How to back up iPhone to an external hard drive in macOS Sequoia using symlink

Macinator wrote:

In your experience with this strategy, does Finder automatically point future incremental backups to the external drive? I'm concerned that it won't and then the next time my phone syncs it'll just create an entirely new backup.

I guess what I'm asking is, after the backup is moved does it remain dynamic or is this a static, archival backup that does not update?

Thanks!

No it is not dynamic, it is simply a simple copy of the backup file to an external drive for storage, and then deleting the original backup to free up space on the internal drive. If you do a new backup it won't update the one that was manually moved to an external drive, it will just do a new one in the normal location. To restore from that backup, you would need to manually move it back to the regular location for such backups. I did not really trust this approach in fact and the "cure" is to obtain adequate storage on the Mac when it is purchased, from the get go, or simply use iCloud backups of the iPhone, which requires no Mac storage.

The problem with moving the backup file of the iPhone to an external drive is that one still needs that space on the internal if that backup ever needs to be accessed in the future. And what if, after moving it back, it isn't recognized anymore as a backup when you want to restore?

It is really best to use the Mac (and iPhone) as intended by Apple and stay away from "tricks." As for the symlink method, that sounds like something that has a good chance of not surviving a MacOS update, I would NEVER try that. I would use iCloud instead, the cost of iCloud is a few dollars per month, tiny compared to what one has put out already for a Mac and an iPhone.

I have seen a number of posts about this, but some have reported that those instructions did not work even on earlier versions of MacOS. And even if you manage to get the backup to go to that external drive, can you be certain that it is usable for a restore, say if the iPhone fails or is replaced? Does Apple's software restore properly from an external drive, symlinks or not?

My approach to this used to be:

(1) use Apple's normal method to back up iPhone to internal drive, this does work absolutely

(2) copy said backup to an external drive

(3) delete backup file from the internal drive

My plan was to copy the backup back to the internal drive should it be needed for a restore in the future.

However, now I have a Mac with adequate storage so I just do those backups the normal way. Also, given that Apple provides an iCloud backup vehicle for iPhones, I depend on that now. I have used those iCloud backups (as have scores of people) when migrating to new iPhones and it works seamlessly, and one does not need to bring one's Mac into the Apple Store when purchasing a new iPhone.

And if you have storage on your Mac maxed out you will certainly have other problems very shortly. A better option would be to move some of your files and data on your Mac to an external drive to make room for what will be not that big of an iPhone backup file. Playing games with symlinks often doesn't turn out very well.

In your experience with this strategy, does Finder automatically point future incremental backups to the external drive? I'm concerned that it won't and then the next time my phone syncs it'll just create an entirely new backup.

I guess what I'm asking is, after the backup is moved does it remain dynamic or is this a static, archival backup that does not update?

Thanks!