Apple taking up inordinate space on disk

[Peter Kinross]

We have 2 iPhones (4 & 5) and 1 iPad (4) all on one apple account. I back them up to iCloud. Yet Apple stuff takes up about 20% of my main 128 Gig C drive (SSD) and about 10gig of 80gig on another drive. No way of measuring the exact amount of space on the C: drive as it is all over the place. And about 800meg of pics on another drive. We have no music. There are a heap of game apps for the grand kids. Overall the 16 gig storage on each of the phones has about 2 gig spare.
Is there some way to get this space hogging on my computer DRASTICALLY reduced?

[HansV]

I found a suggestion that this can be caused by iTunes - apparently it creates a lot of backups. you might delete older ones.
To delete iTunes backups:
- Start iTunes.
- Select Edit > Preferences.
- Activate the Devices tab.
- Select the backup that you want to remove, then click Delete Backup.
- Confirm that you wish to remove the selected backup.
- Repeat as necessary/desired.

More detailed info: How to reclaim disk space by deleting old iOS backups.

[Rudi]

Hi Peter,

You may want to check your iTunes backup settings and one can have a setting to backup to iCloud and to PC. Also, large files , pictures and video do not get backed up up to iCloud.

See these web pages for more info about backups and how to reclaim space....
- http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5262
- http://www.geeklift.com/iphone-backups- ... pace-hogs/
- http://www.mactrast.com/2012/11/how-to- ... -your-mac/

[Peter Kinross]

Thanks guys. that made a bit of difference.
Thinking about it, with two 16 gig phones nearly full and one 32 gig iPad half full, there is an awful lot of stuff to back up. Sure it is almost all 3 copies of the same things, but I doubt if any backup software is smart enough to take that into account. So all in all, I guess that I just have to put up with it.
Thanks again.