Changing default iTunes iPhone backup location in Big Sur

[Benz63amg]

I found a few tutorials but they seem to be aimed for Catalina users, is there a specific Big Sur tutorial for changing the folder location of where the local iPhone backups are stored on the Mac during a sync with an iPhone?(I don’t have a lot of disk space on my internal SSD drive and every time I sync my iPhone with my MacBook Pro it creates a backup of the iPhone which nearly eats up all my internal disk space and I have an external 1Tb SSD hooked up to my MacBook Pro at all times and I’d like to change the default backup folder of where the iPhone backs ups gets stored to a dedicated folder on the external SSD hadddrive

 

[lunoxgod]

I have the same question

 

[pornecziz]

Or possible backup to time machine?

 

[mwidjaya]

is there a specific Big Sur tutorial for changing the folder location of where the local iPhone backups are stored on the Mac

It is in the regular spot. The support doc says don't change it.

Locate backups of your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch – Apple Support (AU)

Find a list of your iOS or iPadOS backups on your Mac, PC and iOS or iPadOS device. Find out how to delete backups, copy them and more.

support.apple.com

and every time I sync my iPhone with my MacBook Pro it creates a backup of the iPhone which nearly eats up all my internal disk space

Are you conflating sync and backup? You can sync without ever backup.

 

[pornecziz]

Thank you. This solution requires enough local spaces which are not have in our mac. We would like to directly backup our iphone to external storage or time machine.
Is it possible?

 

[chscag]

Thank you. This solution requires enough local spaces which are not have in our mac. We would like to directly backup our iphone to external storage or time machine.
Is it possible?

It is possible with a third party application:

iMazing 2

Download iMazing for Mac and PC - Official Page

Download iMazing, the best software to manage your iPhone, iPad or iPod from your Mac or PC computer.

imazing.com

 

[Benz63amg]

It is in the regular spot. The support doc says don't change it.

Locate backups of your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch – Apple Support (AU)

Find a list of your iOS or iPadOS backups on your Mac, PC and iOS or iPadOS device. Find out how to delete backups, copy them and more.

support.apple.com

Are you conflating sync and backup? You can sync without ever backup.

View attachment 1697918

Every time i sync my iphone with my macbook pro it backs up the iPhone to the mac automatically in big sur and there is no option to pick to not back up with every sync.
The generated iPhone backup is a massive 40gb file and it eats up almost all of my MacBook pro’s free internal SSD space which is about 48gb

I manually transferred the iPhone backup to my external drive but now if I want to sync my iPhone with my Mac again it will generate ANOTHER massive iPhone backup that will be 40GB and will take an hour to complete which is absolutely Absurd, Why is there no option to change the folder where the iPhone backups are stored in so that I can pick a folder on my external SSD?

 

[dakwar]

Same here. Looking for a way to backup iPhone to an external drive on Big Sur but haven't a non-3rd-party solution yet. I had it set up for external HD backup under Catalina, but somehow - either with the move to Big Sur, or some other config changes I was doing with my Mac - Big Sur now doesn't read those external backups and doesn't create any (on local SSD or on external HD) backup of the iPhone and instead complains as follows:

 

[Benz63amg]

Same here. Looking for a way to backup iPhone to an external drive on Big Sur but haven't a non-3rd-party solution yet. I had it set up for external HD backup under Catalina, but somehow - either with the move to Big Sur, or some other config changes I was doing with my Mac - Big Sur now doesn't read those external backups and doesn't create any (on local SSD or on external HD) backup of the iPhone and instead complains as follows:
View attachment 1749644

Yeah still no solution to date, I’m on Big Sur as well

 

[dakwar]

Yeah still no solution to date, I’m on Big Sur as well

So looks like I had renamed my external HD and a previous symbolic link I had created was no longer working. I deleted everything, started from scratch, and did the following:

1. Find address of desired backup location. e.g. "/Volumes/External_1TB_HFS/My\ Backups/iOS_Backups"
2. Find address of current backup location in Big Sur. i.e. "~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync\Backup"
3. Grant Terminal.app full permissions to disk. So you can change folder name and create a symbolic link below without "permission denied".
4. Open Terminal.app.
5. Rename the existing folder from 2 above to something else like "Backup_old". e.g. in terminal execute this command:

   mv ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup_old

6. Create a symbolic link in location 2 that points to location 1. e.g.

   ln -s /Volumes/External_1TB_HFS/My\ Backups/iOS_Backups ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup

7. Good description of 6 can be found here: https://www.imore.com/how-move-your-iphone-or-ipad-backups-external-hard-drive

Edit: Corrected slash directions in steps 5 and 6 as called out in the comments below. Thanks for pointing them out.

 

[Benz63amg]

So looks like I had renamed my external HD and a previous symbolic link I had created was no longer working. I deleted everything, started from scratch, and did the following:

1. Find address of desired backup location. e.g. "/Volumes/External_1TB_HFS/My\ Backups/iOS_Backups"
2. Find address of current backup location in Big Sur. i.e. "~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync\Backup"
3. Grant Terminal.app full permissions to disk. So you can change folder name and create a symbolic link below without "permission denied".
4. Open Terminal.app.
5. Rename the existing folder from 2 above to something else like "Backup_old". e.g. in terminal execute this command:

   mv ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync\Backup ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync\Backup_old

6. Create a symbolic link in location 2 that points to location 1. e.g.

   ln -s /Volumes/External_1TB_HFS/My\ Backups/iOS_Backups ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync\Backup

7. Good description of 6 can be found here: https://www.imore.com/how-move-your-iphone-or-ipad-backups-external-hard-drive

So you managed to get it working on big Sur? Can you please post a more detailed step by step guide? I’d like to do this tonight when I get home as I haven’t backed up my iPhone to my Mac for several months now because of this very same issue of being unable to use an external drive for backups due to lack of internal disk space in my MacBook

 

[dakwar]

So you managed to get it working on big Sur? Can you please post a more detailed step by step guide? I’d like to do this tonight when I get home as I haven’t backed up my iPhone to my Mac for several months now because of this very same issue of being unable to use an external drive for backups due to lack of internal disk space in my MacBook

Yes, managed to backup my iPhone to an external drive using those steps. Unfortunately using that guide - which at its code relies on a soft-link of an on-device folder to an external folder - comes with some risks. As a safety catch, I would recommend that you familiarize yourself with each step I've described e.g. using all sorts of online searches. Once you've figured out how to follow the guide as is, you'll also be in a good place to troubleshoot if the need comes up - e.g. if you unknowingly rename your external drive or folder and the system can't find it to restore from it.

 

[Benz63amg]

Yes, managed to backup my iPhone to an external drive using those steps. Unfortunately using that guide - which at its code relies on a soft-link of an on-device folder to an external folder - comes with some risks. As a safety catch, I would recommend that you familiarize yourself with each step I've described e.g. using all sorts of online searches. Once you've figured out how to follow the guide as is, you'll also be in a good place to troubleshoot if the need comes up - e.g. if you unknowingly rename your external drive or folder and the system can't find it to restore from it.

it sounds as if you're advising against performing this so called fix/workaround. What happens if you try to backup and the external harddrive is no connected to the mac? what error comes up? does the error go away the NEXT time you try to sync the iphone to the mac WITH the external drive connected back to the back?

 

[dakwar]

it sounds as if you're advising against performing this so called fix/workaround. What happens if you try to backup and the external harddrive is no connected to the mac? what error comes up? does the error go away the NEXT time you try to sync the iphone to the mac WITH the external drive connected back to the back?

I'm advising against it unless you have a few troubleshooting skills in your tool belt, or you don't care if the backup is unrecoverable and in effect lost.

The backup drive and folder will have a name structure (step 1 above) that you will link to (step 6 above). If the backup drive is not attached, or if you have forgotten about the symbolic link and rename the drive or the folder structure, macOS will not be able to create any new backups, or use an existing backup for a restore. In both cases it will complain about the backup being corrupt (one of the screenshots I included above). You won't know why the backup is corrupt. You'll have to rely on memory and remember that you created a symbolic link for the backup location and the folder may not be attached or may have moved to a new name. You'll then need to reattach the drive and/or rename the folder to what it used to be called. Or create a new symbolic link to point to the new location (which will get it working again with nothing lost).

 

[jayden]

So looks like I had renamed my external HD and a previous symbolic link I had created was no longer working. I deleted everything, started from scratch, and did the following:

1. Find address of desired backup location. e.g. "/Volumes/External_1TB_HFS/My\ Backups/iOS_Backups"
2. Find address of current backup location in Big Sur. i.e. "~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync\Backup"
3. Grant Terminal.app full permissions to disk. So you can change folder name and create a symbolic link below without "permission denied".
4. Open Terminal.app.
5. Rename the existing folder from 2 above to something else like "Backup_old". e.g. in terminal execute this command:

   mv ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync\Backup ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync\Backup_old

6. Create a symbolic link in location 2 that points to location 1. e.g.

   ln -s /Volumes/External_1TB_HFS/My\ Backups/iOS_Backups ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync\Backup

7. Good description of 6 can be found here: https://www.imore.com/how-move-your-iphone-or-ipad-backups-external-hard-drive

Thanks, however, note that you've made a path error in steps 5 and 6. Before the folder name of "Backup", it should be a forward slash, not back slash.

 

[Benz63amg]

Thanks, however, note that you've made a path error in steps 5 and 6. Before the folder name of "Backup", it should be a forward slash, not back slash.

Can you please post the proper and correct instructions from A-Z on how to get this done please?(along with what terminal code to put in case I ever wanted to reverse this change of backup location back to the default location) Would be greatly appreciated

 

[VictoryHighway]

So looks like I had renamed my external HD and a previous symbolic link I had created was no longer working. I deleted everything, started from scratch, and did the following:

1. Find address of desired backup location. e.g. "/Volumes/External_1TB_HFS/My\ Backups/iOS_Backups"
2. Find address of current backup location in Big Sur. i.e. "~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync\Backup"
3. Grant Terminal.app full permissions to disk. So you can change folder name and create a symbolic link below without "permission denied".
4. Open Terminal.app.
5. Rename the existing folder from 2 above to something else like "Backup_old". e.g. in terminal execute this command:

   mv ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync\Backup ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync\Backup_old

6. Create a symbolic link in location 2 that points to location 1. e.g.

   ln -s /Volumes/External_1TB_HFS/My\ Backups/iOS_Backups ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync\Backup

7. Good description of 6 can be found here: https://www.imore.com/how-move-your-iphone-or-ipad-backups-external-hard-drive

This is what I did.

 

[jayden]

Can you please post the proper and correct instructions from A-Z on how to get this done please?

Follow instructions here: https://www.imore.com/how-move-your-iphone-or-ipad-backups-external-hard-drive

(VictoryHighway, your path code is incorrect and will not work, as previously stated)

 

[VictoryHighway]

Follow instructions here: https://www.imore.com/how-move-your-iphone-or-ipad-backups-external-hard-drive

(VictoryHighway, your path code is incorrect and will not work, as previously stated)

I was quoting another post. I didn’t check it for validity.

 

[mrmister]

FWIW it works basically the same way in Mojave.

 

[TheGeneralist]

Can you please post the proper and correct instructions from A-Z on how to get this done please?(along with what terminal code to put in case I ever wanted to reverse this change of backup location back to the default location) Would be greatly appreciated

From my point of view, there is no such thing as "proper and correct instructions" working on every Mac when on terminal level. @dakwar already stated above that he only recommends using such tools if you "have a few troubleshooting skills in your tool belt", and I would second that. He also already pointed out why these terminal commands will always differ between different machines and user configurations.

When using the macOS Terminal, you are starting to interact with your Mac like any other Unix machine on shell level - which means you're leaving the realm of the very comfortable and "fool-proof" sandbox which is built up by the macOS frontend and start to interact with your Mac more directly on machine level. This allows you to perform operations which are not possible from the frontend, but this comes at the expense of you giving precise machine orders and the Mac just following your orders right away, sometimes even without asking again - which means even small mistakes can lead to severe consequences like unintended data loss.
Therefore, I strongly do not recommend using terminal commands if the commands are just cryptic stuff to you and you do not really understand what is going on. This is like a kind of russian roulette - in some cases it will just work and produce the intended results, but in many other cases there will be subtle differences between your machine and the machine of the person who created the terminal command, and in this case the command will just not work (if you're lucky) or even cause unintended results (if you're not so lucky) and leave you behind clueless without the chance to properly understand and troubleshoot what just happened.

The terminal shell is a great tool if you are willing to invest the time required to learn and understand how it works. This does of course not mean you have to become a capable hacker in the first place before even starting to use it, but there should be at least some basic knowledge of what's going on before typing in things that you might regret soon.
But if you're willing to invest some time and spent some interest, the terminal is an absolutely great thing and will allow you to become a much more capable skilled user, being able to successfully deal with a lot more problems than before.

Having said that, I can confirm that the solution proposed here works quite well, also on M1 Macs (...also as proposed by @dakwar, if you correct the small back slash error he made and adapt the paths to your machine and configuration).

 

[Benz63amg]

From my point of view, there is no such thing as "proper and correct instructions" working on every Mac when on terminal level. @dakwar already stated above that he only recommends using such tools if you "have a few troubleshooting skills in your tool belt", and I would second that. He also already pointed out why these terminal commands will always differ between different machines and user configurations.

When using the macOS Terminal, you are starting to interact with your Mac like any other Unix machine on shell level - which means you're leaving the realm of the very comfortable and "fool-proof" sandbox which is built up by the macOS frontend and start to interact with your Mac more directly on machine level. This allows you to perform operations which are not possible from the frontend, but this comes at the expense of you giving precise machine orders and the Mac just following your orders right away, sometimes even without asking again - which means even small mistakes can lead to severe consequences like unintended data loss.
Therefore, I strongly do not recommend using terminal commands if the commands are just cryptic stuff to you and you do not really understand what is going on. This is like a kind of russian roulette - in some cases it will just work and produce the intended results, but in many other cases there will be subtle differences between your machine and the machine of the person who created the terminal command, and in this case the command will just not work (if you're lucky) or even cause unintended results (if you're not so lucky) and leave you behind clueless without the chance to properly understand and troubleshoot what just happened.

The terminal shell is a great tool if you are willing to invest the time required to learn and understand how it works. This does of course not mean you have to become a capable hacker in the first place before even starting to use it, but there should be at least some basic knowledge of what's going on before typing in things that you might regret soon.
But if you're willing to invest some time and spent some interest, the terminal is an absolutely great thing and will allow you to become a much more capable skilled user, being able to successfully deal with a lot more problems than before.

Having said that, I can confirm that the solution proposed here works quite well, also on M1 Macs (...also as proposed by @dakwar, if you correct the small back slash error he made and adapt the paths to your machine and configuration).

Is there a way to change the iPhone backup location without terminal? My MacBook Pro only has 40GB free and I can’t back up my iPhone because of that. (I can’t free up stuff either as my Mac only has 128gb SSD internal storage)

 

[TheGeneralist]

Is there a way to change the iPhone backup location without terminal? My MacBook Pro only has 40GB free and I can’t back up my iPhone because of that. (I can’t free up stuff either as my Mac only has 128gb SSD internal storage)

Yes, there is.
As already said just a few postings before in this very same thread (...you often learn a lot if you spend the time reading through things carefully ), the iMazing tool is capable of handling such things in a very convenient manner:
https://imazing.com