If you can’t back up your iOS or iPadOS device to a computer or restore it from a backup — Apple Support

Any questions?

Do you have any questions about moving your iOS backups to an external hard drive? Put them in the comments, and I’ll help you out.

Updated August 2021: Updated for latest macOS.

Frequently asked questions

Where are iTunes backups stored?

The default iTunes backup location depends on whether you’re using a PC or Mac. iTunes backups can be found in the following directories:

There are a few special cases. For instance, the Windows Store version of iTunes uses a different location, and so does iTunes on Windows XP. We maintain the latest default iTunes backup locations here, and have instructions on how to change the default iTunes backup folder.

When I look in my iTunes backup folder I just see random files, which is which? What are those files in my iTunes backup folder?

iTunes backup folders contain files named according to hex-encoded SHA-1 hashes. Their filenames can differ based on the type of data and the version of iOS that created the backup.

We maintain an up-to-the-minute summary of these iTunes backup files here but have included a short summary below for recent versions of iOS:

iTunes won’t restore my iPhone backup

If iTunes won’t restore your iPhone backup, it probably means its corrupt.

We publish a list of steps for diagnosing problems restoring iTunes backups. If that doesn’t resolve the problem, see the next question.

Can I recover a corrupt iTunes backup?

Yes. We’ve got a comprehensive guide on how to repair corrupt backups and recover your data. If you’re still stuck, reach out to our support team as we can probably help further. 🚑 There’s a lot of fiddly stuff we can help you with.

My iPhone won’t turn on and all my data is lost, how can I recover iOS data?

If you have an iTunes backup or use iCloud, you’ll be able to get data back using either this guide or our guide for iCloud. Worst case, email us and we’ll help you.

How can I recover lost files after a failed iOS update

One of the most common causes for iPhone data loss is a failed iOS update. The steps in the first part of this guide will take you through pulling files from your iTunes backup.

Depending on where the process went wrong, you may need to restore your phone from a backup before starting the update process again. Good luck — and don’t forget to reach out to our support team if you get stuck.

What is in an iTunes backup?

Do you ever wonder what iTunes backs up from your iPhone when you connect your phone to your computer? It would be nice to know whether it is safely backing up your important contacts, notes, photos, calendar, texts, and so on, wouldn’t it?

We’ve got a concise summary of just what is and isn’t in an iTunes backup that we maintain in our knowledge-base. Check it out!

How can I speed up a slow iTunes backup process?

Getting started with iphone backup data

We’ve split this guide into sections to help you quickly find the information you need.

How can i recover text messages, notes or contacts which were deleted before a backup?

iPhone Backup Extractor extracts data from iPhone backups, from iCloud backups, and from other iCloud data. As such, so long as the last backup was taken before the data was deleted, it will recover your information automatically. However, if the data was deleted before your backup was taken, all is not lost.

iOS devices don’t regularly purge deleted data from their database files, so it is often possible to recover deleted data, even from before a backup was taken. This works particularly well for iMessage, SMS, WhatsApp, note and contact data. (By extracting the SQLite databases from your backup in Expert mode, and opening them in Notepad, you should see fragments of any data that has been deleted.)

How does recovery of deleted ios data work?

Reincubate iPhone Backup Extractor has a sophisticated version of this technology integrated with it, saving the need for any forensic recovery process. Our implementation outperforms all of the dedicated SQLite recovery tools we’ve benchmarked it against.

In addition to this, there are other techniques that we use in the application, and that our support team are able to assist with. One of those involves examining iCloud backup snapshots, which can prove fruitful for recovery of iOS data, and iPhone Backup Extractor can fetch those snapshots for you.

If you’d like to see some data on just how effective iPhone Backup Extractor’s undeletion capabilities are, check out our benchmark against the leading forensics tools. Hint: we thrash them.

You can recover deleted data with iPhone Backup Extractor in two simple steps:

1. Ensure that the Utilities → Show deleted data option is enabled.

2. Proceed as normal. Deleted data will be included in all exports and previews.

How to restore the backup to your iphone

To restore an iPhone or iPad backup from an external drive requires moving the files back to the Mac.

How to see what’s in your iphone backup

Let’s say you have an iTunes backup and rather than restoring it to an iPhone or iPad, you want to view what is in it, and extract its files to your computer. The best way to do this is with iPhone Backup Extractor, which extracts these files (even deleted ones!) in a regular, accessible format.

Browsing an iTunes backup is easy with a few clicks using the free edition of iPhone Backup Extractor:

Step 1: locate your backups

This part is easy. Your backups are stored in a MobileSync folder. You can find them by typing ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup into Spotlight. You can also find the backups for specific devices from Finder.

1. Click Finder on your Mac’s Dock.
2. Click on your device on the left side of the Finder window.

3. Click on Manage Backups on the General tab.

   

   Source: iMore

4. Select a specific device.
5. Hold down the Control key and click on the device.

6. Select Show in Finder from the list of available options.

   

   Source: iMore

Step 2: move your backups to an external hard drive

This part is easy, too. But, you really have to pay close attention to the name of your hard drive and the new folder names you create, including punctuation and spacing. This information will be used when creating a Terminal pathway. If you use different names than the ones suggested, be sure to replace them with the exact name you have in the Terminal command in Step 3.

Step 4: disable automatic backups when connected to your computer

If you don’t always have an external hard drive connected to your Mac, you’re going to need to disable automatic backups of your iPhone or iPad. Otherwise, whenever you connect your iOS device to your Mac, you’ll get an error message.

Where is the itunes backup folder on windows?

iTunes backups are stored in %APPDATA%Apple ComputerMobileSync on Windows.

Как создать резервную копию (backup) данных iphone, ipad, ipod [инструкция] | яблык

Резервное копирование данных на устройстве