Change backup location?

Hello,

i have some problems when restoring the backup as the C: has full.

So what i did is to move the backup file to D: as above command and make a junction link to D:

when i open up itunes to restore, it says your iphone never been backed up.

please help me to manual restore from the new location that i have moved in D:

Thanks

Hmmm. I'm sure I'd tested the steps I gave above but in a recent thread elsewhere it transpired that iTunes is (now?) using the roaming branch, not the local one. The revised version of the tip reads thus:

Relocate iOS device backups

Assuming you're running Windows Vista or later you can use the following steps:

1. Using Windows Explorer move the current Mobile Sync Backup folder from C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backupto your chosen location, e.g. as X:\Backup where <User> is your Windows user name and X: is your preferred drive.
   
2. To make iTunes look for the data in the new location open a command prompt by hitting the start button and typing CMD<Enter> in the search box that opens up, thentype in this command and press <Enter>MkLink /J "C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "X:\Backup"

If your external drive has a different letter or you already have a folder called "Backup" then edit "X:\Backup" accordingly.

Anyone still running Windows XP can use Junction (cmd line tool) or NTFSLink (shell ext). In either case move the existing folder to a new location, create an empty folder where the old one used to be, then use one of the tools to get the operating system to link the two together and silently redirect any file operation on the old location through to the new one in a similar fashion to MkLink.

Note that while this method works for iOS device backups it cannot be used to redirect sections of the media library. iTunes will break the connection the first time it tries to write a file to the target folder.

It may be that following the earlier advice you've created the link in the wrong place, and creating it in the right one will fix things. Ideally you would only have attempted this procedure when the device and library were behaving normally and would then have synced/backed up the device which would have highlighted any problems at that time so you could reverse the procedure if it had failed.

tt2

Hi,

well below is my command

instead of using CMD. C:>Move "C:\Users\ZZain\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "D:\Zul\My_Personals\Backup2013"

i actually used cut and paste into y D: and

after i did that, i created a junction

MkLink /J "C:\Users\ZZain\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "D:\Zul\My_Personals\Backup2013"

let me write the situation

1) i backed up into C:

2) backup successful (actually i dont realise it backed up into C: all the while i thougth it was D: )

3) i restored to factory setting (for some reasons) and it was successful

4) i want to restore from my backup again, half way the systems said "..could not be saved"

5) I checked C: and now its full, probably that was the reason why it could not restore from backup in C:

6) Cut and paste backup file into D:

7) create a junction and successful as i can see the shortcut folder

8) open itunes, but the restore from backup was disable, just like you never made any backup before

Now i just want to restore iphone from my last backup but i cant. file path and name is just like above. Please let me know if i'm wrong anywhere.

My guess is that when things went wrong at step 4 iTunes cleared the list of available backups. I've seen a post somewhere on how to recreate, or at least edit such a list so that it includes a specific backup folder, but offhand I can't recall where. I'll try to do some digging and come back to you.

tt2

Yes please..i appreciate that

tt2,

what if i copy my backup folder and paste at the default itunes location into another PC? authorise that PC and restore from backup from there?

should there be any problem if i do that?

I'm pretty sure there is .plist file stored somewhere else in your progile that tells iTunes what backup sets are stored in the folder and which device they belong to. If one has a working copy of that file it may be possible to edit so that it "sees" the backup folder you want to work with. As I say I'm sure I've run into this before but I'm struggling to pin down a reference that reveals exactly which file needs to be located & tweaked.

tt2

hmm...

what should i do now? 😢

Well I still can't track down the article I remember, though not for want of trying.

Why not try backing up the device as it is, close iTunes, then rename the newly generated backup folder by adding say (NEW) to the end of the folder name, copy the rest of the folder name and give it to one of the other backups that you have, then try restoring from the only backup that iTunes knows about. With luck you will be able to recover the state of your device as it was before things went wrong.

Good luck. 🙂

tt2

I've just used "junction" on my Windows XP computer to move the Backup to another local drive.

I had to do it a bit differently though:

1) Rename the MobileSync folder in C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Application Data\Apple Computer to MobileSync_old

2) Create a MobileSync folder on another drive (eg J:\MobileSync)

3) Use Junction to create a MobileSync folder at the original location (C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Application Data\Apple Computer) with J:\MobileSync as the target.

4) Move the files and folders from MobileSync_old to MobileSync in the original location.

5) Enjoy your GB of freed up space (10Gig in my case)

Easy!

Thanks to turingtest2 for his inspiration!

Goz

Replace "Local" to "Roaming" in order to find the actual back up folder

Hi 'Turingtest2',

While I tried your instructions to backup the folder, , CMD replies 'The system cannot find the path specified'. Is it becoz the AppData folder is hidden? Should I un-hide it?

Tks

Johnnie

Perhaps you haven't specified the <User> properly, or you omitted quote marks, or you didn't put the whole thing on one line...?

CMD line tools should normally work whether the object is hidden or not.

tt2

Surprisingly, it worked like 'a charm' after your reply.

I'm sure I did it right the first time. But the difference is, last time, I actually interupted a backup and then tried these steps coz I knew my C: drive was quite full and wont be able to backup properly. However, after your reply I managed some space and backed up my ipod properly and then MOVED the Backup folder to the desired drive by copy>paste method and linked them thru CMD and voila! It's done.

Thks a ton 🙂

🙂

tt2