Change backup location?

this solution worked for me....

🙂

Thanks....

Hi,

I typed:

Move "C:\Users\Prashan\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "D:\Backup"

and got "Access is denied."

Any advice?

I typed "C:\Users\Prashan\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "D:\Backup" and got the message "Access is denied."

Any advice?

Check whether the backup folder is stored at "C:\Users\Prashan\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" or "C:\Users\Prashan\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup". It seems the location may vary for reasons unknown.

Try using Winwdows Explorer to do the move phase, then use the command prompt to create the redirection. You may find it helps to show hidden files and folders.

tt2

Appreciate the instructions, however, upon executing everything correctly, and getting the desired output, i.e. backup location is changed to any other location/drive than its original (C:), but later when i sync my iPod or iPad, both the devices keep rebooting when sync is midway and dont complete the sync or backup.

After removing the symbolic link everything works like normal. Has anyone in this thread experienced such behaviour after using "mklink" to free up disk space on (C:) ? if yes, may i request you to provide me some leads/solutions.

I am trying this on Windows XP and am having issues. I'm trying to change the backup location to an external NAS drive. When making a junction I get:

C:\>junction "C:\Documents and Settings\Lidia\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "K:\Lidia\iphone\backup"

Junction v1.06 - Windows junction creator and reparse point viewer

Copyright (C) 2000-2010 Mark Russinovich

Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

Error setting junction for C:\Documents and Settings\Lidia\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup:

The data present in the reparse point buffer is invalid.

After searching a bit it seems that I cannot make a junction to a mounted, external drive. Is there a way to have iTunes backup to an external drive?

Thanks

Lidia

The target must be a locally connected drive, not a network share.

tt2

I tried using

Move "C:\Users\Robert\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "D:\iTunes\MobileSync\Backup"

MkLink /J "C:\Users\Robert\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "D:\iTunes\MobileSync\Backup"

But its saying "Access is Denied" on both. I don't have files hidden so I know both directories exist and I'm on Windows 7.

Do both directories need to be empty or something? I know Windows is showing that the original iTunes MobileSync\Backup folders have a mark in the read only box. Do I need to uncheck that first?

Move the folder by hand using Windows Explorer. When the target folder is in place and the source folder is empty the second command should work as intended. Don't worry about the read-only check box. Windows always shows directories as read-only.

tt2

Alright, I did it manually and I went to enter the MkLink line and got this:

Ignoring the Move command as I realized that was just unnecessary on Win 7 when I did it manually, the Mklink gives a "Cannot create a file when it already exists." error. Unless thats normal?

The folder C:\Users\Robert\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync should no longer contain a file or folder called Backup before you issue the command:

MkLink /J "C:\Users\Robert\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "D:\iTunes\MobileSync\Backup"

tt2

I see, that worked perfect now! Thanks a ton for the patience I was hesitant to goof around on my own lol

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

I followed all the step and it all went fine, but when I start a manual back up of my iPhone. Both the original location and new location created the backup.???? which is not helping me to save space.. please help

The original location holds a pointer through to the new location so that iTunes can save the data there. If you, for example, you were to add a large movie file into the backup location as a test, you would only see the free space decrease on the one drive even though the file is visible from both paths.

tt2