Type the code below.Don't forget to change the hard drive name and the backup folder name to reflect the name of your hard drive and backup folder.Don't forget to capitalize when necessary. For example, if your hard drive is named "My Passport," be sure to use a backslash after My, then Space, then Passport. If your external hard drive's name has space, be sure to use the proper coding.
You must change the above backup folder name to whatever is the name of the folder you are transferring. The one above isn't even a real file name. If you are transferring all of your backups, this will just be named "Backup." If you are transferring one device, use the name of the backup folder for your device.
Move iPhone or iPad backups to external hard drive by showing Catalina Full Permission Terminal (Image credit: iMore)
Enter your system password and click Unlock on the popup screen.Select Click the lock to make changes at the bottom left of the screen if this screen is locked.Otherwise, you won't have permission to follow the remaining steps of this process. If you're using macOS Mojave or later, you will first need to change the permissions for Terminal on your Mac. They work at a low enough level that applications and operating system functions don't have as hard a time with them as they do aliases.We're going to use Mac's Terminal app to create a symbolic link to trick iTunes into backing up onto your external drive rather than the boot drive. An older way of creating those connections is more reliable for actions like what we want iTunes to do: Symbolic links, aka symlinks. Some applications don't follow aliases properly. When you create a symlink, you create a new path for Finder to take to get to the backups folder.įormer iMore writer and Mac genius Peter Cohen explains symlinks perfectly. In this step, you'll create a symlink - or symbolic link. You'll have to manually move the folders back to your Mac instead. If you don't perform this step, your computer won't back up your iPhone or iPad anymore. This is the more difficult and most important step to moving your iOS backups to an external hard drive. Step 3: Create a symlink to tell your computer the new location of your backups You can also manually initiate a backup anytime.Rename the folder in your external hard drive iOS_backup, then rename the folder in your MobileSync folder old_backupĭo not delete the old_backup folder yet. When activated, it will perform the backup automatically when your device is plugged in, locked, and connected to Wi-Fi. At the bottom there is a toggle to turn iCloud Backup on or off. It will show you how much total storage you have in iCloud, and how much is still available. Just go to Settings> iCloud, scroll down to the bottom and select Storage & Backup. To enable iCloud Backup, you can either select the option from the settings for your iOS device in iTunes when it is connected, or you can do it from the iOS device itself. ICloud Backup lets you back up your data wirelessly and automatically to your iCloud account. To ensure your iPhone or iPad data is fully protected, here’s a look at what each option backs up and when to use it. But these iOS backup methods were not created equal, and if you don’t choose carefully you could be risking significant data loss. With iOS 5 Apple introduced iCloud, essentially allowing users to cut the cord.
Once upon a time one of the primary handicaps of iOS devices was the fact that you had to physically connect it to a Windows or Mac PC with a USB sync cable to back it up using iTunes.