How are iPhone backups to (Windows) PCs managed?

I have been trying to clean up my computer hard drive which is dangerously low on space and I found several large files that appeared to be iPhone backups in my recycle bin. I deleted all but the most recent one completely to free up space. But I don't find anything with the same sort of file naming in the active part of my hard drive. I assume Apple (in its usual secretive way) has changed the naming because they don't want users messing around with their files.

If only the most recent one or two backups are kept automatically, and others sent to the recycle bin, that's fine. But how do I find out for sure? If it is keeping many copies of the backup, I'd like to either archive them offline or delete them and only have one or two.

My hard drive is also continuously backed up to the cloud (Backblaze) and I occasionally do a manual backup to our Network drive, so there are several layers of backup here.

Any intel on this would be greatly appreciated.

(I do NOT use iCloud backup and prefer not to at this point.)

Apple could tell you, but then they'd have to kill you

BaseballMom said:

Apple could tell you, but then they'd have to kill you

LOL!

My biggest objection to them actually is their secrecy about all of this stuff. But I'm used to my iPhone and really don't want to switch. (And not sure if Android is any better on that score.)

On a Windows computer Apple keeps its iOS backups in the current user profile under:

C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

(note: AppData is normally hidden so you may not see it, but it's definitely there)

Under Backup there will be a folder with a 39 digit hex number for each phone backed up. Each of those folders will contain a few thousand similarly named files of varying sizes.

It's best to manage iPhone backups through iTunes itself through Edit > Preferences > Devices (tab).

iTunes only keeps a current backup of your phone. It doesn't keep older versions of your phone backups, although when you get a new device it won't automatically purge old ones, so it may look like it's keeping an older backup in that situation.

iTunes does not use the Recycle Bin, so anything in there would have been deleted manually, most likely using Windows Explorer. Also, there's not much to identify iPhone backups, as they're just folders or files with 39 hexadecimal digits.

That's about it, no voodoo, it's just putting the stuff in the normal place where user preferences are saved. On the Mac it's essentially the same thing, but it uses the user's Library folder which is also hidden by default.

qrysdonnell said:

On a Windows computer Apple keeps its iOS backups in the current user profile under:

C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup


(note: AppData is normally hidden so you may not see it, but it's definitely there)

Under Backup there will be a folder with a 39 digit hex number for each phone backed up. Each of those folders will contain a few thousand similarly named files of varying sizes.

It's best to manage iPhone backups through iTunes itself through Edit > Preferences > Devices (tab).

iTunes only keeps a current backup of your phone. It doesn't keep older versions of your phone backups, although when you get a new device it won't automatically purge old ones, so it may look like it's keeping an older backup in that situation.

iTunes does not use the Recycle Bin, so anything in there would have been deleted manually, most likely using Windows Explorer. Also, there's not much to identify iPhone backups, as they're just folders or files with 39 hexadecimal digits.

That's about it, no voodoo, it's just putting the stuff in the normal place where user preferences are saved. On the Mac it's essentially the same thing, but it uses the user's Library folder which is also hidden by default.

Thank you!!

Key statement here is that it only keeps a current backup (i.e. just one), so I'm happy about that. I don't know what was in my recycle bin then, but they were large and I deleted all but the most recent one. So I'm thinking I should just delete the last one then also. (Perhaps it was something I knew about at the time of deletion (via Windows Explorer) but didn't make sure it was deleted completely ... but memory fails me now.)

Interestingly, I went through iTunes today and deleted all but the latest backup (several) and ONE such file DID end up in my recycle bin. It definitely wasn't there right before I did the deletions and was there right after and had a long filename including 'apple'. I've deleted it out of the recycle bin now. Some were several years old, so maybe it used to work a different way (?) Later I had to delete the most recent backup because iTunes said it was corrupted, and that one did NOT end up in the recycle bin. I have now backed up my phone again so it appears that I have exactly one current backup. After all this I have a little breathing room on my C drive again, but I would really like to change the drive where these backups are stored to improve that situation. But I can't find a setting in iTunes to do that. Is there a way?