We repeat it so much you ’re probably sick of hearing it : back up , back up , back up . It ’s absolutely vital that you back up the data on your iPhone , iPad and Mac so it ’s safe in case of malfunction , loss or larceny .
But backing up a large - capacity iPhone or iPad create a bulky file that has to be left somewhere , and those of us who rely on a MacBook or other Mac with a relatively minor store allocation may envy this .
you could get around the trouble by endorse up to iCloud , but iCloud storage is limited too , and you may not desire to pay up for the extra blank . Which leaves us with the option of external storage .
In this tutorial we show how to copy an iTunes backup of an iPhone or iPad to an external backbreaking drive ( which is straightforward ) and then tell iTunes to back up to that same surd crusade in the time to come ( which ask a little more cute ) .
Note , very importantly , that you ’ll need to be able to have your iPhone and the external hard drive plugged into the Mac at the same time , so possessor of single - port MacBooks may take to buy aUSB hub . For advice on which storage accessories to buy , readBest external storehouse for iPhones .
Copy the backup to the external hard drive
Let ’s do the easy bit first .
Get hold of an outside drive with plenty of place . check that it’sformatted correctlyand produce a folder on the drive with an well-off - to - remember name . ‘ iPhone backup ’ would be hunky-dory .
ensure iTunes is closed and open Finder . Press Cmd + Shift + G , which will spread Go To Folder . Enter the following text edition :
~/Library / software Support / MobileSync/
foreground the folder ‘ Backup ’ and rack up Cmd + C to imitate it .
Now go back into the external brochure , spread out the previously created pamphlet ( ‘ iPhone backup ’ ) and hit Cmd + V to glue in the backup data file . This process could take a while , because you ’re copying across a large file .
Once the cognitive process is complete , you could go back and either rename the original file in Finder ( which we recommend ) or delete it ( which is risky , at least until we ’ve suss out that the championship has worked ) .
Tell iTunes to back up to the hard drive in future
Our iPhone backup is now safely stored on the international hard drive ; but it would be a annoyance to have to do this every time a backup is created . Our next step will instruct iTunes to back up to the same outside position in future tense – provided the unvoiced drive remains plug into the Mac .
OpenTerminal . typecast the followers , then hit Return . ( Replace ‘ ExternalHD ’ with the name of your external difficult drive . And the same applies to ‘ iPhoneBackup ’ , if you ’ve give a dissimilar name to the folder in your extraneous hard crusade . )
ln -s /Volumes / ExternalHD / iPhoneBackup / Backup/ ~/Library / app Support / MobileSync / Backup
That should be all you need to do – from now on iTunes will know to save its iPhone backing to the external strong crusade and the specified folder within . Note that trigger an iTunes backup when the gruelling campaign is n’t plugged in will fail .
Before we rush back and blue-pencil the backup file cabinet on the Mac , we can check that this has worked properly . Quit Terminal and go back to Finder . Find the folder~/Library / software Support / MobileSync/ – and you should now see a shortcut icon in the backup booklet with an arrow . ( Here’show to witness the Library folder . )
Finally , let ’s test this out decent . verify the hard drive and iPhone ( or iPad ) are both plug in , and trigger a substitute in iTunes . If this works correctly , and the new substitute is saved to the international hard ride , you’re able to safely delete the old ( renamed ) backup file on your Mac and save some space .
