How do you archive an iOS device backup on a PC?

• Archive or copy your backup: If you have a Mac, Control-click the backup that you just made, then choose Archive. If you use Windows, find your backup, copy it, and save the copy to another location. If you decide to go back to the current version of iOS, you'll need this archived or copied backup.
• Your computer saves backups made in iTunes to the Backup folder in your Users folder. The location of the Backup folder varies by operating system. Though you can copy the Backup folder, you should never move it to a different folder, external drive, or network drive.

My advice is in Archive iPhone backup in Windows or Archive iPad backup in Windows. The name should probably match the format of the archives that iTunes makes itself, but I haven't tested if it really matters. I'd backup the device again to make sure that it creates a new backup set before you upgrade.

tt2

Why do you have to rename it? Can you not just duplicate the folder of the backup and save it on a Usb stick or something but not rename it? Or do you actually have to rename it? I thought you could just duplicate it and save the duplicate somewhere else.

Copying it elsewhere is fine. Renaming it in the same fashion that iTunes does in the \MobileSync\Backup folder makes it available to you in iTunes without needing to move the updated current backup out of the way when you restore the old one. You certainly don't want to accidentally merge the two sets of files.

tt2

So just to be extra sure. i'm archiving an itunes backup for my ipad before i get ios 11 beta. so all i need to do is go to the backup file in the mobilesync folder and rename that backup file to something else? also, what exactly do i need to rename it to? or does it not matter? Thanks for your support 😀

I found this article on the internet today: Find and manage your iTunes backups - Apple Support. Perhaps one can in some way backup the backup files and restore them to the same folder when you want to do a restore on your iDevice.

Hope it helped!

Tobias

Apparently there isn't any archive function for iTunes for PC, you can try this though.

http://iexplorer-support.macroplant.com/customer/portal/questions/8330158-making -archives-of-complete-iphone-backups?b_i…

On Windows backup your device, then immediately restore that backup. This will archive the current backup set and create a new rolling backup.

tt2

So it was "archived"?

Yes. The archived set gets the date added to its name and isn't updated when you next backup. It can be used at any point in future to restore the device to that snapshot of its state.

tt2

For the love of all things holy, don't restore just to archive the backup! Just go to the backup folder, usually in c:\Users\USER NAME\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSynce\Backup, then look for the folder with the most recent date, and rename it. I typically add a "-date-" to the end of the name, but you can rename it whatever you want. Then, when you back up next time, it creates a new backup for your device and saves the one you renamed. Restoring when there is no problem is just asking for trouble.

Thanks that worked for me!

i think changing the name of device and then taking a backup will create a new backup

Ram Ratan wrote:

i think changing the name of device and then taking a backup will create a new backup

It doesn't. The existing backup set associated with the device is renamed and updated.

tt2

The easiest way is to open settings in iphone open about and change the iphone name this will create a new backup using new name whilst keeping old backup with old name.