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How to see what's inside an iPhone backup on your Mac

Your Mac may hold several iPhone and iPad backups, and you want to know what's in them before you rely on one, restore one or delete one. Finder can back up, restore, archive and delete backups and show a backup's folder, but Apple's instructions don't include a way to read what's inside.

Quick answer In Finder, select your iPhone and click Manage Backups to see the backups on your Mac; right-click one to show it in Finder. What a backup holds follows Apple's rules: almost all of the iPhone's data and settings, but not what's stored in iCloud, and some data only when the backup is encrypted. To see the data itself, you can restore the backup to an iPhone (archive it first), or use an app that reads backups on your Mac.

Step 1: See which backups you have

1. Connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac and select it in the Finder sidebar. If asked, tap Trust on the device and enter its passcode.
2. In the General tab, click Manage Backups.

You'll see the backups on this Mac. To see one in its folder, right-click it and choose Show in Finder. Click OK when you're done.

Step 2: Open the backup folder

Finder saves backups in your home folder's Library. To go there:

1. In Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder.
2. Type ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ and press Return.

Leave the files there as they are. To keep a backup, archive it in Manage Backups (right-click it, then Archive), so later backups don't replace it.

Step 3: Know what a backup holds

A backup made with your Mac includes almost all of your iPhone's data and settings. It doesn't include:

• iTunes Store, App Store and Apple Books content
• Content synced from your Mac, like imported MP3s or CDs, videos, books and photos
• Data already synced and stored in iCloud, like iCloud Photos, iMessages, and SMS and MMS messages
• Face ID or Touch ID settings
• Apple Pay information and settings
• Apple Mail data
• Activity, Health and Keychain data, unless the backup is encrypted
• Offline maps

An encrypted backup also holds your saved passwords, Wi-Fi settings, website history, Health data and call history. Backups aren't encrypted unless you turn it on, with Encrypt local backup in Finder's General tab. Turning it on starts a backup that overwrites and encrypts your previous backups, so archive any backup you want to keep first. You need the password to use an encrypted backup.

Step 4: See the data itself

One way to see what's in a backup is to restore it to an iPhone. Restoring sets up the whole iPhone from the backup and replaces what's on it now, so use a spare iPhone, or back up your current one first. Archive the backup you want to see before that, so the new backup doesn't replace it.

1. Connect the iPhone to your Mac with a cable and select it in the Finder sidebar.
2. In the General tab, click Restore Backup.
3. From the Backup menu, choose the backup, then click Restore. If it's encrypted, enter its password.
4. Keep the iPhone connected to your Mac while it restarts and syncs.

Then open the apps on the iPhone to see what came back. If you used your current iPhone, restore the backup you made first to put it back.

An easier way to look inside

An app that reads backups directly shows you what's in one without restoring anything. That's what Mirivilo does: in a device's Browse tab, the right column lists every kind of data the backup can hold. Click one to open it. The device doesn't need to be connected; only its backup is needed.

• Messages: every conversation, the whole thread, with the day each message was sent and pictures in the conversation.
• Photos: the camera roll by month. Select photos and click Save to Mac to copy the originals. Hidden and deleted photos aren't shown.
• Contacts: the list, and each card with phone and email.
• Notes: each note's full text. A note locked with a password on the iPhone has no text in the backup.
• Calendar and Reminders: each event and reminder with its details.
• Call history: who, when, which way and how long.
• Voicemail and Voice Memos: each recording, with a play button.
• Safari: the pages visited and the bookmarks.
• Health: each kind of data with its range and averages, in encrypted backups.

Mirivilo keeps the last backup of each day, for up to 30 days, on an APFS drive such as your Mac's, so you can choose an earlier day and see what the iPhone held then. It also lists backups made with Finder, so you can look inside those too (reading Finder's folder needs Full Disk Access). For an encrypted backup, Mirivilo uses the password in your keychain, or asks you for it. Export saves what you see: Everything in this backup writes one folder per kind, in formats that open anywhere.

Updated November 2026