How To Backup iPhone to External Drive (Change Backup Location) on MacOS (2023 Guide)

[@top-voice1674]

Thanks a lot, the common error is to miss the last space after typing the command, believe me i did it several times before understanding !

[@munchy_cool]

Glad it helped!

[@MrThemanushow]

Indeed. Thank you for that. Second common mistake is to not delete the backup folder (when empty) in MobileSync. Terminal will give the following message in this situation: "file exists"

[@jonathan.1006]

@@MrThemanushow wow thanks, this helped alot!

[@qamarnajm5401]

@@MrThemanushow Hi.. I am getting the same "file exists" whats the solution to this?

[@nikhilt163]

deleting the backup folder inside the mobile sync helped me to get rid of file exists error cheers mate!

[@friederikewolff1670]

Thank you so much! This was really helpful

[@munchy_cool]

thanks ...

[@patrickwan3943]

Thanks!

[@munchy_cool]

Thanks a lot ..

[@zelfa1616]

best version of this tutorial I found! great job

[@munchy_cool]

Glad it helped!

[@julianromero617]

hello! terminal keeps saying "ln -s illegal action". no none of the backup folders show when connecting the iphone to restore backups. how can i fix that? thanks in advance

[@Suriohand]

Thanks 🙏 it works!! how to revert it, external to internal drive Plz help. thanks 🙏

[@munchy_cool]

shown in the video as well..

[@eddiebedi952]

nice man, I have updated to custom location and now theonly problem is I dont see the backups in the Manage backups section in finder. how to get it there and restore it when required??

[@hamzafarooqui2219]

Hey I am trying to find the Mobile sync app in the folders as described in the video but couldn't find it any where. tired of finding it now.

[@traviswinn]

You have to hit option when you go to the Go part in the finder and then click on Library which only appears in the menu when you hit option. Then go to Application Support and then Mobile Sync.

[@Ash522MX]

This has changed now. I don’t get the arrow in the folder when you drag external Backup folder and mobile sync into terminal. Updated MacBook to Ventura 13.3 must have changed.

[@MagicMuff749]

have you found a fix?

[@tapashota2770]

Hi, Thanks for sharing useful info, can you pls explain how to extract only video and photos from this backup folder

[@munchy_cool]

sorry..i dont know

[@LauritzDesmond]

Hi thanks for the video but i can not really see the commands younneedntomputbon the terminal. Could you put it in writting please?

[@munchy_cool]

ln -s

[@EagleEyeSupport]

Now when i restore the backup its asking for Password, but my screenlock/appleid Password showing incorrect.? How to fix this

[@j.d.j.8887]

Just one question. When you hit backup in the end, you had the iCloud Backup checked. I thought you would want to check Backup to Mac. Which is it?

[@RakeshNagpal-b2o]

I cant find terminal after the full disc access Is BASH the alternative ?

[@clownieweeh9078]

so if we want to restore the back up.. I just need to connect the iphone and press restore?.. will I get all the data back?

[@JaymeeFranchina]

On the new version of Mac I am unable to get terminal in "Full Disk Access" - how do I get that? Also, can people restore their iPhone from backup? Seeing a lot of people saying they can not

[@slairy]

Thank you Munchy for this valuable procedure. I see that an ALIAS is created of the external backupfolder. Would it still WORK if I just made an ALIAS directly and then dragged it over to the MobileSync folder? Or is there a permissions issue that your procedure handles? Scott

[@munchy_cool]

hello Scott, sorry I have never tried the method you are mentioning so i cant advise

[@swe3t23]

can you Mac another video with Mac OS Sonoma

[@kaz14kj]

Hi I do not have the mobile sync folder what do I do

[@bramk]

Thanks for this explainer! Worked perfectly for me 🙏

[@munchy_cool]

You're welcome!

[@TomMurphy-gx7zr]

Very helpful, thank you. I tried many guides and this is the one that worked for me.

[@munchy_cool]

You're welcome

[@arunjeyanthan]

if i do this can i delete the backup on icloud?

[@stikbotforzafilmsandmore]

Is it possible to do it on a Time Machine hard drive?? That is the biggest hard drive I have

[@shunbin8751]

can I select 'Back up all the data on your iPhone to this Mac instead'? May I confirm this will save all my stuff in MobileSync > Backup AND my external hard disk's Backup folder? Hope to get your response thanks!

[@legotechnic-quiqueherrero877]

nice man, I have updated to custom location and now the only problem is I dont see the backups in the Manage backups section in finder. how to get it there and restore it when required?? finder dont "read" the backup in external hard drive

[@digitalifeblog]

Thanks, very useful for reducing space on your Mac's SSD

[@munchy_cool]

You're welcome!

[@thetdchannel]

This is great! I have been looking for this guidance. Will attempt it in a few days. I have an external drive of 1T almost empty-look forward to moving that 35GB of mobile phone backup of my SSD.

[@ezbakeovenhands]

still shows and takes up 54 gb of my mac drive and if i delete that it does not backup to the drive...any ideas?

[@Sim-re6tk]

Same

[@alirezapakdel7975]

Hi,thanks for your great video,i do exactly the same as yours,i delete back up folder and other stuff but it gives the not enough space error,it made me crazy plz help

[@nelisaalcalde9081]

hi, I hope you can help, I can't find the terminal to click on in full disk access, could someone help?

[@taylorsaffle]

Finally, one that works thank you!

[@munchy_cool]

You're welcome!

[@add_8some]

Thx bro for this video it’s really useful, more respect (: I have a question about this way? Is this is will be possible to do the same shortcut in terminal for bootcamp to install windows on Mac, if yes I hope to do a video for that, at the end more respect for you.

[@munchy_cool]

no idea..sorry

[@add_8some]

@@munchy_cool ok thanks bro

[@add_8some]

⁠@@munchy_cool Hi bro I hope you doing great, When you backup your iPhone backup to flash usb external ssd it the backup speed depending on read or write speed of the flash or external?

[@1961JAK]

Approved Terminal to have Full Disk Access within Security but in the terminal window, I get the following error: ln: illegal option -- / usage: ln [-Ffhinsv] source_file [link_name] ln [-Ffhinsv] source_file ... linkname_dir link source_file link_name Can you please help munchy?

[@munchy_cool]

must be missing a space somewhere

[@swe3t23]

I don't have mobile sync help

[@mr.growngamer1369]

If i close terminal and it didnt work, how can i get back to verify command was input correctly?

[@nikhilt163]

does the restore works ?

[@NikhilGavade-ci9kb]

MobleSync folder is missing What to do?

[@soundofbeers]

Is this proces the same as creating an Alias using right mouse key; renaming it and then placing it in the folder? And when deleting, just deleting the created Backup folder (moving to trash)? (No terminal needed). Or did we create something else?

[@munchy_cool]

I am not sure of the process you are talking about ..but the terminal command used in the video does create an alias

[@soundofbeers]

@@munchy_cool Then it is, what I thought it was. Thanks for teaching me this trick and learning me how to fool my macbook ;)

[@MBC-777]

@@soundofbeers I tried to change the backup location to an external drive using then "Make Alias" method and I kept receiving an error message. I performed the steps in this video and it work just fine. I looked up the "alias" and "symbolic link" definitions and there is a slight difference between the two.

[@etiennecarter]

I've tried it twice but no luck; it still wants to backup to my Mac Mini and there's not enough space on it! Please help. Thanks.

[@munchy_cool]

no idea ....sorry

[@sethie_shots]

Killer Vid munchy. Thanks so much! Love tricking the mac into doing what we want it to do!

[@ny2la36]

worked like a charm, now i can back my iphone to an external drive and take valuable mac disk space....your video helped to understand how to use the commands and easily drag file locations into terminal, great job !!!

[@munchy_cool]

You're welcome!

[@Viza_expert]

Oh bro, you the best at what you do 🔥🔥🔥 thanks so much

[@munchy_cool]

You're welcome!

[@mrhuss7463]

hello , in termnial i can't creat link btewen folder i have this text : -bash: In: command not found , why ?? i need help

[@nospam-hn7xm]

What about an update for macOS Ventura?

[@munchy_cool]

same process

[@nospam-hn7xm]

@@munchy_cool Thank you. I see where I missed something. Now, it's backing up the external drive AND the Cloud. I thought this process bypassed the Cloud.

[@michaelgarson1905]

Awesome thanks!

[@munchy_cool]

Our pleasure!

[@TheBiggPixel]

Great video! Thank you. Quick question tho: I was doing this to save space on my internal drive. It looks like it's still taking up the internal drive space. Is that expected?

[@munchy_cool]

no

[@ishrathnawaz2961]

Awesome guide. Thank you. Worth noting, that you must pay attention to the spaces he mentions in the video to get this right. Thanks Munchy

[@munchy_cool]

Glad it helped!

[@gladyslee8589]

PLEASE HELP all the files in mobilesync became exe after i copied them into my external ssd

[@Sim-re6tk]

I believe I am linking fine but it still say I don't have enough storage on my Mac

[@anandkothari]

Hey I have to ask after doing this all process and backing up in ssd… Now if you connect ssd with windows pc will you be able to view your photos and videos??????? Bcoz I have videos pc & it is nearly impossible to take 110 GB data backup there… But I can arrange mac from my friend just for backup purpose… Please answer my main question👆👆

[@christos5635]

Your opinion about iPhone plus??

[@munchy_cool]

get it for the battery life

[@MEspinalG]

No matter what I do after I follow all the steps and begin backing up my iPhone 14 PM I get a message stating that there isn't enough space on my mac to complete the backup which doesn't make any sense because, I'm trying to back it up to the external hard drive which has PLENTY of space available!!!

[@hispyder]

How to revert back the command ls -n

[@kevinhar5307]

so nice. you explained it so easy to follow!

[@munchy_cool]

Glad it was helpful!

[@GalaxyGax]

Thank you for this video.. do you have any other video on how to transfer photos and videos stored on iCloud to a external storage? Please let me know. I have tried image capture but it is only for media stores on phone. I have 10k pictures to transfer. I tried logging to icloud but everytime I get an error for bad network or zip folder error..

[@michaellatt2685]

Same . Pls share if you find any solution.Thanks

[@GalaxyGax]

@@michaellatt2685 Hi haven’t found a proper way yet. 😑

[@joyjurasco8169]

after following all your steps, when i go to back up the iphone, i get a notification saying not enough free space is available on this Mac. Can you help?

[@pongtrometer]

Thank you so much Munchy, that was so clear and really helped me transfer work from a broken iPad that needs to be fixed. cheers 🙏

[@munchy_cool]

You're welcome!

[@simon057]

thank you, it worked :)

[@munchy_cool]

You're welcome!

[@shivachandrasekhar2676]

thanks ! very helpful, I think with the Ventura version of the OS the system preference is replaced by system settings and I was able to do this after skipping quit and open termina l part. Successfully created the link folder with the command in the termina and was able to backup

[@munchy_cool]

Glad it helped!

[@AcidManc]

I haven't found this to work, although I can hear my external HD whirring when I press Back Up Now, after around 15-20 minutes of 'Backing Up' I still receive the message that the backup was not completed because the mac hard drive is full.

[@imad030591]

thank you so much bro, helped alot

[@munchy_cool]

welcome

[@smurfdazer]

THANK YOU!

[@munchy_cool]

You're welcome!

[@Dingdingganggang]

thank you so much for such detailed description on how to do it on your KZbin! it was such a mess for me as I was reading it off various websites and trying to do it without anything to visualize with and I ended up with my backup syncing to the external drive but wasn't showing on my finder's "manage backup" drop down. after I watched your video everything worked like magic!! should have come here directly and not have wasted hours trying to troubleshoot! Thank you!!

[@munchy_cool]

Glad I could help!

[@dgreen666]

thank you thank you thank you!!!

[@munchy_cool]

You are so welcome!

[@anilkumar-bq5zj]

Thanks for your video. Could you please help me in restoring the backup into new I phone. I have successfully created backup file into external drive as you suggested but trying to restore into new Iphone but failed to do so. When I connected to new Iphone to restore it asked to select backup file, I did but it failed to process.I'm not sure why I think it is because the folder Backup in the Mobilesync is created as shorcut folder. How can solve this issue please help me to restore my Backup into my new Iphone.

[@MichelHaber]

if you copy and paste or drag the old back up into the mobile sync it should work...

[@MBC-777]

Thank you for this video. There are some other directions on the Internet that are not quite as clear. Your video was straight to the point and accurate. The click and drag of the folders is a great tip for future work in the terminal and saves typing. :)

[@SophieWieser-fz3uu]

extremely helpful! Finally managed to not get trapped in the iCloud storage problems

[@munchy_cool]

welcome

[@applepony129]

thank you

[@munchy_cool]

Welcome!

[@krishbandwal5877]

While dragging it is not copying in backup folder

[@user-wo5rt8yl9y-g7f]

Why iTune still duplicates the backup files to MacOS when I backup my iPhone after all the changes, thought the Backup location would be changed to external drive forever, I check my computer storage and i can confirm this method doesn't work

[@zachlovejoy1841]

AMAZING!!!🎉

[@jess-uv1hx]

How can I view the files?

[@munchy_cool]

in the folder you just created on the external drive, i dont think you can view individual files from that location though ...has to be when you restore that backup on a phone

[@andyatmosphere]

Why don't apple make it easier to backup.? I have a 2023 MacBook and can't find my library folder. Not sure where to look for backups.

[@munchy_cool]

they want you to buy more cloud storage

[@damianslominski]

Thanks a lot for you helpful video, I had a problem with finding my mobile Sync folder but with this command in finder ( go to folder ) I managed to find it finally. /Users//Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup Great content.

[@munchy_cool]

Thanks for sharing

[@pulisandeep]

Thnk you.. You explained very well :)

[@munchy_cool]

Glad it was helpful!

[@pulisandeep]

@@munchy_cool need help.. all data backup transfer to ssd showing in "exec format".. can you help me how to transfer/convert?

[@87krz]

I followed all the steps, however I was not getting the backup folder with the arrow in my Mobile sync folder and in the terminal app after I pressed enter it looked nothing like yours, it kept saying: ln: illigal option --/ Could you advise why?

[@munchy_cool]

ln -s single hyphen, not ln --s

[@filippopaccagnella9912]

@@munchy_cool Won't work anyway, keep getting: illigal option

[@ghostavuu]

This process seemed easy enough, but I somehow am not getting the same results as you. When I backed up my iphone after the process, it takes hours and then it still shows there is no back up on my Mac (says Never), but when I click on Manage Backups, it shows "Unknown 12/31/00, 6:00 PM". Do you know why that is? Could you help? I'm desperate

[@MusicBRYN]

Thank u so much!!!

[@munchy_cool]

You're welcome!

[@bigjig5]

thanks, finally I can backup my phone to my Synology!

[@UITDCREATIVES]

Thank you for this tutorial bro 😊👍🏼

[@munchy_cool]

My pleasure 😊

[@MagicMuff749]

doesnt work for me.

[@anilkumar-bq5zj]

Can someone help me to restore the backup into iphone which is in External Hard Disk.

[@GalaxyGax]

He has explained it in the video with linking. Did you not watch?

[@traviswinn]

Has anyone been able to renew their iPhone after following this procedure? Also, would it be possible to just copy and paste your backed phone and then just drag it back or will that cause a problem?

[@GarryReyom]

You can just create a folder Alias

[@artscopemedia]

There is no folder called MobileSync or Backup in my Application Support folder. I have a new Mac Studio. Also, I am yet to find a method of backing up my iPhone to an external drive using my Mac. Image Capture does not work, it crashes every time! Photos does not work, it crashes everytime! I have over 40,000 photos/videos on my iPhone 11 Pro Max and all I want to do is back everything up to make it impossible to lose all these valuable photos/videos of my children. Why is such a simple everyday task so impossible? If you have a solution to transfer ALL photos/videos to an external hard drive using a Mac with iPhone connected to a mac i would love to hear it. I gave up trying to use Image Capture and Photos because they always CRASH! I have wasted so much time trying to do this task.

[@munchy_cool]

the folder might be in the hidden library folder .. such a simple task is impossible because Apple wants it to be ...they want you to buy more cloud storage or macs with more storage to backup your phones ....sucks, but that is their business model...

[@artscopemedia]

@@munchy_cool Okay, so where do i find the 'hidden' library folder? Neither my Mac Studio or my Macbook Pro has a folder called MobileSync or BackUp within Application Support folder.

[@nah6730]

@@artscopemedia Having the same issue. I literally hate apple.

[@nah6730]

@@munchy_cool Hi Munchy. I am having the same issue, how do we find the hidden folder for mobile sync?

[@jr3028]

@finalcutstudio1 @nah6730 Resolved!!: Macintosh HD>Users>(Your User Name)>Library>Application Support>Mobile Sync Apple hides the "Library" folder because making unorganized changes can "damage your system." After being in "(Your User Name)" Folder press Command+Shift+Dot, you will then see the hidden Library folder.

[@felicedinatale2549]

Great...you should work as an apple boss

[@munchy_cool]

lol

[@EnderWang]

YOU are amazing bro!!! I have always used parallel win 11 to backup my iPad via wifi, but windows iTunes sucks... drive me mad today, tried every combination, does not work with wifi (cause I have a M 1 MBP with 2 type C ports, one port connected to external monitor, the other one is charging.) Thank you !!!!! No I can git ride of the stupid windows 11 and iTunes all together!!!

[@anilkumar-zv7zi]

Hi bro do you know how to restore the data into iPhone after taking backup to external hard disk?

[@EnderWang]

@@anilkumar-zv7zi copy it over to the exact folder on your Mac, then restore.

[@swaminarayan2430]

Poco F1 custom rom pe videos banoo 💞

[@echerkaoui]

you made multiple mistakes on your video ! you need to transfer the entier backup folder to the external ssd, and you need to link the backup folder rather then the mobilesync folder !

[@munchy_cool]

yet it works fine for me

[@GLOBALPTBRGPTBR]

parabéns pelo video! absurdo a apple não deixar selecionar o local de bkp nativamente! faz isso pra ganhar mais dinheiro com iCloud e hd's maiores sem necessidade ...

[@anilkumar-bq5zj]

If you know the process, can you please reply to my below comment

[@media6969]

How is this a 2023 guide when you are using an older version of Mac OS?

[@munchy_cool]

what version of mac os am I using? and how does mac os version affect the process?

[@anime_jkg]

Ninja

[@munchy_cool]

[@Ashbeeification]

Thanks!

[@munchy_cool]

Thanks

[@upsilonarts]

Thank you for making this with such precision! It really helped me 🙂

[@munchy_cool]

You're so welcome!

[@guskent]

Thank you

[@munchy_cool]

You're welcome

[@TurkiAlsubiee]

Thanks a lot

[@munchy_cool]

Most welcome