How to Backup iPhone to External Hard Drive in Windows 10
A considerable variety of iPhone users run Windows 10 operating system on their computer systems. Most of these users use the official iTunes software application to backup iPhone to Windows 10 PC.
With default settings, iTunes conserves data supported from iPhone on the same drive where Windows 10 is set up. The actual area of the backup folder is:
If iTunes is installed from Store:
Users \( username) \ AppData \ Roaming \ Apple \ MobileSync \ Backup.
If iTunes is installed outside the Store:.
Users \( username) \ AppData \ Roaming \ Apple \ MobileSync \ Backup.
The problem with this default location is that it's located on the drive where Windows 10 is set up. If you have actually set up Windows 10 on a reasonably little SSD which doesn't have adequate free space to support your iPhone, you may want to support your iPhone to an external disk drive.
The existing version of iTunes for Windows OS doesn't provide a choice to alter the default back up area. How to back up iPhone to an external hard drive?
We will have to use the symbolic link feature present in the Windows os to alter the default back up location of iPhone in Windows 10. It requires executing a command from the elevated Command Prompt.
Backup iPhone to external hard disk in Windows 10 using iTunes
So, here is how to back up iPhone to the external hard disk drive using iTunes in Windows 10.\
Step 1: Link your external hard disk to your Windows 10 PC and make certain that it's showing up in This PC. If it's not showing up, please go through our external drive disappointing up in File Explorer guide.
Step 2: Browse to This PC and open the root of the external disk drive by double-clicking on its drive icon.
Step 3: At the root of the external disk drive, develop a new folder called MobileSync. If the drive letter of your external hard drive is "D," then the path to the MobileSync folder would be D: \ MobileSync.
Step 4: Next, browse to one of the following locations:.
If iTunes is installed from Windows 10 Store:.
C: \ Users \ UserName \ Apple \ MobileSync.
For the timeless desktop version of iTunes:
C: \ Users \ UserName \ AppData \ Roaming \ Apple Computer System \ MobileSync.
Step 5: Cut (don't copy) the Backup folder from that place and paste it to the brand-new MobileSync folder that you created at the root of the external hard drive. The path to the Backup folder would be:.
D: \ MobileSync \ Backup.
Where "D" is the drive letter.
Step 6: Run the Command Prompt as administrator. To do so, type CMD in the search, right-click on Command Trigger in the search results and then click Run as administrator choice.
Click Yes button when you get the User Account Control screen.
Step 7: Lastly, execute the following command:.
If iTunes is installed from the Store:.
MkLink/ J "C: \ Users \ UserName \ Apple \ MobileSync \ Backup" "D: \ MobileSync \ Backup".
If iTunes is installed outside the Store (using the setup file):.
MkLink/ J "C: \ Users \ UserName \ AppData \ Roaming \ Apple Computer \ MobileSync \ Backup" "D: \ MobileSync \ Backup".
In the above commands, "C" is the drive letter of Windows 10 drive, UserName is your real user name on your PC, and "D" is the drive letter of the external hard disk (brand-new place) which you would like to utilize to back up your iPhone.