Taking offline backups of iPhone using iTunes on Windows is relatively straightforward. However, iTunes won’t let you change where it saves iPhone’s backups, even if your drive is running out of space.
Thankfully, you can move your existing iPhone backups to a different partition on your Windows 10 PC and trick iTunes without breaking anything.
Read on to find out how to reclaim space and save your subsequent backups by changing your iPhone backup’s location on Windows.
1. Locate Your iPhone Backup on Windows 10
Keeping your iPhone backups on the primary Windows partition is risky. If Windows crashes, you might lose those backups along with other data.
Relocating your iPhone backups to separate partition can save you from that headache. Plus, you can avoid keeping an external drive connected all the time.
The iTunes Windows Store app and the iTunes for Windows desktop version save the iPhone backups at a different place. So, you must open the relevant Backup folder.
To start, open iTunes and take a fresh iPhone backup. With a new iPhone backup, identifying the relevant folder will be easier.
For iTunes App From Windows Store
Press Windows Key + E to launch the Windows Explorer and use the address bar to navigate to the following path:
C:Users[username]AppleMobileSyncBackupIn the above path, switch the [username] with your account username of your Windows 10 PC.
For iTunes App Desktop Version
Press Windows Key + R to launch the Run dialog box. Type the following path and hit Enter:
%APPDATA%Apple ComputerMobileSyncBackupThat should open the Backup folder for the iTunes desktop version.
You might see more than one folder based on the backups you’ve taken. The alphanumeric folder name signifies your iPhone’s UDID (Unique Device Identifier) that carries a mix of characters.
If you see multiple alphanumeric folders and can’t figure out which one is for your iPhone, select each one and press Alt + Enter to open its Properties.
Choose the folder with a timestamp that matches the iPhone backup that you just made. Once you’ve figured the Backup folder for your iPhone, keep its respective Windows Explorer window open for quick access.
2. Prepare Other Partition or External Drive as a New Backup Location
You can choose another partition on your Windows 10 PC or use an external drive as the new iPhone backup location. We recommend using a partition on the same or a separate hard drive or SSD. That saves you from needing to keep your external drive connected always.
Before you begin, close the iTunes app and disconnect your iPhone to be on the safe side.
Press Windows Key + E to open a new Windows Explorer window. Go to the other partition on your Windows 10 PC and create a new folder named NewBackup.
Next, copy the alphanumeric folder from the original iPhone backup location window to the NewBackup folder. The data transfer will take a while, depending on your iPhone backup’s folder size.
Once that completes, go to the original iPhone backup location window, and rename the alphanumeric folder to OldBackup, or anything else you like. Keep this folder as a resort to restore things if something goes wrong or doesn’t work.
3. Create a Symlink to Use Partition as the New Backup Location
Using a symbolic link (symlink) can make the file or folder appear as if it is there in a particular location while it might be elsewhere. That way, you can make the iTunes app read and use the iPhone backups from a different location without breaking anything.
Creating symlink will make iTunes save the future backups to a different target location. Before you create a symlink, take a look at the command and understand which paths to be used in a specific order.
mklink /J "[New Location Path]" "[Original Location Path]"The [New Location Path] is the new address of your iPhone backup, and the [Original Location Path] means the address of your original iPhone backup folder.
This command will link the original iPhone backup directory with the new iPhone backup directory. And they will continue to work even if both are located on a different volume or drive.
Press the Windows Key + S to launch the Windows Search. Type CMD and choose Run as administrator from the left pane of the Windows Search.
In the Command Prompt window, use the symlink command along with the relevant paths.
This is how the command will appear if your Windows 10 PC runs iTunes app from Windows Store:
c:users
amir>mklink /J "c:users
amirApplemobilesyncBackup139138b72484cfd32abad6f09af0102511bb8dda" "D:NewBackup"For the iTunes desktop version, this is how the command will appear:
c:users
amir>mklink /J "%AppData%Apple computermobilesyncBackup139f38b72484cfd32abad6f09af0102511bb8dda" "D:NewBackup"A symlink appears with a folder icon carrying a diagonal arrow and the alphanumeric folder name in the original iPhone Backup folder location.
To check if the symlink works, open the iTunes app and connect your iPhone to your Windows 10 PC to take another backup. Once that completes, you can check if the date and time of the backup folders have updated.
Later, after everything is confirmed to work, you can delete the OldBackup folder from the original iPhone Backup folder location.
Remove Symlink and Restore the iPhone Backup Location
It’s pretty easy to restore the iPhone backup location to its original state if you change your mind later. Head to the Backup folder for your iTunes version and delete the symlink folder appearing there.
If you want to restore a recent backup, copy the alphanumeric folder from the new iPhone backup location to the original iPhone backup folder.
Also, you should avoid making changes to the files or folders in the iPhone backups. It may render the entire backup unusable.
The Easy Way to Change Your iPhone Backup Location on Windows 10
Making a symlink is a terrific way to make iTunes read and use a different location to access and save your iPhone’s backups. It’s quite easy to create a new symlink if you switch between the iTunes desktop version to iTunes from Windows Store.
iPhone backups are helpful if your device has become sluggish or keeps crashing. Restoring the offline iPhone backups using iTunes also helps you get back all those app settings.