How to Back Up iPhone to External Hard Drive via iTunes?

I got the same error (-bash: -s: command not found), and tried a couple of things, which got it to work:

1) type in "sudo" before the ln command (so you can be authenticated as a superuser)

2) I dragged and dropped the actual folders into the terminal command line. This will ensure that the correct filename structure is utilized.

Backup works nicely now.

@rtikoo

This worked to drag the folders into terminal.

Did not use sudo

One more update to the syntax:

ln -s /Volumes/ExtDrive/Backup ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup

Drop the "Backup" at the end, so terminal will create a link to the external drive in the MobileSync folder then it works perfectly.

Use:

ln -s /Volumes/ExtDrive/Backup ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/

Also, spaces are represented by "/" with a space. So the directory "Application Support" is written "Application/ Support". Dragging the folders in will solve any syntax issues!

Hey there!

I'm not extremely computer literate.. could you explain the final step a little further?:

Create a new linked folder to the external drive (I assume the external drive is called ExtDrive

• First create a folder called iTunesBackup on the external drive
  • mkdir /Volumes/ExtDrive/iTunesBackup
• Now create a link between where iTunes thinks the backups are and the external drive

  • ln -s ln -s  /Volumes/ExtDrive/Backup ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup (edited per Collin Mel)

I created the iTunesBackup folder on my external drive (my drive is titled My Book for Mac). I'm not sure what the bullet point below means - specifically the mkdir portion.. is that what I would now type in when I key Command+Shift+G? I'm not sure how to create a link and what the -s means either.

Thank you so much, this is going to help out a ton!

Hi - you need to copy and paste these commands into terminal (you'll find it in launch pad). You'll need to change the "ExtDrive" part in each command to whatever your external hard drive is called (for me, for example it was "SAMSUNG") The last terminal command is incorrect - use CollinMel's instead, it worked for me.

This was a great tip for me, but having done that it still brings up the box saying itunes could not back up... I have pointed it to the external, which has 560gb free. Stuck!!!

This procedure didn't work for me until we renamed the iTunesBackup folder created on the external hard drive to Backup and then used the terminal command: ln -s /Volumes/DATA/Backup ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/

Here is the final solution with Terminal commands only, just follow this guide but replace path to your own external drive:

1. Create a folder named "Backup" on your external drive:

   mkdir /Volumes/<ExternalDriveName>/Backup

2. Rename the local Backup folder:

   mv ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup2

3. Create symlink:

   ln -s /Volumes/<EternalDriveName>/Backup ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/

4. Launch iTunes and do your backup!
5. Applause 😉

thanks guys ~

it's works and save a lot of my disc space.

i have another question.

what if i want to change the backup drive from 1 external drive to another ?

any command ?

cheers,

Shawn.

Out of all the steps that were posted & everything else I tried, this one worked for me! thanks 🙂

Thanks for the recap - -it worked for me.

[My MacBook Air was no longer able to back up iPhone b/c not enough space on hard drive. Back up is now going to external drive!! Yay!!]

Thanks for all the advice. I am not computer literate and have been having some trouble.

I opened TERMINAL and used the command ;

mkdir /Volumes/<ExternalDriveName>/Backup

But replaced with my external hard drive name so pasted into terminal;

mkdir /Volumes/<COGGS>/Backup

However it says; -bash: COGGS: No such file or directory

I have tried with my other external hard drive and am having the same problem.

One of my drives is MS-DOS FAT32 format and the other MAC OS Extended (Journaled) but neither works.

I have a MAC Air and am using OS X Yosemite Version 10.10.4

I have never used the Terminal Application so maybe I am doing something wrong. When I open Terminal it already has the MyName-MacBook-Air:~ MyName$ and I am pasting the commands after this?

Any help/suggestions?

Dont use <>

I tried everything in this thread - thank you all - but still couldn't get it to work. Finally I followed this video on youtube https://youtu.be/Cw9jpqORRzk and it worked. Might come in handy with anyone struggling with the instructions here. For those of us who are not used to using Terminal it might be useful to let you know that I found out that if any folder in the file path is composed of two words with a space in the middle, say like my external hard drive is called <External HD>, you have to write it in quotation marks thus "External HD". Here is what I ended up typing in Terminal for your reference

ln -s /Volumes/"External HD"/"iTunes Backups"/Backup ~/Library/"Application Support"/MobileSync

Hope this helped the few of you still struggling. Cheers.

First, thanks for all the helpful responses in this thread.

I successfully ran one backup using martinizi's terminal commands from 27 Oct 2015.

Two days later, I'm getting an error that reads: "iTunes could not back up the iPhone '<iPhone Name>' because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone. Delete the backup for this iPhone, then try again."

Instead of deleting the backup file (for safety reasons!), I moved it to a separate folder, so that iTunes would not find it where it was looking for previous backups. The only changes I have made are adding an SMS export app to the phone (which is requiring me to backup before processing) and unplugging and replugging the USB external drive I used for the original backup.

Any thoughts or help would be appreciated!

Doesn't that move the entire iTunes Library to the hard drive so the external drive has to be connected to use iTunes? If so, that won't work for me. Like all my backups, I just want it on an external drive... with 128gb iPhone 6s, a 128 Gb iPad Pro, a 64 Gb iPad, I have no room on my computer to do my job. And there is not a drive large enough for my MacBook Pro. I have the largest drive installed.

So this is what I want to do:

1. Keep iTunes on my computer

2. Backup my devices (iPhone, iPad Pro and iPad) to an external drive.

I would prefer not to use terminal because the last time I followed advice on a board I erased important info b/c of a syntax error! ;-)