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Mac location for iPhone Backups...FYI

E

ec51

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 28, 2008
462
5
In case some people here did not know, the iPhone back-up location for a mac is:

User>Library>Application Support>Mobile Sync>Backup

The folder will be named something strange as will all of the files within that folder. I put the files in date order and found files as old as July 11, 2008. I figured that iTunes would automatically update and overwrite any old Backup files; but I do not think this is true.

I had over 2,000 files and anyone that is crazy as me with space and whatnot...this is not cooL. It seems every backup does not create one little nice and neat, dated backup file, but instead it creates a number of files and throws them all into the Backup folder. I removed all of files from the folder and I am doing another backup just to see if I can manually remove these files with no problem and the backup seems to be going fine. I am also interested to see just how many files it takes to backup the phone.

Anyway, just thought I would share and I am not sure if the location had been mentioned here before.


eR

UPDATE:

Okay, after my test backup was done...I was left with just as many files as were in the original folder. I assume the dates refer to some files that are still in the phone that were created on the first day it was started up? Not sure...it seems iTunes does overwrite the backup folder and all 2,700 files are the one backup.
 
2,000 files is nothing, my folder has 9,000+ which probably explains why it takes so damn long to do a backup.

Why it needs 9,000+ files is beyond me.
 
Yes, and I recently discovered that it is a very good idea to back up your back ups from time to time, as my mac only saves the most recent iTunes back up... is there a setting in iTunes somewhere that will allow me to save more than 1? Anyway, I needed to restore from back up, but my latest back up file was corrupted. So... I had to go to my windows machine :eek:, that keeps SEVERAL back ups, to find the most recent (which was in APRIL! :( ) back up file, transfer to my mac, and then restore.

So - lesson learned: do not trust the back up
 
Ugh...corrupted backup files?

Ugh....now I have to backup the backup?
 
ec51 said:
In case some people here did not know, the iPhone back-up location for a mac is:

User>Library>Application Support>Mobile Sync>Backup

The folder will be named something strange as will all of the files within that folder. I put the files in date order and found files as old as July 11, 2008. I figured that iTunes would automatically update and overwrite any old Backup files; but I do not think this is true.

I had over 2,000 files and anyone that is crazy as me with space and whatnot...this is not cooL. It seems every backup does not create one little nice and neat, dated backup file, but instead it creates a number of files and throws them all into the Backup folder. I removed all of files from the folder and I am doing another backup just to see if I can manually remove these files with no problem and the backup seems to be going fine. I am also interested to see just how many files it takes to backup the phone.

Anyway, just thought I would share and I am not sure if the location had been mentioned here before.


eR

UPDATE:

Okay, after my test backup was done...I was left with just as many files as were in the original folder. I assume the dates refer to some files that are still in the phone that were created on the first day it was started up? Not sure...it seems iTunes does overwrite the backup folder and all 2,700 files are the one backup.
Click to expand...

really?
i did the same and only got 1 file
 
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