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Depending on your system, you may need to search a little to find the iTunes backup storage location. In our guide, we show you where to find the storage location on a Mac and on a Windows PC.
iTunes: Here’s where to find the backup location
On your Mac, it’s pretty easy to find the iTunes backup folder.
- The iTunes backup folder is located in a hidden folder that you must first open. To do this, open Finder and go to “Go to Folder…” in the menu bar.
- Then enter the path “~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup” in the new window. Click on “Open.”
- All iTunes backup folders will now be displayed in Finder.
- You can move these folders to another location. However, new backups will still be saved in the same folder.
- To change the backup folder for iTunes backups, you need to adjust some settings in Terminal.
- To do this, open Terminal and first enter “cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync” and confirm with “Enter”.
- Now enter “open” and press the Enter key again.
- The backup folder will open. You can now rename, delete, or move it, for example.
- After you have moved the folder, enter the command “ln -s [desired-new-backup-path] ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup“ in the terminal and confirm with ”Enter“.
iTunes Backup on Windows
On a Windows PC, finding the backup folder is a little more complicated. This is mainly because you have to use a different path on each Windows system.
- If you use the iTunes app from the Microsoft Store for Windows 10, you will find the iTunes backup under the path “C:\Users\{your username}\Apple\MobileSync\Backup\”.
- You can also type this path “%USERPROFILE%\Apple\MobileSync\Backup” into Windows Explorer and confirm with “Enter”. This will get you there faster.
- In Windows Vista to Windows 8, you will find the folder under the following path: “C:\Users\{your username}\AppData\Roaming\AppleComputer\MobileSync\Backup\” or in Windows Explorer under “%APPDATA%\ AppleComputer\MobileSync\Backup.“
- In a Windows XP system, the backup folder can be found under ”C:\Users\{YourUsername}\Application Data\Apple Computer\Mobile Sync\Backup.”
- If you want to change the iTunes backup location, go to your computer’s Start menu and enter “cmd” in the search bar, followed by “cd c:\”. Then enter the command “mklink /j ”C:\Users\[YOUR NAME]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup“ ”d:\itunes\backup“. You have now changed the file path and thus the storage location.
