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iPhone Software Updates folder on Mac: safe to delete?

Safe to deleteRegenerated automatically; Thermo deletes it outright.

Where it is

  • ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates
  • ~/Library/iTunes/iPad Software Updates

What it is

When you update or restore an iPhone or iPad from your Mac, Finder (or iTunes) downloads the full firmware file, an .ipsw, into the iPhone or iPad Software Updates folder under ~/Library/iTunes.

Why it gets so big

Each IPSW is a complete operating system image, often several GB, and older ones stay behind after newer releases replace them.

Is it safe to delete?

Yes. These are firmware downloads only, not backups or personal data. If you update or restore a device from your Mac again, the current version is downloaded fresh from Apple. Keep a file only if you saved it deliberately to restore a specific version.

Tip

Apple stops signing older iOS versions not long after a new release, so an old IPSW usually can't be installed anyway.

See how much space it uses

du -sh "$HOME/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates" "$HOME/Library/iTunes/iPad Software Updates" 2>/dev/null

Delete it by hand

Run in Terminal. Deleting cannot be undone, so check the paths first.

rm -rf "$HOME/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates"/*
rm -rf "$HOME/Library/iTunes/iPad Software Updates"/*

Related locations

All cleanup guides →