Huge files

I have a 2006 IPod classic, my wife has an ipad2 I have an ipad3 and my daughter has an iPod touch. I lost 16GB of memory after connecting the iPod touch and now my iOS cache has grown to 41GB as a result of the iOS machines.

As my Mac memory left is only 15GB I would like to find and delete the cache file or put it on a portable hard drive. I'm not sure how to find it or move or delete it.

any ideas?

Thanks

my Mac

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Model?
OS X version?

Have (ALL) these machines been shut down (COMPLETELY) & restarted?

Sorry for the delay in replying.
Mac Desktop 2007 with 2.4GHZ Intel Core Duo
OSX Version 10.5.8 Leopard
All machines are shut down COMPLETELY every night and often during the day.

First question - how do you know an iOS cache has grown to 41Gb if you don't know where it is to check it's size?

There is no iOS cache, but backups of iOS devices are stored at:

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

~ is your home folder

If you are down to less than 15% free space on your machine, you need to dump a bunch more off that drive or it's time to upgrade the drive. Would be more than surprised if you're not already experiencing slow downs and spinning beach balls with only 15 GB free space.

Thank you
A few days ago I ran CleanMyMac which said "IOS Cache 41 GB". Maybe it's unreliable.
I've had spinning beach balls since my memory fell below 70GB
I've gone to the first path you gave, there is 1 file there with no specified size.
I'm not sure where the files went when I backed up my daughter's Ipod Touch, My wife's Ipad 2 and my Ipad 3. My free space started dropping about then. I didn't delete anything. Is there more than 1 library/app support etc?

A few days ago I ran CleanMyMac which said "IOS Cache 41 GB". Maybe it's unreliable.

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That's the problem. CleanMyMac and many other so called "cleaning" utilities are nothing but pure snake oil and do more harm than good. Please remove CleanMyMac (use their uninstall procedure). If you do wish to run a maintenance and cleanup program, the only one we recommend is OnyX. It's free and will not harm your data.

That is the location where backups are stored for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

I would also recommend getting rid of CleanMyMac and go with Onyx.

The best (easiest) utility I've found for actually looking at where all your data is stored and what's taking up space is WhatSize. Not free, but is inexpensive and does have a free trial.

35% free space on a hard drive is where I begin noticing my machine slow down and by 25% I can't stand using that computer any longer. By 5-10%, you've got a computer that barely works and probably is freezing on occasion.

Once a drive has been that full, even after freeing up space, it's going to be highly fragmented and still running slow. Two ways to defragment it:

1. Use SuperDuper! or CarbonCopyCloner and create a bootable backup, boot to the back up, verify it's working and all your data is there, then format your internal drive and restore from your backup to the internal.

2. Grab iDefrag.