[100% Success] How to Back up iPhone/iPad to External Hard Drive
We usually save mobile phone data on a computer and iCloud directly iTunes or iCloud. But over time, these backup files will eat up your limited disk space. In order to free up the storage space occupied by iPhone backup files, you can choose to back up iPhone to external hard drive.
This article mainly tells you how to back up iPhone and iPad to external hard drive. You can transfer your existing iPhone backup files to an external hard drive, but doing so may damage the backup files; of course you can also use professional iPhone backup software to move iOS backup files to external hard drive directly.
Part 1: Why Back up iPhone to External Hard Drive?
Mobile phones have become an indispensable item in people's lives and work. And a lot of our files and information are also stored on the mobile phone. If the iPhone's memory is insufficient, we should back up iPhone data to other devices as soon as possible, such as external hard drive, which is an ideal storage device for the following reasons:
- External hard drives are very durable, and general external hard drives can be used for three to five years.
- The external hard drive can be carried with you.
- The price of an external hard drive is affordable. Generally, an 8TB external hard drive sells for about US$149.
- Saving mobile phone files to an external hard drive will not take up space on the computer on the one hand, and will not threaten the files on the external hard drive if the computer system crashes on the other hand. So backing up iPhone data to an external hard drive is a relatively safe way.
Well, it's wise to store iPhone backup on external drive. But how to back up iPhone to external hard drive? Please keep reading.
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Part 2: How to Back up iPhone to External Drive on Windows
Preparation work:
- Format your external hard drive as Windows NT file system (NTFS)
- Create a new folder under the root directory of the external hard drive and name it "iPhoneBackup".
Step 1: Use the command prompt to change the iPhone backup location
- Create a virtual symbolic link in Windows, pointing to a folder on your external hard drive.
- Connect the external hard drive to the Windows computer. If there is a mklink symbolic link creation error, you need to fix it first.
- Close iTunes, and then run the command prompt as an administrator on the Windows computer.
- Type the command, and then press "Enter": mklink /J "C:\Users\isunshare\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "H:\iPhoneBackup"
- At this time, you will see a newly created "Backup" folder with an arrow in the default iPhone backup location.
Notice:
The previous default iPhone backup location is: C:\Users\isunshare\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
The new iPhone backup location is: H:\iPhoneBackup
Step 2: Start to save iPhone backup to external hard drive on Windows
- Connect your iPhone to the Windows computer.
- Open iTunes and wait for it to recognize your iPhone.
- Click the iPhone icon on the iTunes screen, select "Back Up Now", and then wait for the iPhone to be backed up to the external hard drive.
From now on, the iPhone backup files on iTunes will be automatically stored on the external hard drive, unless you use the following command to cancel the route from Mklink to the external hard drive. And you can also view iPhone backups at any time.
mklink /J "C:\Users\yourWindowsusername\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "C:\Users\yourWindowsusername\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup"
Part 3: How to Back up iPhone to External Hard Drive on Mac
Follow the following steps to move iPhone backup to external drive on Mac.
- Connect your external hard drive to Mac.
- Format the external hard drive to MS-DOS (FAT) on Mac.
- Create a new folder under the root directory of the external hard drive and name it "iPhoneBackup".
- Go to FinderApplications Utilities and select Terminal to run on Mac.
- Type this command to set a new location for iPhone backup: ln –s /Volumes/External/iPhoneBackup ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync
If your external hard drive is read-only on Mac, then you need to run Disk Utility to erase it in MS-DOS (FAT) format. Then, you can read and write files to this external hard drive on your Mac.
Note: Before running Terminal, please make sure you have deleted the Backup folder from ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync.
Here, "External" refers to the name of your external hard drive.
After completing the above operations, the process of backing up iPhone to external hard drive on Mac is almost the same as described on Windows.
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Part 4: How to Backup iPhone Directly to External Hard Drive
Do you feel that the two methods described above are more complicated, especially for computer novices? Can you backup iPhone to external hard drive directly? If you want a simple one-click method to backup iPhone to an external hard drive, then you can use third-party software, such as MobiKin Assistant for iOS. This is a professional iOS data management and backup tool that allows you to Manage iPhone/iPad/iPod files, back up files to computer or iTunes. Of course, it also supports one-click backup iPhone/iPad to external hard drive.
One-stop Tool to Backup & Restore iPhone with One Click
- Supports backing up iPhone/iPad to computer, iTunes and external hard drive.
- Restore data from backup to iOS device with one click.
- Allows you to preview any items, and selectively back up and restore iOS devices.
- No data loss on devices during the restore.
- Supports almost all iOS data types, including Video, Photo, Music, eBook, Contacts, Text Messages, Notes, Safari Bookmarks, Voice Memo, Podcast, Ringtone, Playlist, etc.
- Fully compatible with iPhone 12/12 Pro (Max), iPhone 11/11 Pro/11 Pro Max, iPhone X/XR/XS/XS Max, iPhone 8/8 Plus, iPhone 7/7 Plus, iPhone 6/6S/6 Plus, iPod touch, iPad, etc.
A quick tutorial you can follow to back up iPhone/iPad to external hard drive with Assistant for iOS.
Step 1: Connect your devices to computer
After getting the MobiKin Assistant for iOS downloaded and installed on your computer, launch it and connect your iPhone and the external hard drive to the computer. Once connected, Assistant for iOS will recognize your iPhone automatically.
Step 2: Select the iPhone data to back up
On the next page of the Assistant for iOS, you can see all accessible file types are listed on the left sidebar. Go ahead to preview and select the files you want to back up by ticking them off.
Step 3: Back up iPhone onto a hard drive
After selecting all the iPhone data you need, you can click on the "Export" button on the top menu, choose the connected external hard drive as the output location. After that, all the selected iPhone files will be saved to the external drive automatically.
What is the best way to back up iPhone to external hard drive
As you can see, the above is an effective tutorial for backing up iPhone to external hard drive on Windows and Mac computers. In summary, whether you are using iTunes or Finder, you need to manually backup iPhone to external hard drive. And improper operation may damage the data. The best solution is to use MobiKin Assistant for iOS. It can back up iPhone directly to an external hard drive, which is safe and reliable, and will not cause any damage to your device and data.
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