We have no problem with Apple pumping out iPhone OS updates that measure in the hundreds of megabytes. In fact, the bigger the better – more features are never a bad thing. Except when those feature-packed update files are sitting around wasting space on your hard drive, as iPhone Atlas so helpfully points out. With several iPhone OS updates already issued by Apple for the iPhone and iPhone 3G, iPhone users are likely losing over a gigabyte (GB) of storage-space to out-dated files.
The problem with iPhone OS update files is that iTunes doesn’t automatically clean up and delete old, obsolete files. They just sit there, taking up valuable megabytes. The pack-rats among us will probably just as well hold on to the old iPhone firmware files, but the rest of you iPhone users will probably want to recover that extra 1GB of space come hard-drive spring cleaning time.
To clean up and delete old iPhone OS update files:
- Navigate to the folder containing old iPhone firmware files
- Mac OS X – [User]/Library/iTunes/iPod Software Updates
- Windows XP – C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates
- Windows Vista – C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates
- Delete them. (You’ll probably want to empty the Trash/Recycle Bin afterwards)
That’s it. Enjoy that recovered hard drive space!
[Via: iPhoneAtlas]