How to Save iTunes Backups to External Hard Drives - How to Change iTunes Backup Location

My computer has run out of space and won't backup through iTunes. So I want to be able to backup my iPhone 6 to an external hard drive. Is it possible? If yes, how?

By default, your iTunes backup will be stored in a preset directory. The location of the Backup folder varies by operating system. If you have an iPhone backup file generated in iTunes, you can find this file manually here:

1. Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
2. Windows Vista, Windows 7 and 8: C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
3. Mac OS X: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

Though you can copy the Backup folder, you should never move it to a different folder, external drive, or network drive. Any action of edit, relocate, or rename of your iTunes backup files might ruin the files. If your drive space is almost full, you can change the backup location manually. Here is how to do it.

Change iTunes Backup Location on Windows

• Copy the folder to the new location 
• Go to the original folder location 
• Delete the backup folder. Or you can rename the folder to keep its contents.
• Press Shift+Right Click to open a Command window from that location 
• Type the following command

mklink /J “%APPDATA%\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup” “<Your External HDD>:\iTunes Backup”

• mklink is the Windows shell command for adding a symbolic link. The /J switch refers to a specific kind of symbolic link called directory junction. Close Command prompt. 

Change iTunes Backup Location on Mac

• Copy the folder to the new location
• Go to  ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/
• Remove the folder "Backup" within or rename it to keep the contents
• Open Terminal. Type the following command:

ln -s /Volumes/<Your External HDD>/MobileSync/Backup ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup

• Close Terminal

How to create iTunes Backup files with iTunes

Take your iPhone or iPad and connect it to your computer using a USB cable. iTunes will recognize the device automatically.
Go to the File menu, then click Back Up to start. You may be prompted to log in with your credentials. You can also click on the “Back Up Now” button, but make sure “This computer” is selected. If you want to encrypt your data, select the encryption checkbox and choose a password for the backup.

1. Install the latest version of iTunes if you don’t have it. Launch iTunes and connect your device to your computer. If a message asks to Trust This Computer, follow the onscreen steps and click Trust.
2. Select your iPhone when it appears in iTunes. On the left panel, select Summary and go to the Backups section. Check This computer so that a full backup will be created and stored on your local drive. This is the recommended option if you want to recover data or extract files from an iTunes backup using iPhone data recovery software.
3. If you want to save Health and Activity data from your iPhone, you need to encrypt your backup. Select the box called Encrypt iPhone backup and create a password that you can remember. If you don’t need to save your Health and Activity data, you can make a backup that isn’t encrypted. Leave the Encrypt iPhone backup box unchecked and click Back Up Now. The backup process may take a while depending on the size of your iPhone contents. When it is done, you will have yourself an iTunes backup file which you could turn to when the need arises.

How to Backup Data to External Hard Drives with Ease

You can make use of 3rd party iOS data backup software to directly backup your iOS data to your external hard drives with simple steps. Here H Data iPhone Data Recovery Software can help. The program is able to scan you iPhone and export important data to an external hard drive or any other storage device. Now you can try the following steps to backup your photo library, camera roll, and other iPhone data to external hard drive with ease.

Step 1. Free download H Data iPhone Recovery and install it on your computer.

Step 2. Connect iPhone to a computer, select Scan iPhone for deleted files. Click Begin Recovery From iPhone to create a backup file.

Step 3. When the scanning process is done, you will be able to see all the recoverable files neatly categorized. H Data iPhone Recover can recover contacts, messages, WeChat conversations, reminders, notes, Safari history and more. Click on the categories on the left and freely check for details. If you want any of these files to be extracted to your computer, simply select them and click on the Export Selected Records.