iPad Pro Trying to backup my iPad to my Mac and not sure it is working?

[kat.hayes]

I just plugged in a first gen iPP running 13.3.1 to my Mac running Catalina and opened a folder, and selected the iPad and chose to back up all data on your iPad to this Mac option. I have lots of folders full of pdf files and videos in Files on the iPad. My goal is to backup the data and the apps so if anything happens to all of the data on the iPad I will have a backup, but I also want to be able to mirror everything to another iPad Pro. I clicked on both the Backup now button and the synch buttons.

1. Where is this being backed up to on my Mac so I can manually navigate to the folder and copy files out if I wanted to? I searched and found this ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
though when I look in there, I see lots of meaningless folders and files. Is there no way to actually access the files on the Mac this way?
2. Should I be using the backup now option or the synch option at the very bottom to do what I want?

Thanks.

 

[lambertjohn]

Why not just back it up to the cloud? Then when you get the other iPad up and running, restore from that backup? I do it all the time. Works great!

 

[AutomaticApple]

Why not just back it up to the cloud? Then when you get the other iPad up and running, restore from that backup? I do it all the time. Works great!

Maybe their iCloud storage is full?

 

[secretk]

I don't pay for iCloud storage and the 5 GB we usually have got exhausted quite soon. So when I bought the iPP I did backup my regular iPad on my Windows laptop. I cannot tell you where it was stored as the only check I did is to connect the iPad second time and saw that the new backup is available and it offers me to restore it from that backup.

As I went through the process here is what I had to do (all of my locally stored PDFs got transferred from one iPad to another):

1. I chose to set up the iPP from another device
2. I put them close together and the transfer began
3. At some point I was asked to connect the iPP (the new one) to the PC to update the iOS version
4. Once the iOS version was updated I repeated the steps to transfer data from old to new iPP and then used the backup on the computer to restore it on the new iPP

Honestly the process was not super straight forward and I was asked to go thought the steps more than once but in the end my locally stored files were automatically transferred.

 

[0128672]

I get what you want to do and why. I use iCloud daily as well as back up my devices to my Mac. (Then my Mac gets backed up to 3 external hard drives on a regular and sometimes manual schedule, all using Time Machine).

Those folders you see in the /Backup folder are only intended to be restored using the Restore function on that same screen. Creating a backup using this method will not create openable and useful iOS device files for you to use on your Mac. The only way to do that is within the apps themselves, such as saving an iOS Pages doc in Files and opening that on your Mac. Does that help?

 

[kat.hayes]

I pay for iCloud storage space for my personal account and back it up to Time Machine, however, this is an account for my kids and I am putting tons of videos and files on the iPad and although I could pay for extra storage, I just do not think it is necessary, at least I don't think it is...

My plan was to simply put lots and lots of folders onto either the iPad or iCloud, I was doing this with iCloud, though the 5GB of space is gone. So now I am trying to decide to either put it all on the iPad or the cloud. My goal is to move older folders of videos and files off of the iPad when it is no longer needed. It seems that iCloud is the easiest way to do this, I'm still open to suggestions...

I have been Airdropping new folders of videos and files directly onto the iPad and into iCloud on the iPad.

Thanks.