How To Back Up Iphone To An External Drive Using ITunes and Terminal - AppleToolBox

How To Back Up iPhone to an External Drive Using iTunes and Terminal - AppleToolBox 07/07/2018, 11)46
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How To Back Up iPhone to an External Drive Using iTunes and

Terminal
By Elizabeth (https://appletoolbox.com/author/amandaw/) Last updated March 30, 2018
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Chances are that your iPhone or other iDevice is larger than the paltry 5GB
iCloud account Apple offers for free. You could upgrade your iCloud account
to the larger plans starting at USD .99/month (USD 11.88/year) for 50GB. But
why not utilize all that free space you probably have on an external hard drive
to backup your iPhone, iPad, or another iDevice instead? Or should I say, use
an external drive in addition to that free or paid iCloud account.
https://appletoolbox.com/2016/05/backup-iphone-external-drive/ Page 1 of 15
At Apple ToolBox, we recommend always having multiple backups of your

iDevices. Ideally, we all should have at least two backups minimum—1 on the
cloud and one on an internal or external drive. Best of all is to have two local
and two clouds. Why? Because you never know—like humans, things fall apart
and fail, a crisis happens, disasters strike. So let’s be proactive and take an
eyes-wide-open approach by backing up 2X2
(https://appletoolbox.com/2016/06/how-to-backup-iphone/).
Contents [hide]
0.1 Related Articles

1 Backing Up Your iPhone with iTunes
1.1 How to Set Your iPhone Backup to an External Drive
1.2 How to Return Backup to the Internal Drive
2 Summary
2.1 Related Posts:
Related Articles
Backup Photos with iCloud Photo Library
(https://appletoolbox.com/2016/06/backup-iphone-photos-using-icloud-
photo-library/)
Who’s Afraid of Losing Data? A Comprehensive Guide to iOS Backing Up
(https://appletoolbox.com/2016/06/how-to-backup-iphone/)
Find Your iTunes Backups on Windows and Macs
(https://appletoolbox.com/2016/03/find-itunes-backup-windows-mac/)
Backing Up Your iPhone with iTunes

I always back up my iPhone and iPad locally via iTunes. But it drives me crazy
that I don’t get to decide which folder to use for my backup. And since I don’t
get to control that, I don’t have the option to save it to an external drive. And
that just darn buggers me!
You can of course manually backup your iTunes backup by finding the backup
folder and dragging it to your external HD each time you backup. But what a
pain! If you find yourself annoyed enough, like I am, then Apple Terminal is
here to the rescue.
So let’s get to it!
How to Set Your iPhone Backup to an External Drive

1. Open your external drive and create a new folder for the backup. Name it in
a way you’ll remember, such as “MyiPhoneBackUp”
2. Open a new Finder window via File>New Finder Window or Command-N
3. Select Go to Folder via Go>Go to Folder or Command+Shift+G.
4. In the box that appears enter ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/

and select Go
5. Locate the folder named “Backup”
6. Drag the “Backup” folder to the folder on the external drive that you created
in Step 1
7. Rename the original Backup folder (the one on your internal drive) to
“BackupOld” (located here: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/)
8. Launch Terminal (Applications>Utilities)
9. Type in this command, replacing the “ExternalDriveName” with the exact
name of your external drive and replacing “MyiPhoneBackUp” with the name
of the folder from step 1: ln -s /Volumes/ExternalDriveName/
MyiPhoneBackUp /Backup/ ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync
10. Press Return and Quit Terminal

11. Verify that the link was established by
Select Go to Folder via Go>Go to Folder or Command+Shift+G

In the box that appears enter: ~/Library/Application
Support/MobileSync/
You should see a shortcut (symbolic link) to the Backup folder in the
Mobile Sync window letting you know that the link to the external drive’s
Backup folder is established. You should also see the BackupOld folder
you created in step 7
12. Open iTunes, connect your iOS device and back up normally selecting “This
computer” as the backup location as you did previously
13. Select the Back Up Now button
If all goes well, the backup file should now be on your designated external
drive. Verify it is indeed there. From now on, iTunes will back up your iDevice
to the external drive so remember to connect it to your computer before you
do a backup. If you do not have the external drive connected, the backup will
fail. And if you need to restore your device from the backup, you’ll need to
connect this external drive.
How to Return Backup to the Internal Drive

If for some reason you want to go back to backing up on your internal drive,
it’s a pretty straightforward process
1. Delete the Backup Shortcut (symbolic link)
2. Copy the Backup folder from the external drive back to the user library
location: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/
Summary
As always, at Apple ToolBox we recommend you retain a backup to the iCloud

in addition to your iTunes backup, just in case something goes wrong. And
preferably, you follow the 2X2 rule with 2 cloud backups and 2 local backups
(https://appletoolbox.com/2016/06/how-to-backup-iphone/). It feels like a lot
of unnecessary storage I know, but should the day ever arrive when you need
it, you’ll be thankful you have those backups at the ready. Remember, this is
your insurance policy, and we want comprehensive coverage.
Backup and Restore Backup Iphone Mac Backup
Related Posts:
Triple-Protect
iTunes backup How to Find Yourself by Macbook Backup
location: Where iTunes Backup Creating in 10 Minutes?
is the backup on Windows & Backups of Here’s How I Did
folder located? Mac Your… It
How to
Download How to extract
photos from Mac OS X: What your iPhone / iTunes Error -39
iCloud into a is “other” storage iPod Backups When Updating
USB drive and… (iTunes) iOS, How-To Fix
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13 Comments
Heather
June 15, 2018 at 4:19 AM (https://appletoolbox.com/2016/05/backup-iphone-external-
drive/#comment-1265637)
I followed all the steps and the symbolic link is setup however when i go to backup via iTunes it appears to want
to work but gives the error message “iTunes could not back up the iPhone because an error occurred.” Any
suggestions? Running version 11.4
Reply
Patrick D
June 4, 2018 at 3:58 PM (https://appletoolbox.com/2016/05/backup-iphone-external-
I follow all of the steps and it seems to work, however, it keeps telling me that the back is corrupt and to delete
it, however, I am trying to create a new back up. What should I do?
Reply
Kristin Struttmann
May 14, 2018 at 4:19 PM (https://appletoolbox.com/2016/05/backup-iphone-external-
What if I get a new iPhone and need to restore to it. Will it work to RESTORE from the external hard drive?
I ask bc I am having trouble backing up to the Cloud and I want to make sure I have 1 hard backup.
Thank you!
Kristin
Reply
SK
May 15, 2018 at 12:41 PM (https://appletoolbox.com/2016/05/backup-iphone-external-
Hi Kristin,
Yes, it should work.
Some readers found that placing the backup files temporarily on their internal hard drive worked faster
and more reliably.
Follow the instructions in the article with the heading How to Return Backup to the Internal Drive
1. Delete the Backup Shortcut (symbolic link)
2. Copy the Backup folder from the external drive back to the user library location: ~/Library/Application
Support/MobileSync/
SK
Reply
TJS
March 29, 2018 at 1:09 PM (https://appletoolbox.com/2016/05/backup-iphone-external-
This process worked great for me and I can see that backups are now going to my external drive. However,
iTunes now says that the my iPhone has never been backed up, and I have no way to restore from backup. Any
ideas?
Reply
SK
March 30, 2018 at 10:32 AM (https://appletoolbox.com/2016/05/backup-iphone-external-
Hi TJS,
Sorry, you’re having issues with backing up your iOS to an external drive. We actually ran some tests here
to see if we encountered the same problems. Interestingly, our iMac worked fine but our MacBook
showed similar issues. So here’s what we did to get the MacBook working:
1) Close All Open Apps and Restart the Mac
2) Trash the current Backup symbolic link in your user library’s Library/MobileSync folder
3) Open Terminal and recreate that symlink again:
ln -s /Volumes/Storage/iOSBackups/Backup/ ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup
Remember to substitute the name of your external drive for “Storage” and the name of your backup folder
for “iOSBackup”
We also discovered that keeping the names of your external drive and backup folder simple leads to fewer
issues.
4) Check and see if Terminal created the Backup symlink ( ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync)
5) If so, open connect your iPhone (or another iDevice) and launch iTunes
6) Open iTunes Preferences (Command+Comman) and tap the Devices tab–see if your backups are now
showing
7) Run a test by backing up using iTunes using This Computer and BackUp Now buttons
8) Check the backup folder on your external drive and see if it updated
If your problem persists, let us know
SK
Reply
kr
April 5, 2018 at 3:44 PM (https://appletoolbox.com/2016/05/backup-iphone-external-
I have the same problem. This solution no longer works on the latest iOS/OSX updates… It actually
crashes and restarts my computer when trying to backup to external HD…
Reply
SK
April 6, 2018 at 12:22 PM (https://appletoolbox.com/2016/05/backup-iphone-
external-drive/#comment-1259512)
Hi KR,
Sorry that these steps aren’t working for you on the latest macOS/iOS updates. We’re looking
into this problem and we’ll update the article (and let you know) when we find some solutions
that work! Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
SK
Reply
BruedTaco
I’ve tried this multiple times. Every time I try it, Terminal responds with “file exists,” and there is no “symbolic
link” in the Mobile Sync folder. I have hidden files turned on.
Reply
SK
Hi BT,
What version of macOS or Mac OS X are you running? Also, when you say you have hidden files turned on,
do you mean you are showing all hidden files?
SK
Reply
KP
November 14, 2017 at 2:11 AM (https://appletoolbox.com/2016/05/backup-iphone-external-
I’m having the same issue… I’ve spent hours doing the same steps, and it’s not working. I don’t have enough
space on my MacBook… please help
Reply
Elizabeth
Hi KP,
Sorry that the steps aren’t guiding you through the process. Please let us know what version of macOS or
Mac OS X you’re running on your MacBook. With that info, we’ll provide you OS specific directions.
Liz
Reply
gavsky
Had something like this working fine for 1+ years until a week ago or so. Since the latest macOS and iOS updates
about a week ago, it broke. Have spent literally hours trying to repeat the steps to get the backup recognised
and working off the external disc, all to no avail. Am convinced the latest OS changes have caused the symlink /
iTunes relationship to break, but it’s pure guess-work at the moment. Have ru Disk Utility and Techtool Pro
across everything, in case there are under-lying disc issues causing problems, but nothing has been identified.
Either way, I now have no way of saving iPhone backups to anywhere other than the MacBook Pro hard-drive,
and it’s running out of space fast :-/
Anyone got a solution or work-around ?
Reply
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How To Back Up iPhone to an External Drive Using iTunes and Terminal - AppleToolBox 07/07/2018, 11)46

How To Back Up iPhone to an External Drive Using iTunes and

At Apple ToolBox, we recommend always having multiple backups of your

0.1 Related Articles

Backing Up Your iPhone with iTunes

So let’s get to it!

How to Set Your iPhone Backup to an External Drive

4. In the box that appears enter ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/

5. Locate the folder named “Backup”

10. Press Return and Quit Terminal

Select Go to Folder via Go>Go to Folder or Command+Shift+G

How to Return Backup to the Internal Drive

As always, at Apple ToolBox we recommend you retain a backup to the iCloud

Backup and Restore Backup Iphone Mac Backup

ABOUT DEVICES SERVICES

About Us iPhone iPhone

(//appletoolbox.com/about- (https://appletoolbox.com/app (https://appletoolbox.com/app

Contact us index/iphone-troubleshooting- index/iphone-troubleshooting-

(//appletoolbox.com/contact- tips/) tips/)

us/) Mac & MacBook Mac & MacBook

Privacy (https://appletoolbox.com/app (https://appletoolbox.com/app

use/) Apple Watch Apple Watch

iPod Touch iPod Touch

© Copyright 2010-2018 AppleToolBox · All Rights Reserved

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