Where Are iPhone Backups Stored and How to Change It

Updated Apr 20,2018 | by Cody

It is good practice to backup iPhone to your computer using iTunes. To make sure your backups are valid, you may want to check the backup files, so where are iPhone backups stored?

Locate iPhone Backups

If you are using a Mac, you can go to iTunes > Preference > Devices and then select your device to view the backup location.

The Windows version of iTunes does not provide this feature. To see where iPhone backups are stored in Windows 10/8/7, follow the steps below.

Step 1. Press Windows + R or find the Search bar by clicking the Start button.

Step 2. Enter “%appdata%Apple ComputerMobileSync” in the box.

Step 3. Press Enter to open the iPhone backup folder.

Generally, iTunes saves the backup in the default user profile folder on Windows 10/8/7 computer, which means C: drive. If you have backed up multiple iOS devices using iTunes, you may probably run out of space on C drive.

As you know, C: drive is not a good option for storing backups because files are most likely to be affected if system crashes. Therefore, it is recommended to backup iPhone to external hard drive or other location on your computer.

How to Change iPhone Backup Location in Windows 10/8/7

Basically, you cannot change the default iTunes backup location because iTunes does not allow it. Fortunately, there is a workaround. What we do is create a new folder linking to original iTunes backup location, which works like a shortcut.

For example, let’s backup iPhone to an external hard drive (F: drive). You can refer to the steps below to change iPhone backup location.

Step 1. Create a new folder named “Backup” on the destination location where you want to iPhone backup stored.

Step 2. Go to the original iPhone backup location. Rename the original Backup folder as “Old Backup”.

Step 3. hold down the Shift key and right click on the while space in the File Explorer.

Step 4. Select Open PowerShell window here for Windows 10/8. If you are using Windows 7, just select Open command window here instead.

Step 5. If you use PowerShell, Enter the following command and Press Enter. You need to change the switch “F:Backup” to your desired folder to receive iPhone backups.

cmd /c mklink /J “%APPDATA%Apple ComputerMobileSyncBackup" "F:Backup"

If you use Command Prompt, remove the “cmd /c”, namely, mklink /J “%APPDATA%Apple ComputerMobileSyncBackup" "F:Backup"

Step 5. There is a Backup shortcut in the MobileSync folder. Now you can copy the original backup files in the Old Backup folder to the external hard drive or just simply delete the old backup to free up some space on C: drive.

Be careful with all these steps. If you miss one bit, it may result in iTunes backup failed. If you are not familiar with command line, this may look a bit complicated. Besides iTunes, you can use another tool to backup iPhone to anywhere you want.

Alternative Way to Backup iPhone to Computer

IOTransfer is a reliable iPhone/iPad backup software that allows you to backup iPhone or iPad to computer in one click. It enables you to set up iPhone backup location to any location that Windows File Explorer detects, so you never need to wonder where iPhone backups are stored.

To backup iPhone with IOTransfer:

Step 1. Free download IOTransfer, install and launch it on your Windows computer.

Step 2. Connect your iPhone to this computer via the lightning cable. By default, the program will scan your connected iOS device for contents to backup.

Step 3. View the contents selected. You can de-select them by clicking on it if needed.

Step 4. Click the link Set transfer path to change the iPhone backup location and then click Transfer to PC to Start the backup.

If you want to backup more files to computer, you can click on the MANAGE tab to select more files to include in the backup. From there, you can transfer files between iPhone and PC. To be specific, you can select photos, music, videos, podcasts, ebooks, voice memos, etc.

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How to Backup/Sync iPhone Messages to PC

How to Restore iPhone from Backup - Restore iPhone from iTunes 

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