{"id":26725,"date":"2022-12-27T13:45:44","date_gmt":"2022-12-27T12:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/26725\/itunes-speicherort-fuer-backups-finden-und-aendern\/"},"modified":"2022-12-27T14:19:37","modified_gmt":"2022-12-27T13:19:37","slug":"find-and-change-itunes-backup-location","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/26725\/find-and-change-itunes-backup-location\/","title":{"rendered":"Find and change iTunes backup location"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It can be quite useful to know under which folder path iTunes stores the backup files of iPhone, iPad and Co. These are initially only stored locally on the computer on which iTunes is installed. If this computer then has a defect, the backups may also be lost. If you know where the backups are stored, you can save them as an additional backup on an external drive. Or you want to change the storage location so that the backups are saved on an external drive or a <abbr title=\"Network Attached Storage\">NAS<\/abbr> with <abbr title=\"Redundant Array of independent Disks\">RAID<\/abbr> system.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of content<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/26725\/find-and-change-itunes-backup-location\/#iTunes_and_iPhone_backup_where_are_the_backups_stored\" >iTunes and iPhone backup: where are the backups stored?<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/26725\/find-and-change-itunes-backup-location\/#Show_hidden_files\" >Show hidden files<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/26725\/find-and-change-itunes-backup-location\/#Change_location_for_iTunes_and_iPhone_backup\" >Change location for iTunes and iPhone backup<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"iTunes_and_iPhone_backup_where_are_the_backups_stored\"><\/span>iTunes and iPhone backup: where are the backups stored?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>When using iTunes on a Windows computer to create a backup of the iPhone or iPad, it is stored in an iTunes directory by default. The exact location of the iPhone backup depends on the version of Windows and iTunes that is being used. Here are the default backup directories for different versions of Windows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Windows 11: <mark>C:\\Users\\[Username]\\Apple\\MobileSync\\Backup<\/mark><\/li>\n<li>Windows 10: C:\\Users\\[Username]\\Apple\\MobileSync\\Backup<\/li>\n<li>Windows 8: C:\\Users\\[Username]\\AppData\\Roaming\\Apple Computer\\MobileSync\\Backup<\/li>\n<li>Windows 7: C:\\Users\\[Username]\\AppData\\Roaming\\Apple Computer\\MobileSync\\Backup<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26699\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26699\" style=\"width: 649px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26699\" src=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/itunes-location-for-backups.jpg\" alt=\"iTunes location where backups are saved on Windows OS\" width=\"649\" height=\"383\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/itunes-location-for-backups.jpg 649w, https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/itunes-location-for-backups-300x177.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 649px) 100vw, 649px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26699\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Windows-Explorer where iTunes backup files are stored<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Show_hidden_files\"><\/span>Show hidden files<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>It should be noted that the AppData directory is usually hidden. So you need to enable the &#8220;<em>Show hidden files<\/em>&#8221; option in the folder options to see the directory. To enable the &#8220;S<em>how hidden files<\/em>&#8221; option, do the following:<\/p>\n<p>Open Windows Explorer and click on the &#8220;<strong>View<\/strong>&#8221; menu. Then click on &#8220;<strong>Options<\/strong>&#8221; and select the &#8220;<strong>View<\/strong>&#8221; tab. Scroll down until you see the &#8220;Show hidden files, folders <a href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/16084\/windows-format-usb-flash-drives-and-hard-disks-larger-than-32-gb-with-fat32\/\">and drives&#8221;<\/a> option and enable it. Finally, click &#8220;<strong>OK<\/strong>&#8221; to save the settings.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26701\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26701\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26701\" src=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/windows-explorer-show-hidden-files-folders-drives.jpg\" alt=\"show hidden files and folders within windows explorer\" width=\"650\" height=\"489\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/windows-explorer-show-hidden-files-folders-drives.jpg 650w, https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/windows-explorer-show-hidden-files-folders-drives-300x226.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26701\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">activate showing hidden files &amp; folders<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Change_location_for_iTunes_and_iPhone_backup\"><\/span>Change location for iTunes and iPhone backup<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>As mentioned above, it can be useful to outsource the backup and store it under a different path, on the one hand to achieve a higher availability or on the other hand to not fill up the local hard disk unnecessarily.<\/p>\n<p>To store the iTunes backup at a different location in the future, you can use the so-called symlink (<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Symbolic_link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">symbolic link<\/a>) under Windows. This creates a link to the new location. All storage activities that are then performed on the original path are then written to the referenced directory. Such a symlink can be created under the <strong>command line<\/strong> or under <strong>PowerShell<\/strong> with the command <em><strong>mklink<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Call up <a href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/16083\/windows-disable-search-the-web-in-start-menu\/\">the <strong>Windows Start<\/strong> menu<\/a><\/li>\n<li>type in &#8220;<strong>CMD<\/strong>&#8220;, &#8220;Command Prompt&#8221; or &#8220;PowerShell&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>then right click and select <strong>&#8220;Run as administrator&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>enter mklink command: <mark><em>mklink C:\\Users\\Username\\Apple\\MobileSync\\Backup p:\\05_DataBackUp\\iPhone\\<\/em><\/mark><\/li>\n<li>adjust <a href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/26678\/where-is-itunes-exe-found-location-directory-path\/\">directory paths<\/a>, replace username with your own user account and press return<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26722\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26722\" style=\"width: 672px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26722 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/mklink-symbolische-verknuepfung-erstellt.jpg\" alt=\"Screenshot mklink in command prompt with created symlink\" width=\"672\" height=\"339\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/mklink-symbolische-verknuepfung-erstellt.jpg 672w, https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/mklink-symbolische-verknuepfung-erstellt-300x151.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 672px) 100vw, 672px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26722\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Run mklink in command prompt and symlink<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the picture you can see that instead of the backup folder now a symlink has been created that points to the external directory. If you now run <a title=\"Where is iTunes.exe stored?\" href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/26678\/where-is-itunes-exe-found-location-directory-path\/\">iTunes.exe<\/a> and start the backup, the backup files are stored in the new external location. The symlink is to be understood as a kind of link and also the symbolism points to it.<\/p>\n<p>Note: If necessary it can come to <a title=\"mklink Access denied\" href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/26717\/mklink-access-is-denied\/\">problems when executing mklink that the access is denied<\/a>. Possible causes are described in the linked article.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It can be quite useful to know under which folder path iTunes stores the backup files of iPhone, iPad and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1555],"tags":[2518,2520,2521,2068,1558],"class_list":["post-26725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software-en","tag-apple-en-2","tag-ipad-en","tag-iphone-en","tag-windows-en-2","tag-windows-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}