iOS5 iphone update : not enough space for files to be backed up. How do I change to external drive?

Same exact problem...does anyone know how to reroute the backup process to point at an external hard drive?

Me too! I have a 2TB hard drive with plenty of space on it. My iTunes has always been pointed toward it - that's where all my media is. Why on earth would THIS backup require the C drive? And no way to change it? Why wouldn't it ask where to back up to? How bizarre!

I guess I have to clear out my C drive just for this process. Very inconvenient...

same problem here!!!

If you don't have enough free disk space to backup your iPhone, you are likely to have more serious problems with your laptop. I suggest you start going through your disk and freeing up space by moving as much as you can to your external. Good candidates for movement are your files of music, photos, movies or video.

Allan

Allan: I can't speak for the OP, but in my case, the app wants 32gb of space to perform the back up, I have "only" 27gb. I think that's a lot to ask for the average person to have on their drive? Maybe that's just me.

In any case - since I already have the iTunes library pointed to the external drive and - for that matter - all of my media files are there - why wouldn't the update app "know" to go there first for the backup? It's just an odd request for it to look to the C drive first.

Somebody didn't think this all the way through in the testing phase, I think.

Same problem here.

I'm going to wait a few days to see if the nice people at Apple (who presumably are seeing this discussion) make a change to the download so we can choose where to save the backup to.

I think it's unlikely we're the only 5 'iDevice' users in the whole world who've experienced this!

Alternatively i thought of a fix though haven't dared to try it yet:

- plug in iPhone (or whatever)

- in iTuens select NOT to synchroise the media e.g. music, apps etc.

- hit 'Sync' and this will take these media off your iPhone - though you still have it all on your PC / Mac

- this should hugely decrease the size of the required back-up file when you next try the iOS5 install

Cons:

- you'll probably need to manually add all your music back on after (especially if on an external drive), but this isn't the end of the world

- there's a danger of losing some data e.g. pics, info stored in Apps - but I don't know for sure. I guess it depends how much space you need to free up - if not synchronising your music enough then this could be a pretty quick fix?

- if not synchronising your music is enough then this could be a pretty quick fix?

If you have an external HD, attach it and go to itunes. Click on the itunes menu and go to preferences. Select Advanced and then change you itunes media drive option to that drive. Then try to do the install again. This worked for me.

Thanks for the suggestion - I just checked and it's already selected to go to the E (internal) drive anyway - so I'm not sure how you were allowed to get away with that!

I'll try with an external drive and then immediately try the install again (without closing iTunes) - maybe that will do it...

So I had the same issues as everyone above. Synced my apps/photos etc.before to be sure they were in Itunes. I went to where the back up is stored. If using a windows computer (XP) it is: C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup - there were several previous back ups stored there. So I moved those to my external hard drive. Once they were safely stored there, I deleted them all from my computer. This freed up enough space to successfully create a new back up and install the IOS5 on my Iphone 4. Apps/photos/ everything was still on my phone.

I am having the exact same issue. I have ample space for the back up on the D drive, which is marked as the prefered drive. But it keeps reading my C drive space, which does not have enough, even if it was empty. I have no hope, and apple has been unhelpful. I guess they did not work out this issue.

Im in even a worse situation I mostly use Djay on my Ipad 2 so have 54gb of music its asking for slightly more than that on my pc to do upgrade to ios5 ! thats a joke , Apple like many others should have a simple way of just updating the ios not all the media ! In this day and age you would think Apple would sell products that can be updated without all this drama, In all its taken 3 hours to get to the update stage now I get this stupid error ! Come on Apple !

This just stupid, is just the option to change that folder but of course apple has a unique way of doing things, they didn't thaught that someone from thi planet might not have spa e available o. Drive C: from my point of view they are really idiots i have spent two trying to fix this ****, or just sell my iphone ans buy a samsung galaxy that might be a way not to waste my time one simple option.