iPhone back up issues - back up to external drive?

[DeLorean75]

Hi

I have a sick iphone that I want to back up to my pc and do a full restore on.

Is there anyway I can make the back up point at an external drive?

The required data at 200gb+ far exceeds what I have available on my laptop, though I have an external drive that could handle it.

Any wise words appreciated!

Thanks

(It has never backed up and my best guess is trying to run some google apps like google photos on there has really confused it. All my photos are in the cloud and backed up separately off the cloud using Google Takeout so I will happily back up the iphone without backing up photos, but I don't think that's an option either)

[the-norseman]

Why not just backup the phone to iCloud, back up the photos there as well?

my work iPhone backsup everything to iCloud, my personal Pixel phone backs up everything to Google Drive.

Never had an issue with either, have switched phones a few times.

[Mr.Grimsdale]

Surely its as simply as plugging the external drive into the laptop.
This should give you a drive letter. Then simply run the backup but point it at the new drive letter.

[DeLorean75]

the-norseman said:

Why not just backup the phone to iCloud, back up the photos there as well?

my work iPhone backsup everything to iCloud, my personal Pixel phone backs up everything to Google Drive.

Never had an issue with either, have switched phones a few times.

Phone will not back up to iCloud. Hangs and gives up. Tried that one to death. Not a storage issue

[DeLorean75]

Mr.Grimsdale said:

Surely its as simply as plugging the external drive into the laptop.
This should give you a drive letter. Then simply run the backup but point it at the new drive letter.

itunes will not recognise device

Apple Devices app on Windows Laptop does - no problem - but there does not appear to be any latitude to change where the back up goes to on the laptop

[unzippy]

1. Find your current backup folder
Usually one of these:

%APPDATA%\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
or %USERPROFILE%\Apple\MobileSync\Backup


2. Move it to your external drive
Example:
E:\iPhoneBackup\


3. Rename the original folder
Rename:
Backup → Backup.old


4. Create the link (this is the key bit)
Open Command Prompt as Admin and run:
mklink /J "C:\Users\YOURUSER\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "E:\iPhoneBackup"

(Adjust paths depending on your setup)
This creates a junction so iTunes writes to the external drive instead.

5. Test it
Run a backup in iTunes — it should now fill up your external drive, not C:\

[DeLorean75]

Thank you for this.

Explain the action of Point 2 like I was a child

(Thanks!)

unzippy said:

1. Find your current backup folder
Usually one of these:

%APPDATA%\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
or %USERPROFILE%\Apple\MobileSync\Backup


2. Move it to your external drive
Example:
E:\iPhoneBackup\


3. Rename the original folder
Rename:
Backup ? Backup.old


4. Create the link (this is the key bit)
Open Command Prompt as Admin and run:
mklink /J "C:\Users\YOURUSER\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "E:\iPhoneBackup"

(Adjust paths depending on your setup)
This creates a junction so iTunes writes to the external drive instead.

5. Test it
Run a backup in iTunes it should now fill up your external drive, not C:\

[DeLorean75]

Thank you for this.

Explain the action of Point 2 like I was a child

(Thanks!)

unzippy said:

1. Find your current backup folder
Usually one of these:

%APPDATA%\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
or %USERPROFILE%\Apple\MobileSync\Backup


2. Move it to your external drive
Example:
E:\iPhoneBackup\


3. Rename the original folder
Rename:
Backup ? Backup.old


4. Create the link (this is the key bit)
Open Command Prompt as Admin and run:
mklink /J "C:\Users\YOURUSER\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "E:\iPhoneBackup"

(Adjust paths depending on your setup)
This creates a junction so iTunes writes to the external drive instead.

5. Test it
Run a backup in iTunes it should now fill up your external drive, not C:\

[unzippy]

Sure - You are moving the contents of the existing iTunes backup folder somewhere else for safekeeping.

[DeLorean75]

unzippy said:

Sure - You are moving the contents of the existing iTunes backup folder somewhere else for safekeeping.

Ah - got it. not much there but wilco

Will try this and revert - thanks so much for input

[DeLorean75]

Checking Point 4

This is the current path:
C:\Users\garet\Apple\MobileSync\Backup\

Is the command prompt instruction therefore:
mklink /J "C:\Users\garet\Apple\MobileSync\Backup" "E:\iPhoneBackup"
?

Note that I removed \Roaming\

...or should that remain?

DeLorean75 said:

Thank you for this.

Explain the action of Point 2 like I was a child

(Thanks!)

unzippy said:

1. Find your current backup folder
Usually one of these:

%APPDATA%\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
or %USERPROFILE%\Apple\MobileSync\Backup


2. Move it to your external drive
Example:
E:\iPhoneBackup\


3. Rename the original folder
Rename:
Backup ? Backup.old


4. Create the link (this is the key bit)
Open Command Prompt as Admin and run:
mklink /J "C:\Users\YOURUSER\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "E:\iPhoneBackup"

(Adjust paths depending on your setup)
This creates a junction so iTunes writes to the external drive instead.

5. Test it
Run a backup in iTunes it should now fill up your external drive, not C:\

[DeLorean75]

Checking Point 4

This is the current path:
C:\Users\garet\Apple\MobileSync\Backup\

Is the command prompt instruction therefore:
mklink /J "C:\Users\garet\Apple\MobileSync\Backup" "E:\iPhoneBackup"
?

Note that I removed \Roaming\

...or should that remain?

DeLorean75 said:

Thank you for this.

Explain the action of Point 2 like I was a child

(Thanks!)

unzippy said:

1. Find your current backup folder
Usually one of these:

%APPDATA%\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
or %USERPROFILE%\Apple\MobileSync\Backup


2. Move it to your external drive
Example:
E:\iPhoneBackup\


3. Rename the original folder
Rename:
Backup ? Backup.old


4. Create the link (this is the key bit)
Open Command Prompt as Admin and run:
mklink /J "C:\Users\YOURUSER\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "E:\iPhoneBackup"

(Adjust paths depending on your setup)
This creates a junction so iTunes writes to the external drive instead.

5. Test it
Run a backup in iTunes it should now fill up your external drive, not C:\

[unzippy]

I think it should be:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

So in your case:
C:\Users\garet\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup


You should keep \Roaming\ (and the full path), like this:
mklink /J "C:\Users\garet\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "E:\iPhoneBackup"

[DeLorean75]

no that doesn't work

this is definitely the current path:
C:\Users\garet\Apple\MobileSync\Backup\