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backing up iOS devices on a external hard drive

I have an old MacBook that only has 128Gb of storage and most of it is already used however I have an external hard drive with 1.5 terabytes so I manage. I got a new iPhone with 256Gb and I have an iPad with 128Gb and I want to back them up directly into my external hard drive since I can't download it and transfer it. I tried looking up and it seems as if there is no easy way to do it. any suggestions?


MacBook Air 11″, macOS 11.0

Posted on Nov 18, 2020 3:12 PM

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4 replies

Nov 18, 2020 3:15 PM in response to Luckyoneal

Luckyoneal wrote:

I have an old MacBook that only has 128Gb of storage and most of it is already used however I have an external hard drive with 1.5 terabytes so I manage. I got a new iPhone with 256Gb and I have an iPad with 128Gb and I want to back them up directly into my external hard drive since I can't download it and transfer it. I tried looking up and it seems as if there is no easy way to do it. any suggestions?

YOu don't thats why it's either to itunes or icloud as outlined here How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

Nov 18, 2020 3:18 PM in response to Luckyoneal

If you are wanting to backup to the external drive without connecting your devices to the computer then that's not possible. One thing you can try though is changing your iTunes library to the external drive and then the backups should go to the external drive. This of course would require connecting the devices to your MacBook in order to run the backups.


Edit: Niel's directions are more complete.

backing up iOS devices on a external hard drive

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