Question

Is it safe to remove the Apple Installer Cache files?

Asked by: guyking

I am trying to free up drive space on an old windows xp machine, and I found that there is more than 500meg tied up in

Documents and Settings / All Users / Application Data / Apple / Installer Cache
Documents and Settings / All Users / Application Data / Apple Computer  / Installer Cache

which contain old installers for iTunes, Quicktime, Apple Mobile Device Support, Bonjour, and MobileMe

Are these folders safe to remove?  At the very least, can I safely remove all but the most recent one for each application?  I have to believe it is, but then again, I was very surprised to find them here in the first place.

Please advise.  Thanks!

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-08-13 at 21:47:11ID24652012
Tags

windows apple itunes

Topics

Windows XP Operating System

,

iTunes Software

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
7

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. bonjour removal
    I've been trying to download itune 8.0 but, my windows installationkeeps getting interrupted because the old version of bonjour cannot be removed. I've tried to remove it from the add and remove programs file.....not working. Tried to remove it manually by running "%PR...
  2. Bonjour on Windows = Plug and Play for apple?
    I am the admin on a win2k3 AD domain. One of my users, the only one with a mac, wants to use iTunes to turn the entire office into esentially a jukebox. This requires the Bonjour protocol (Service?) and I dont know much about it. I have turned off Bonjour on all the machines ...
  3. quicktime failed to initialize error -2096
    quicktime failed to initialize error -2096 "Quicktime is required to run itunes. Please uninstall itunes, then install itunes again" This is the error I get. I've done the following and still it errors out: iTunes Softare Apple Mobile Support iPhone (if you have ...
  4. How can I restart Bonjour on Vista?
    At some time I got tired of the messages from Bonjour and deactivated it. Now I cannot start it again when I need it for my iPhone. I have found it in services but get an error message when attempting to start it (refer to service-specific code -1). I tried to uninstall and i...
  5. iTunes won't install on Windows 7
    Hey - I was having trouble with iTunes and my iPhone and the iphone support guys told me to uninstall and reinstall itunes. I did that - removed all six of the apps recommended here: Use the Control Panel to uninstall iTunes and related software components in the following...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: orangutangPosted on 2009-08-13 at 22:15:06ID: 25095404

Yeah, I think it's safe to delete them. I think they're just the extracted installer files from the single installer file such as QuickTimeInstaller.exe. You can just try deleting them to your recycle bin and restore them if something doesn't work. You can check here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1127593

 

by: YogalingamPosted on 2009-08-14 at 01:20:47ID: 25096053

Also consider using Disk cleanup util from Start --> Program Files --> accessories --> system tools --> disk cleanup.
Then select unwanted temp and temp internet files and delete them.

 

by: guykingPosted on 2009-08-14 at 07:03:23ID: 25098118

orangutang -- I appreciate the feedback.  I agree that they appear to be the pure installers, and I also thought about the delete and possible restore, but I really need the space and would normally wait a few weeks if that was the strategy I was following.  I had also seen the apple discussion you referenced, but as you can see, it just had people asking the question -- no clear answer.

Yogalingam -- I did use that tool as well, but it doesn't touch these files (they aren't in the Temp hierarchies).

Can anyone give a more definitive answer that they know that these should or should not be removed?

Thanks!

 

by: guykingPosted on 2009-08-14 at 14:47:42ID: 25102644

Bumping point value -- I would love to get a definitive answer!

 

by: orangutangPosted on 2009-08-14 at 18:14:31ID: 25103505

Well, I don't have a definitive answer but since the person from http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1127593 said it worked with no problems, it should work for you too since the situation was almost exactly the same.

 

by: ilnycPosted on 2009-08-14 at 19:35:34ID: 25103783

I agree, it is safe to remove them.  If you are not sure, rename the folders to Old_xxx. And after all the apps work fine you can remove the backup files.  These are all free software so the worst can happen is you redownload them.  Is there a particular old version that you want to use?  That would be the only scenario I can think of where you don't want to download the updated version.

 

by: guykingPosted on 2009-08-15 at 16:43:21ID: 31615670

Thanks guys.  I am going to go ahead, but I am splitting the points since neither answer was definitive...  

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...