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Dr.Fone - Phone Backup (iOS)
Preview iTunes Backup for Free & Restore to Device
Feb 21, 2025 • Filed to: Backup & Restore Data • Proven solutions
iTunes backups are stored locally on your computer. They are placed in username/Library/Application Support/Mobilesync/Backup (Check the different locations for backup in different OS in the table). Simply navigate to the relevant folder in your Finder app.
Each folder under Backup contains a single backup. The folders can be copied and moved anywhere on the computer, unfortunately without the proper software, it is impossible to glean any meaningful information from these files.
1. iTunes backup location on Mac OS:
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
(The "~" represents the Home folder. If you don't see Library in your Home folder, hold Option and click the Go menu.
2. iTunes backup location on Windows 8/7/Vista:
Users(username)/AppData/Roaming/Apple Computer/MobileSyncBackup
(To access to AppData folder quickly, just click Start, type AppData in the search bar and press Return.)
3. iTunes backup location on Windows 10:
C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
Note:iTunes doesn't allow you to view iPhone Backup Files on Mac and Windows because of the data format.
On your iPhone, select settings > iCloud, then tap Storage & Backup.
In Mac, go to Apple menu > System Preferences, click iCloud, then click Manage.
In your Windows computer: Windows 8.1: Go to the Start screen and click the down arrow in the lower-left corner. Click the iCloud app, then click Manage.
Windows 8: Go to the Start screen and click the iCloud tile, then click Manage.
Windows 7: Choose Start menu > All Programs > iCloud > iCloud, then click Manage.
So, with the above introduction, we believe it will be easy and clear to find iPhone backup location on Windows and Mac. But you can't read your iTunes and iCloud backup files. To solve this problem, Dr.Fone - Data Recovery (iOS) can perfectly help you to view your iTunes and iCloud backup files for free.
When you find your iTunes backup files on your computer, you will find you can't open it. This is because the iTunes backup is an SQLite file. If you want to view your iTunes backup for free or selectively restore iTunes backup to your device, then you can try Dr.Fone - Data Recovery (iOS). This program allows you to view and selectively restore iTunes backup to your iPhone and iPad. What's more, the restore process won't overwrite your original iPhone data.
World's 1st iTunes backup viewer and extractor.
Step 1. Run Dr.Fone, connect your iPhone to the computer, then select "Recover from iTunes backup File". Dr.Fone will detect your iTunes backup files and list them on the below window.
Step 2. Just choose one iTunes backup file you want to restore, and click "Start Scan" to extract your iTunes backup.
Step 3. When the scanning process is completed, Dr.Fone will list all your data on the interface. Now view your iTunes backup easily.
If you want to export the iTunes backup to your computer as a readable file, just tick what you want and click on "Recover to Computer". You can also select the needed files and click "Restore to Device" to restore your iTunes backup to your iPhone without overwriting the original data.
Your Disk C runs almost of space, so you want to change the iPhone backup location for somewhere else to free up the Disk C? Prefer to store your important data, like iPhone backups on the SSD, not Disk C? No matter what the reason is, here is the way you can change the iPhone backup location.
Note: Here, I focus on change iTunes backup location on a Windows computer. As for iCloud backup, it's saved in the Apple server. You can change the iCloud account if you like. Just click Settings > iCloud > Account on your iPhone. Log out your iCloud account and log into another one.
Step 1. Close iTunes.
Step 2. Navigate to the folder where your iPhone backups are. Copy all backup files and paste them to any folder you want to save iPhone backups. For Example, You can save iPhone backups on Disk E:iPhone Backup.
Step 3. Go to the lower-left corner and click Start. In the search box, enter cmd.exe. The cmd.exe program shows up. Right-click it and choose Run as administrator.
Step 4. In the pop-up command prompt, enter a commander: mklink /J "C:Users(username)AppDataRoamingApple ComputerMobileSyncBackup" "D: empBackup".
Step 5. Then, try backing up your iPhone with iTunes and check whether the backup file will be saved in your wanted folder.
Step 1. Make sure iTunes is not running.
Step 2. Download and extract the junction utility on the computer.
Step 3. Unzip Junction.exe to your username folder, which is usually found in C: Documents and Settings.
Step 4. Go to the iTunes backup location folder and move backup files to another folder, like G:iTunes backup.
Step 5. Click Windows + R. When the dialog comes out, type cmd.exe and click OK.
Step 6. In the command prompt, create an NTFS junction point, for example.
cd Desktop junction "C:Documents and Settings(username)Application DataApple ComputerMobileSyncBackup" "G:iTunes Backup"
Step 7. Now, backup an iPhone backup with iTunes and check whether the backup file will be saved in the new folder directory.
Step 2. Go to ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/. Copy all backup files to your desired drive, like External.
Step 3. Launch Terminal (located at Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and open a command prompt. Create a symbolic link by using a command similar to the one below,
ln -s /Volumes/External/Backup/ ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
Step 4. Use iTunes to backup your iPhone. Then, go to the new backup folder to see whether the backup file is there or not.
When it comes to deleting iPhone backup, you have plenty of reasons for it. Here, I list some of them.
1. Get confused every time you select a backup file from a lot.
2. Tens of thousands of files are in your iPhone backup area, most with old dates from previous backups. Want to delete them to free up space of your computer.
3. iTunes could not back up the iPhone "iPhone name" because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone. Want to delete the backup for this iPhone, then try again.
4. Cannot backup your iPhone, because it says you have to delete the old backup first.
5. Get a new iPhone, but find it's incompatible with the old iTunes backups.
6. The backup fails and it tells you to delete the backup.
1. iCloud backup memory is almost full and can't back up your iPhone. Thus, you have to delete the old backups for the new one.
2. Decide to delete iPhone backup from iCloud because it contains a corrupted file.
3. Recently upgrade to the new iPhone, and back your old one up and restored it to the new one. Now you keep getting notifications that you're running out of storage in iCloud.
Deleting a backup is just as simple as creating one with one exception, it isn't possible to delete a backup directly from iTunes. To delete a backup you need to navigate back to where they are located in the filesystem (username/Library/Application Support/Mobilesync/Backups).
Then, right-click on the backup that you want to delete and click Move to Trash. The next time that you empty your trash, the backup will be gone forever.
To Open iTunes Preferences: Windows: Choose Edit > Preferences
Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences
Note: After you delete all your available information, all of your information will be lost!!!
Deleting an iCloud backup is much easier than deleting one that is on a physical computer!
Step 1. You need to open up Settings on your iPhone and click on the iCloud option.
Step 2. Tap the Storage & Backup option.
Step 3. Tap on Manage Storage and then select a backup
Finally, tap on Delete Backup, and your iCloud backup should erase itself.
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