large ios file... do i need this?

[fisherking]

on my macbook air, i have this:

"iOS 14.2.1 for MacBook Air" (my air is running 14.4). what is this? and can i delete it? never saw this before when checking on my iphone backup...

 

[fisherking]

deleted, and all is well 👍

 

[bogdanw]

My first thought was that it must be the IPSW file downloaded by macOS to update your iPhone to iOS 14.2.1.
But as it says “iOS 14.2.1 for MacBook Air”, I suspect it might be related to running iOS apps on macOS.

 

[chrfr]

My first thought was that it must be the IPSW file downloaded by macOS to update your iPhone to iOS 14.2.1.
But as it says “iOS 14.2.1 for MacBook Air”, I suspect it might be related to running iOS apps on macOS.

There's no separate iOS instance on Apple Silicon Macs, and given how old iOS 14 is, I suspect this is some leftover from a Mac update that was never cleared out after installation. The file size would pretty much correspond with a macOS IPSW file.

 

[bogdanw]

There's no separate iOS instance on Apple Silicon Macs, and given how old iOS 14 is, I suspect this is some leftover from a Mac update that was never cleared out after installation. The file size would pretty much correspond with a macOS IPSW file.

You are correct, it’s the exact size of the macOS 14.2.1 ipsw

https://updates.cdn-apple.com/2023FallFCS/fullrestores/052-22662/ECE59A41-DACC-4CA5-AB23-FDED1A4567DE/UniversalMac_14.2.1_23C71_Restore.ipsw

But why was it downloaded and why is it mislabeled?
To my knowledge, macOS doesn’t use that ipsw file to update. If needed, it downloads InstallAssistant.pkg.
Other possibilities would be that the ipsw file was downloaded to restore another Mac or to run a virtual machine (UTM, VirtualBuddy).

 

[fisherking]

You are correct, it’s the exact size of the macOS 14.2.1 ipsw

https://updates.cdn-apple.com/2023FallFCS/fullrestores/052-22662/ECE59A41-DACC-4CA5-AB23-FDED1A4567DE/UniversalMac_14.2.1_23C71_Restore.ipsw

But why was it downloaded and why is it mislabeled?
To my knowledge, macOS doesn’t use that ipsw file to update. If needed, it downloads InstallAssistant.pkg.
Other possibilities would be that the ipsw file was downloaded to restore another Mac or to run a virtual machine (UTM, VirtualBuddy).

probably when i moved from one macbook air to a new air...