. I see how this can lead to puzzles like this, but I do not think that this is a bug. If you want a more complete overview of what's stored where on your drive, there are other third party apps that can deliver that. Personally, I don't bother with this. I too back up my phone to my MacBook but have never seen this as an issue. It probably explains my 80+ Gb value for 'applications' but the more important issue is whether your total storage has enough free space. As long as you've got enough room to play on your drive, I would just back up your phone as normal and only keep an eye on the total storage in use.
Just curious, did the change in the size of the empty space reflect a single instance of those backup files?
Update: I just ran a backup on my MacBook to verify this.
- Empty space went down from 113.6 GB to 82.1 GB, a difference of 31.5 GB.
- Space taken up by Applications went up from 86.2 GB to 117.7 GB, a difference of 31.5 GB
- Space taken up by iOS files went from zero to 31.5 GB
Thread Starter
Looks like this confirms the accounting error. The backup files are only stored on your drive once, but count towards both Applications and iOS files.
