{"id":12572,"date":"2018-03-02T14:50:14","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T11:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/?p=12572"},"modified":"2018-03-02T18:49:28","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T15:49:28","slug":"change-itunes-backup-location-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/change-itunes-backup-location-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"How to change the iTunes backup location on your PC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the most useful iTunes features is the ability to backup the data from an iPhone or iPad, in case you want to fix a specific issue or just keep your files saved. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, there\u2019s one big problem with this: the backup folder is kept on your PC, directly on the system drive. Therefore, if you\u2019re that type of user who backs up things pretty often, you will end up with a very low amount of storage space left on your system partition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this cases, you need to change the iTunes backup location, moving the folder to a partition where you have more space. But Apple\u2019s software doesn\u2019t actually allow this, so&#8230;what should users do?<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is there any method of changing the iTunes backup location? <\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you look into your system drive, you should see that the default destination of your iTunes backup folder is <em>\\Users\\(your username)\\AppData\\Roaming\\Apple Computer\\MobileSync\\Backup<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Basically, iTunes is configured in such way that all backup files are copied in this location, so it\u2019s impossible to pick another location.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Therefore, the only solution to this remains creating a secondary backup folder, on another partition of your hard drive, for example, then link the original backup folder to it. Once this secondary backup folder is created, each time a new backup is added in the original folder, the files will actually be saved in the new folder.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before going to the actual steps you need to follow in order to change the iTunes backup location, you should know that this is a relatively advanced process. However, if you follow the instructions in the guide carefully, everything should be ok. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How to create a secondary iTunes backup folder<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pick another hard drive partition and create a new backup folder. It\u2019s recommended to pick one with the most free space. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Name the folder iTunes Backup 2 or anything that makes sense for you<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Go to the original iTunes backup folder and rename it. Let\u2019s say iTunes backup 1<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Change the location of the iTunes backup folder. After renaming the original backup folder, press SHIFT and right click on the folder. You should see a menu<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Choose Open command window here. You should see a small window, with a black background and the following text on it: <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">C:\\Users\\(your username)\\AppData\\Roaming\\Apple Computer\\MobileSync&gt;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12577 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/windows-command-prompt-path.png\" alt=\"Windows command prompt path\" width=\"650\" height=\"156\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/windows-command-prompt-path.png 650w, https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/windows-command-prompt-path-150x36.png 150w, https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/windows-command-prompt-path-300x72.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Type the following command: <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mklink \/J &#8220;%APPDATA%\\Apple Computer\\MobileSync\\Backup&#8221; &#8220;D:\\iTunes Backup 2\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this command <\/span><b>D:\\ <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is the drive where the new folder is, but you can change it according to your location, while iTunes Backup 2 is the name of the new backup folder<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12578 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Command-Prompt-Change-iTunes-Backup-Location.jpg\" alt=\"Command Prompt Change iTunes Backup Location\" width=\"600\" height=\"185\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Command-Prompt-Change-iTunes-Backup-Location.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Command-Prompt-Change-iTunes-Backup-Location-150x46.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Command-Prompt-Change-iTunes-Backup-Location-300x93.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After this, the command prompt will create a link between the two folders and a shortcut called backup will also be created in the original location of the backup folder<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Go to the original backup folder and delete the old iTunes backup files<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Connect your iPhone to your PC and perform a backup with iTunes. You should now find the file in the new folder<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12579 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/itunes-backup-folder-location-changed.png\" alt=\"iTunes backup folder new location\" width=\"650\" height=\"419\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/itunes-backup-folder-location-changed.png 650w, https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/itunes-backup-folder-location-changed-150x97.png 150w, https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/itunes-backup-folder-location-changed-300x193.png 300w, https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/itunes-backup-folder-location-changed-100x65.png 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At first, this method can look a bit complicated, but changing the iTunes backup location is actually a great idea since it can help you save a lot of storage space. Not once we\u2019ve heard iPhone users complaining about having to back up their photos and videos way too often and ending up with low storage space on their system drive. By this, this problem can become history. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the other side, you can skip the steps above and change the iTunes backup location using a third party tool. In one of our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/transfer-videos-ipad-without-itunes\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">previous guides<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, we mentioned <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/macroplant.com\/iexplorer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">iExplorer<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a tool which, among other features, can be used to save backup files from an iDevice on your PC. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can use it for changing the location of the iTunes backup folder since its interface is very user-friendly and you shouldn\u2019t have any problems during the process. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Otherwise, do let us know if the instructions above worked for you or if you\u2019ve faced any issues, by dropping some lines in the comments section below!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most useful iTunes features is the ability to backup the data from an iPhone or iPad, in case you want to fix a specific issue or just keep your files saved. However, there\u2019s one big problem with this: the backup folder is kept on your PC, directly on the system drive. Therefore, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101017,"featured_media":12580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[152,2406],"tags":[357,2726,2708,2722],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to change the iTunes backup location on your PC | UnlockUnit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you want to change the iTunes backup location, in order to free some storage space from your system drive, things can become a bit complicated. However, our guide will surely help you.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/change-itunes-backup-location-pc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to change the iTunes backup location on your PC | UnlockUnit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you want to change the iTunes backup location, in order to free some storage space from your system drive, things can become a bit complicated. However, our guide will surely help you.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/change-itunes-backup-location-pc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UnlockUnit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UnlockUnit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-02T11:50:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-02T15:49:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/itunes.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UnlockUnit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UnlockUnit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/change-itunes-backup-location-pc\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/change-itunes-backup-location-pc\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"How to change the iTunes backup location on your PC\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-02T11:50:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-02T15:49:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/change-itunes-backup-location-pc\/\"},\"wordCount\":695,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"ios\",\"ios issues\",\"itunes\",\"smartphones\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Mobile\",\"Tips &amp; Tricks\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/change-itunes-backup-location-pc\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/change-itunes-backup-location-pc\/\",\"name\":\"How to change the iTunes backup location on your PC | UnlockUnit\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unlockunit.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-02T11:50:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-02T15:49:28+00:00\",\"description\":\"If you want to change the iTunes backup location, in order to free some storage space from your system drive, things can become a bit complicated. 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