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How to change iPhone backup folder. How to extract data from an iPhone and iPad backup. Instructions for solving the problem

How to change iPhone backup folder. How to extract data from an iPhone and iPad backup. Instructions for solving the problem

I don’t know about you, but for me the contents of the memory of my iPhone 5s are much more expensive than the device itself. If you bought it once, you can buy it a second and third time, but the accumulated value over the years, even if it is possible, is not easy to do.

How to Move iTunes Backups to Another Drive in Windows 7, 8 and 10

  1. Close iTunes.
  2. Copy or move the folder “C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\” to another drive (replace username with your own). Just in case, copy the folder somewhere else.

    In my virtual Windows machine 10 in it is located along the path: C:\Users\le7andr\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

  3. Run the command line (command line processor) “cmd.exe” with administrator rights (“Start” -> “Search programs and files” -> “cmd” -> Right-click to call context menu on the file "cmd.exe" and select "Run as administrator"). The name of the command line window must include “Administrator: C:/Windows/System32/cmd.exe”.

  4. Enter the command: MKLINK /D “from” “to”

    Example:
    mklink /d “C:\Users\Alexander Varakin\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\” D:\iTunes\Backup

    Instead of “Alexander Varakin”, enter your username. If there are spaces in the path (here Apple Computer), it must be enclosed in quotation marks (“”). To avoid typing the path manually, drag and drop the desired folder into the command line window. Press Enter.


  5. Example of command execution.
  6. Launch iTunes and check for backups in the program settings on the “Devices” tab.

How to Move iTunes Backups to Another Drive in Windows XP

  1. Close iTunes.
  2. Copy or move the folder “C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\” to another drive (replace username with your own). Just in case, it is better to copy the folder somewhere else.
  3. Delete the “Backup” folder on the system drive (from where the backups were moved).
  4. Download Junction from the link, unzip it, for example, to the root of drive “C”.
  5. Run the command line “cmd.exe” with administrator rights (“Start” -> “Search programs and files” -> “cmd” -> Right-click the context menu on the file “cmd.exe” and select “Run as administrator” "). The name of the command line window must include “Administrator: C:/Windows/System32/cmd.exe”.
  6. IN command line enter the command: C:\Path_to_Junction\junction.exe “from” “to” -s,
    • “from” - the previous location of the “Backup” folder on the system drive;
    • “where” is the new path to the backup folder.

    Example: C:\Junction\junction.exe "C:\Users\Alexander Varakin\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\" D:\iTunes\Backup -s

  7. Launch iTunes and check for backups in the program settings on the “Devices” tab.

How to Move iTunes Backups to Another Drive on Mac OS X

For Mac computers with backup using the Time Machine program built into OS X or third-party ones, and the issue of safety of backup copies is not so pressing, but it will still be useful to someone.

On Mac computers on OS X the procedure is a little simpler:


Backups transferred to another drive will be available in iTunes until the next reinstallation of the operating system, after which the symbolic links will need to be created again.

As you can see, there is nothing difficult about finding an iTunes backup on Windows computer or Mac. It’s not difficult to move “heavy” backups to another drive (partition or external drive) and associate them with iTunes using symbolic links.

If you have any questions or additions, write them in the comments and we’ll discuss them.

Store valuable documents in the system disk ( This is usually drive C:) is not safe. Many people know this from their own bitter experience, since the system disk quickly lives out its life, often gets damaged, and suffers most from virus attacks, which is especially not a supernatural phenomenon in the Windows OS family ( unfortunately or fortunately, I am not MAC user OS). But in any case, it is better to keep everything valuable in external drive, or at least in another section. Fortunately, operating systems allow you to change the location of system folders by specifying a new path in their properties.

It is also advisable to keep your iTunes files in a different drive ( section), so that you don’t have to throw them back and forth every time when you rearrange the operating system, or don’t tear your hair out when it crashes system disk. We are talking not only about downloaded applications and games, music, movies, books, etc., but you also need to take into account backup copies of devices, which, depending on their number and the volume of the content itself, can be from 10 to 50 GB and more. This manual will also be useful for those who want to transfer data to another computer.

TRANSFER YOUR ITUNES MEDIA LIBRARY

MEDIA LIBRARY stores downloaded applications, music, movies, your videos, ringtones and books. By default, the files are located at:
c:\Users\(USER NAME)\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media - (USER NAME) the name of your account folder.

If you have already changed the location of the My Music folder by specifying a different address in the tab Location, in the property of this folder, then all files will be saved there. But this must be done before installing iTunes, or you will have to manually also change the address in the field iTunes media folder location by going to the menu Edit => Settings, in the tab Additional. If you check the box Copy to iTunes media folder when adding to media library, then the program will copy all music files to this folder, otherwise by default, it will simply play them from the original location.

Better let's start from the beginning and do it in order. Let's say you have installed new iTunes, after reinstalling the system, or changing the computer. Or you yourself decided to move the iTunes folder from the above address to another drive. In all cases, if you immediately launch iTunes, it will create a new, empty library file.

The iTunes root folder contains library files and various folders, which also contains the iTunes Media folder where your applications, downloaded movies, books, ringtones, or maybe music are located. For example, you moved the iTunes folder itself to another drive and a new address, for example: D:\Itunes.

1. Launch iTunes as follows. Press and hold the SHIFT key on your keyboard and double-click on the iTunes shortcut on your desktop, and instead of normal startup program, a window will appear asking you to select the path to the media library or create a new one.

2. Click on the button Select media library, and in the window Open iTunes Library select the iTunes folder and find the iTunes Library.itl file in it. iTunes will think a little, check the files and open with all your data. Just, just in case, check in the settings whether the media library address is specified correctly.

This is how everything is done in 2 steps, easy and simple. I think you can do all this in a similar way in MAC OS.

TRANSFER OF BACKUP COPIES OF DEVICES

iTunes automatically backs up your devices every time you sync, just in case. This gives you the opportunity to recover software system, if the device fails or data is lost. With the release of iOS5, a copy of the data is created in cloud storage iClouds. But it's always a good idea to keep copies on your computer. This is especially necessary if you do a jalebreak or like to delve into the internals of the system. For example, when the system was not officially supported Multitasking Gestures, it was possible to enable it without jalebreak by slightly changing the configuration file, which is located in backup copy, and then restore this copy.

The backup files are located at:
c:\Users\(USERNAME)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\backup

And they always weigh quite a bit. There is no way to change the path to the backup folder in the iTunes program itself, but it can be done. To do this you need to use SYMBOLIC LINKS (JUNCTION). This feature allows you to create virtual disk or a folder that will physically be located in another drive or in another folder. That is, we will create a virtual backup folder where the contents will be located in another location, for example in D:\Itunes\backup . It's not hard to do. But the possibilities of symbolic links themselves are many. You can find out about it on the website and.

Before starting the transfer, create new folder (For example d:\Itunes\backup), where you want the backup files to be located and copy the contents of the backup folder there ( after which we delete the folder itself).

1. Go in and download a small file by clicking DOWNLOAD JUNCTION at the bottom of the page.

2. Unpack junction.exe from the Junction.zip archive file into a folder at:
c:\Users\(USERNAME)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync .

3. Click on the combination of buttons to open the EXECUTE window. Insert the line below into the OPEN field, changing it to suit you ( don't forget to change also (USERNAME) to your account folder name).

c:\Users\(USERNAME)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\Mobile\Sync\junction.exe backup d:\Itunes\backup

The first attribute is virtual folder name, and the second attribute is the address where the folder refers to.

Click the OK button and check if it has been created virtual folder backup , which if you did everything correctly should be located as follows:
c:\Users\(USERNAME)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\ backup

To check, you can copy any file to this folder and make sure that it is physically located on another drive.

That's all. From now on, iTunes will store backups in the d:\Itunes\backup folder, without knowing it. All this may seem complicated to you, but believe me, it will take no more than 5 minutes. The transfer idea may also seem unnecessary and pointless to you, but someday it can save you nerve cells and wasted time.

Oh, how often this question was asked in the comments. We will correct ourselves and respond. The main problem is that there is not enough space on the main hard drive and you need to transfer all the data to another drive. iOS device backups are just one of the space hogs we'd like to move. Yes, not everyone uses iCloud yet. :)

In the article I will talk separately about transferring a backup copy to another drive (including an external one) using an example Windows systems 7/Vista, Windows XP and Mac Os.

Instructions for Mac OS

The fact is that I have two hard drives in my laptop - SSD and HDD. Having a backup on an SSD is certainly luxurious, but it doesn’t make much sense. Therefore, I decided to transfer the backup to another disk.

1. We delete unnecessary backups. iTunes -> Settings -> Devices

2. Make sure that the backups have been deleted. For Mac OS, the path to backups is as follows:

/Users/[username]/Libraries/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

Important: If you don't see this path through Finder, then install free program: file manager MuCommander (or any other analogue).

Before removal:

After removal:

As you can see, I still have one extra folder - so there are very ancient and unnecessary backup copies that can also be deleted. There should be one folder per backup.

3. On HDD drive create a folder - call it Backup.

4. We transfer the folder (or folders, if there are several copies) with the backup copy to Backup on another disk.

4.1. Delete the Backup folder using the old path. In my case: /Volumes/SSD/Users/dmitry/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup

ln -s /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/dmitry/Backup /Volumes/SSD/Users/dmitry/Library/Application\Support/MobileSync

In fact, nothing complicated - I’ll explain the command:

ln -s– command to create a symbolic link.

/Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/dmitry/Backup – the path where you will now store backups. Note the backslash “\” before HD. I just escaped the space character in the path.

/Volumes/SSD/Users/dmitry/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync – the path where your symbolic link will be located, roughly speaking a shortcut to the Backup folder on another disk.

In general, after executing the command in the terminal, you will have something like the following picture. In the Mobile Sync folder on the old drive, something like a shortcut (using Windows terminology) will appear to a folder on the other drive. Let's look at the properties.

Launch iTunes. We start the backup. That's it - the backup copy is saved to another disk, which is exactly what we needed.

Instructions for Windows Vista and Windows 7

Everything here is not much more complicated than for Mac OS. For these two systems, symbolic links can be created using the system itself. If you have Vista or Seven, I recommend creating links exactly as I will describe.

In order not to repeat myself with screenshots, I will briefly describe the initial steps (for more details, read points 1 and 2 of the instructions for Mac OS just above).

1. We find out which backup copies we have extra and delete them in the iTunes settings and in file system. The paths where the system stores them:

\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

These paths through a regular conductor may not be available - I recommend using file manager (Total Commander or Far Manager). Be sure to enable the display of hidden and system files in the file manager settings.

2. Let's say we want to transfer the iPad backup to drive D. Create an iTunes folder on drive D (choose the name and path yourself) and transfer the entire Backup folder with all our backups from drive C to this same iTunes folder.

3. Click Start and look for CMD in the search bar. In the results, right-click and launch CMD (command line) with administrator rights.

4. What remains is the most difficult and the simplest at the same time. Enter the command to create a symbolic link correctly:

Explanation:

/D– we indicate to the command that the symbolic link will lead to the directory

NewPath– A new path, in this case on drive D where iTunes will save backups.

An example of the command execution is shown in the screenshot:

That's all - we're testing. Let's try to save a backup copy. The copy is saved to drive D, which is what was required.

Instructions for Windows XP

This add-on is suitable for both Windows XP and other Windows systems. As you know, the mklink command is not available in Windows XP, so you can use the junction utility. Download it from this link.

Its meaning and use are completely similar to using the command .

1. Download this program. Let's unzip. We upload it to some folder on the disk. Let's say C:\Junction

2. Follow steps 1,2,3 of the instructions for Windows 7 and Vista.

3. On the command line, run the command:

c:\Junction\junction.exe SymbolicLinkName NewPath

For an explanation of this command, see paragraph 4 of the Instructions for Windows 7 and Vista above.

Backup on a PC has already been mentioned more than once, for example, in the previous article. Cause transferring an iPad backup to another drive, is that there is simply not enough space on the main hard drive and there is a need to transfer data to another HDD. Backing up iOS devices eats up quite a lot of free space, and naturally there is a desire to transfer copies. iCloud, designed for these purposes, is not held in high esteem by everyone. So, today I will talk about transferring an iPad backup to another drive (including external HDD) using the example operating systems Windows 7/Vista, Windows XP and Mac Os. This instruction suitable for transferring iPhone and iPod backups.

Instructions for transferring a backup copy for Mac OS

Let's say you have two hard drives in a laptop - SSD and HDD. Place the backup copy on SSD drive devoid of common sense. In this case, we set ourselves the task of transferring the backup copy to another disk.

1. Remove unnecessary backups. iTunes - Settings - Devices

2. Make sure backups are deleted. operating room Mac system OS has the following directory containing backups of iOS devices:

/Users/[Username]/Libraries/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

Important Note: if you cannot find this directory through the built-in Finder tool, then install the free file manager MuCommander (or similar software).

View of the folder contents before deletion:

View of the folder contents after deletion:

As you can see in the example, there is 1 extra folder - this way you can get rid of old backups, which can be safely deleted, following the rule: 1 backup = 1 folder.

3. Create a new folder on your hard drive (HDD) called “ «.

4. Move the folder (or several folders corresponding to the number of backups) containing the backup to the folder on another disk (HDD).

Delete the folder " ", located on the SSD disk.

The directory looks like this:

/Volumes/SSD/Users/UserName/Library/Application\Support/MobileSync/Backup

Ln -s /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/UserName/Backup /Volumes/ SSD/Users/UserName/Library/Application\Support/MobileSync

What does this command mean:

ln -s- command to create a symbolic link

/Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/vitaliy/Backup - directory for storing backups.

/Volumes/SSD/Users/vitaliy/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync — the directory where the symbolic link is located, pointing to the folder on another disk (HDD).

As a result of executing the command in Terminal you will get the following: in the folder Mobile Sync a semblance of a shortcut will appear on the SSD disk, linking to a folder in the HDD.

Now run iTunes, then backup and as a result iPad backup will be saved on another drive.

Instructions for transferring a backup copy to Windows Vista and Windows 7

For operating systems Windows Vista and Windows 7, symbolic links are created using OS tools. The first two points are similar to the method for Mac OS described above.

1. Again identify unnecessary backups and delete them in the application settings iTunes and from Conductor on your hard drive. Backup storage directory in Windows 7:

\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\AppleComputer\MobileSync\Backup\

This directory is hidden because it belongs to system folders. You can use file Total manager Commander, turning on the display of hidden and system files in the settings, or go to Control Panel - Folder Options and uncheck the "Hide" option system files and folders."

2. Suppose you want transfer iPad backup on Local disk D. In this case, create a folder on this hard drive iTunes(the folder name and path are arbitrary) and transfer the entire folder with backups from drive C to the created folder iTunes on drive D.

3. Click Start and enter cmd in the search bar. Applications to launch the command line will appear on the top line - cmd. Launch it by right-clicking and select Run as administrator.

4. Now enter the command to create a symbolic link correctly:

What does this line mean:

mklink- command to create a symbolic link

/D- specify the directory for the symbolic link

NewPath- directory where backup copies are located on drive D.

Example of command execution:

Ready! It remains to make sure that the iPad backup is saved to drive D.

Instructions for transferring an iPad backup to Windows XP

These instructions apply to both Windows XP and other Windows family systems. Windows XP awarded additional way due to the lack of a command on this OS mklink, so we will use the utility junction. You can download it from this link.

Using the junction utility is similar to the method of transferring a backup copy of iOS devices to Windows 7.

1. Download the program and unzip it. Place it in any convenient folder on your PC hard drive. Let's assume at the root of the system disk: C:\Junction

2. Follow steps 1, 2, 3 of the above instructions for Windows 7 and Vista.

3. At the cmd prompt, run the following command:

C:\Junction\junction.exe SymbolicLinkName NewPath

Using these methods you can transfer created backup copies of iPhone, iPod and iPad to external hard drive if desired. If you accidentally deleted or renamed a symbolic link, then iTunes during the next process reserve copy iOS devices will again create a folder for storing backups and continue saving the backup copy in its original location. Backups in the previously used directory will not be deleted. To return to your previous backup settings, remove the symbolic link and return the folder to its original place.

By default, music, TV shows, movies, podcasts, and other files that appear in iTunes library , are stored here:

user folder/Music/iTunes

You can change where iTunes media files are stored.

How to change the storage location of imported files

    Select the iTunes menu >

    Click Change and select a new location for the files.

    From now on, new songs and other items you import will be stored in this new location. The songs you imported previously will remain in their original places.

    To return to storing imported files in the iTunes folder, choose iTunes > Preferences, click Add-ons, then click Reset.

How to collect files in the iTunes folder

Depending on how the objects were imported In iTunes, some library items may be stored in other places (for example, in a different folder or on a different hard drive).

You can collect all the files in your library in an iTunes folder, for example, to make it easier to transfer your library to a new computer.

    Choose File > Library > Organize Library.

    Select Collect Files.

    The files remain in their original location, and copies are placed in the iTunes folder.

    To create folders (Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, Audiobooks, etc.) inside the iTunes folder and organize the imported media into their appropriate folders, click Reorganize Files in iTunes Media Folder.

Adding files to your library without adding them to the iTunes folder

When you , iTunes places a copy of the file in the iTunes folder. The original file remains where it was stored.

You can change this setting to add files to your iTunes library without adding them to your iTunes folder. This may be necessary, for example, if you prefer to store video files on an external drive, but want to view them in iTunes.

    Choose iTunes menu > Preferences and click Add-ons.

    Uncheck "Copy to iTunes Media folder when adding to library."

The next time you drag a file into your Library or choose File > Add to Library, the item will appear in iTunes, but the file itself will not be copied or moved.

Tip: You can temporarily reverse this option by holding down the Option key while dragging files into the iTunes window.

Finding the Location of iTunes Files

Do one of the following:

    Finding the folder where the file is stored Select the item in iTunes and choose File > Properties. The file path appears at the bottom of the Browse tab (next to the Where item).

    Show a file in Finder Select the item in iTunes and choose File > Show in Finder.

If a song no longer appears in iTunes

If a song previously appeared in iTunes but no longer appears, the file may iTunes Library moved from the iTunes folder or the song was moved from the iTunes folder. How to Show Songs in the iTunes Window Again

    Locate the "iTunes" folder in Finder and drag the folder into the iTunes window. You will see the songs in your library again. If it includes an iTunes Library file, you'll also see playlists, song ratings, and other information you've created.

    If this doesn't help, it's likely your songs are located somewhere else on your hard drive. In Finder, choose File > Find and search by song title or artist. Or search by keyword"MP4" to find files downloaded from the iTunes Store, or keyword "MP3" to find files encoded in MP3 format. Drag songs (or folders of songs) into the iTunes window to add songs back to iTunes.

Important: To achieve best results Do not move the iTunes folder or folders within it.

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