12-11-2011, 05:51 PM

I have had an iPhone 4 since February and have a MBP 2.1 running Leopard. I have a pretty large iTunes library, including audiobooks. I also have been downloading a lot of Kindle and Nook books directly onto my phone. Up until about 6 weeks ago I was able to back up my iphone but not anymore.

I keep getting asked if I want to upgrade iTunes on my computer and when I say yes, this message pops up:

The media on this iPhone cannot be backed up because there is not enough free space on this computer to hold all of the backed up files (4.78 GB required, 1.90 GB available). Would you like to continue to update this iPhone?

I've tried saying yes, but it tells me it can't do it.
Solutions, anyone?

12-11-2011, 06:06 PM

Hi there ,welcome by the way,

Take the phone out of the equation (don't connect it) and update iTunes via the Apple website first and see if that helps.

12-11-2011, 06:31 PM

Originally Posted by sandara

The media on this iPhone cannot be backed up because there is not enough free space on this computer to hold all of the backed up files (4.78 GB required, 1.90 GB available). Would you like to continue to update this iPhone?

Unless I'm mistaken, your problem sounds like exactly what you have said. If you only have 1.9 GB left on your computer then try deleting things you no longer need.

If you don't know how to find out how much space you have left then go to your computer's desktop and right the Macintosh HD icon and then choose Get Info. After that see how much available hard drive space you have left. If it is only 1.9 GB free then start finding files you can delete. Make sure to empty the trash too because files are not deleted until you do.

12-11-2011, 08:35 PM

Less than two GB's free space is about ONE TENTH the amount of free space you should be keeping available AT A MINIMUM for smooth operation of the computer. So yeah, sounds like you seriously need to do a LOT of housekeeping ASAP.

12-12-2011, 04:25 PM

Thanks to everyone. I am cleaning house and deleting files and programs I no longer use. I have deleted the obvious ones I know I don't need, but how do I find out which other files are safe to delete (some have names I don't recognize)? I don't want to delete something crucial (been there, done that).

12-12-2011, 10:27 PM

It would be too long to list everything you shouldn't delete but if you want to be safe you can usually delete files you no longer need from your Documents, Applications, or Download folder.

Check your download folder first because if you haven't cleaned that out yet you'll probably have a lot of unnecessary files leftover. Things in your document and applications folder are things you usually either installed or placed there yourself so you should know what you can and can't delete.

If you still can't find enough hard drive space then you should consider getting an external hard drive and then transferring some of your files other there. For example, moving pictures and videos will free up a lot of your hard drive.

You can also use an app like OmniDiskSweeper to find out what is taking up so much space. That's the program I use.

12-13-2011, 01:59 AM

Broadly speaking, the files that take up the most space on anybody's computer are videos, photos, music (in that order). Apps and their related documents generally don't take up an appreciable amount of space. It's media that's the problem.