Change location of iPhone/iPod backups?

[Nihaochan]

I just installed a small 30GB SSD into my macbook (for the boot drive - holds OS and applications) and then I have an optibay with a larger harddrive in place of the superdrive. However I'm running into a problem with the SSD because I have a 32GB iPhone that iTunes is trying to backup. This uses basically 100% of the space on the SSD.

Is there any way for me to change where iTunes backs up the iPhone? Or some script to redirect it so I can have it backup on my second hard drive?

[OldMacUser]

Ran into this issue myself after converting to SSD, and after some web-searching, these are the steps to follow:-

Firstly, the iTunes backup location is here:-
/Users/<YourNameHere>/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

1. Move the ENTIRE Backup folder to your location of choice (external HDD etc).
2. The MobileSync folder should now be empty.
3. Open up Terminal and type in the following command:

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

4. You should now see an icon called Backup with an arrow in the MobileSync folder which indicates that the ln command has worked.

Note: <HDD> indicates the Volume Name of your desired HD where you moved the Backups folder; and for simplicity's sake, I created the MobileSync/Backup folder(s) on the external HD - you can use whatever name you want.

Hope that helps - I managed to save approximately 20GB+ of space by doing this, and now have about slightly more than 50% of my SSD free.

[burtx]

Originally Posted by OldMacUser

Ran into this issue myself after converting to SSD, and after some web-searching, these are the steps to follow:-

Firstly, the iTunes backup location is here:-
/Users/<YourNameHere>/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

1. Move the ENTIRE Backup folder to your location of choice (external HDD etc).
2. The MobileSync folder should now be empty.
3. Open up Terminal and type in the following command:

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

4. You should now see an icon called Backup with an arrow in the MobileSync folder which indicates that the ln command has worked.

Note: <HDD> indicates the Volume Name of your desired HD where you moved the Backups folder; and for simplicity's sake, I created the MobileSync/Backup folder(s) on the external HD - you can use whatever name you want.

Hope that helps - I managed to save approximately 20GB+ of space by doing this, and now have about slightly more than 50% of my SSD free.

I had the exact same issue. This worked perfectly. With my iPad and two iPhones this saved me some serious space.
Thanks

[shanghaisimon]

Originally Posted by OldMacUser

Ran into this issue myself after converting to SSD, and after some web-searching, these are the steps to follow:-

Firstly, the iTunes backup location is here:-
/Users/<YourNameHere>/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

1. Move the ENTIRE Backup folder to your location of choice (external HDD etc).
2. The MobileSync folder should now be empty.
3. Open up Terminal and type in the following command:

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

4. You should now see an icon called Backup with an arrow in the MobileSync folder which indicates that the ln command has worked.

Note: <HDD> indicates the Volume Name of your desired HD where you moved the Backups folder; and for simplicity's sake, I created the MobileSync/Backup folder(s) on the external HD - you can use whatever name you want.

Hope that helps - I managed to save approximately 20GB+ of space by doing this, and now have about slightly more than 50% of my SSD free.

It took me a couple of attempts to get it to work, but eventually it did, and now I'm happily backing up my 64GB iPad2 and my 32GB iPhone 4 to my WD Passport 1TB external HDD. Just as a note to coding newbies like myself, the "\" is required before the space if there is a space between words within the folder or volume name. For example, OldMacUser's code shows "Application\ Support/MobileSync...etc". My external HDD is named "My Passport", so I had to enter it in code as "My\ Passport". Also, as the instructions indicate, it's best to create a new MobileSync folder in the root directory of your external HDD or whatever volume you plan to point the backup to. Move or delete the "Backup" folder out of the MobileSync folder that is in your User/Library/Application Support folder, otherwise you will get an error in Terminal that says the file exists, and it won't create the alias that points to your new Backup folder.

[syngltrkmnd]

Worked like a charm for me. I was a little anxious as a noob that it might not work over NAS but no problem at all. I'm grateful to have cleared up 13 GB of space on my local drive.

[DMD87]

Guys, I'm having some problems. I'm following the posts, trying to redirect my iPhone's backup to an external, which I named 500 GIGs. When I type in the command in Terminal, I get the message /Volumes/500 GIGs/MobileSync/Backup: is a directory. What am I doing wrong?

Any help out there.

[xp99]

I followed the instructions but now I get a backup to both hard drives instead of one. What did I do wrong?

[mindquest]

Originally Posted by xp99

I followed the instructions but now I get a backup to both hard drives instead of one. What did I do wrong?

Did you ever get this to work?

[marekkoznar]

Hi,

recently I've changed my backup type on iPhone and iPad from "back to Mac" to "back to iCloud".

And I wonder now, can I delete the contents of the /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup folder? Or will iTunes do it on its own? It takes up 6GB of space.

Cheers,
Marek

[espring]

I recently installed an external Thunderbolt SSD which is now my boot drive, everything from my internal drive was cloned to it. I want to move my iPhone backups back to the internal HDD so they don't eat up space on my external SSD. I tried the code listed here but it's not working. When I entered the code, Terminal said "The file exists", but it's still writing backups to the external drive. Here's the code I used:
ln -s /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Backup/ ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup

Where am I going wrong?

[Subw00er]

I tried this and it created the icon and everything, but then when I went to backup it said that the backup was corrupt?! I tried erasing the old backups in the app and in the directory, but still didnt work.