2 Copies of _Restore.ispw On Windows 10

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Level 1

4 points

2 Copies of _Restore.ispw On Windows 10

Noticed that my Win 10 C: drive was using up a lot more space that usual. Recently added an iPhone 14 and I'm now seeing two copies of the Restore.ispw file. I understand that it's an important piece to restore my phone, but why are they in two locations?

1) %user%/AppData/Roaming/Apple Computer/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates

and

2) %user%/AppData/Local/Packages/Appleinc.AppleDevices(and a bunch of rubbish)/LocalCache/Roaming/Apple/AMPDevicesAgent/iPhone Software Updates.

Which one can I get rid of? Why are there duplicates?

Also, something recent. I added Apple Devices App to my Win 10 machine, as well as a new version of iTunes, and Apple Music. I'm still not sure why that was needed. Maybe I need to nuke one of those apps?

iPhone 13, iOS 18

Posted on Jan 13, 2025 12:26 PM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

277,729 points

Jan 18, 2025 11:54 AM in response to SeaRor

There are two strains of iTunes, one downloads directly from apple.com, the other is distributed via the Microsoft Store. These may well store "private" data in different locations. The new Apple Devices app would again have its own private data area. All three have different locations for storing any device backup data.

tt2

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Answer 2

SeaRor Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 18, 2025 12:10 PM in response to turingtest2

Thank you for your response tt2. The more I dig into this, the uglier it gets. The “new” iTunes for Win seems to only support podcasts. The Apple Music app does appear to manage the music but in the process it’s nuked the greater percent of all the artist images from my Artist listing. It’s very frustrating for Apple to provide multiple applications to accomplish similar tasks, “Backups” and “Syncing”. I’m going to create a symbolic link for one of the backup sets to point to the folder that Apple Devices uses. At least I can cut down on the multiple copies of the backups. Now that iTunes has been replaced it doesn’t look possible for me to do backups from there any longer. Painful.

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

277,729 points

Jan 18, 2025 03:42 PM in response to SeaRor

If you install any of Apple Music, Apple Devices, or Apple TV they hobble iTunes such that it only works with audiobooks and podcasts. Uninstall all three to return functionality to iTunes.

tt2

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2 Copies of _Restore.ispw On Windows 10

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