# Anki backup is WAY larger than what is actually present

**URL:** https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/anki-backup-is-way-larger-than-what-is-actually-present/41681
**Category:** Help
**Created:** [February 26, 2024, 10:59pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/anki-backup-is-way-larger-than-what-is-actually-present/41681 "2024-02-26T22:59:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![illysinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f4b2a3/32.png) [@illysinger](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/illysinger)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2024, 10:59pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/anki-backup-is-way-larger-than-what-is-actually-present/41681/1 "2024-02-26T22:59:44Z")

</div>

Hey everyone,

So I am using Anki on my Mac and my iPad which are synced, and I have a backup for Anki which is approximately 6.5GB. Now, I have only 1 user for Anki and everytime I export the whole user it gets to 100MB max, so where is this 6.4GB hiding?

 ![CleanShot 2024-02-26 at 23.55.04@2x](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/3X/c/d/cdcfa416da5a94521e39e867e89edb607fac4bea.jpeg)

I found the media files that are taking the space, but I deleted those decks a long time ago and for some reason the backup is still sitting on my Mac, is there any way to delete those?

Thank you!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![NameLessGO](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/namelessgo/32/34298_2.png) [@NameLessGO](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/NameLessGO)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2024, 11:09pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/anki-backup-is-way-larger-than-what-is-actually-present/41681/2 "2024-02-26T23:09:25Z")

</div>

Does this interface let you access Anki2 directly?

Anki2 \> Backups

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/3X/c/8/c826f25cf80d844d592a8c4cc1b858fecdb595cf.jpeg)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![illysinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f4b2a3/32.png) [@illysinger](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/illysinger)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2024, 11:14pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/anki-backup-is-way-larger-than-what-is-actually-present/41681/3 "2024-02-26T23:14:56Z")

</div>

Backup folder isn’t that big ☹

 ![CleanShot 2024-02-27 at 00.12.41@2x](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/3X/b/8/b808d2a9ee069c01e82aa44ab34263789ec072a9.jpeg)

All of the big files are on the collection.media folder, which is weird because I don’t have many of the files in my current decks…  
I can’t just delete the folder because my current decks media will also be deleted…

Any clue what to do?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![NameLessGO](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/namelessgo/32/34298_2.png) [@NameLessGO](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/NameLessGO)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2024, 11:16pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/anki-backup-is-way-larger-than-what-is-actually-present/41681/4 "2024-02-26T23:16:12Z")

</div>

Pardon, thought it was the other way around

Try Tools \> Check Media \> Deleted unused \> Empty Trash

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/1X/8f1279ababc5879d54e4838989f606cfe55af8c7.jpeg) [@system](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2024, 11:17pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/anki-backup-is-way-larger-than-what-is-actually-present/41681/5 "2024-03-27T23:17:01Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.