iTunes Backup Location

Learn how to find iTunes Location of iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch Backups on Mac or Windows PC. To free up space, you can also delete unnecessary data. If you sync your device with iTunes, it saves backups to your user folder. The location of this folder varies depending on your operating system.

If you want extra copies of your iTunes backups, you can copy the backup folders to another location, external drive, or network storage location. Time Machine automatically makes copies of your device backups when you use it to back up the home folder on your Mac.

iTunes Backups Location on Windows 10, 8, 7 & Vista

iTunes keeps the iOS backup folder directly on the system drive. Find device backups in \Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

To quickly access the Application Data folder:

  1. Locate the search bar:

    • Windows 10: Click the search bar next to the Start button.
    • Windows 8: Click the magnifying glass in the upper-right corner.
    • Windows 7 or Windows Vista: Click Start.
  2. In the search bar, type: %appdata%
  3. Press Return.
  4. Double-click these folders: Apple Computer > MobileSync > Backup.

iTunes Backups Location on Windows XP

Find a list of your iTunes backups under \Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

To quickly access the Application Data folder:

  1. Click Start, then choose Run.
  2. In the search bar, type: %appdata%
  3. Click OK. Then double-click these folders: Apple Computer > MobileSync > Backup.

iTunes Backups Location on Mac

Find device backups in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

To locate a specific backup:

  • Open iTunes and choose iTunes > Preferences.
  • Click Devices.
  • Control-click the backup that you want and select Show in Finder.

Delete iTunes backup

  1. Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences. Windows: Choose Edit > Preferences.
  2. Click Devices.
  3. Choose the backup you want to delete. If you have multiple devices or backups, hover the mouse pointer over the backup to see more details.
  4. Click Delete Backup and then confirm.

Moving the iOS device backup location

Apple does not provide a direct way of changing location where the contents of iDevices are backed up. Here we’ll share quick ways for Windows/Mac users to easily move their backup for iTunes to another disk.

For Windows Users

Open a command prompt by hitting the start button and typing CMD + Enter in the search box that opens up, or with Start > Run on older Windows.

To move the current backup folder from C: to D: (for example) type in this command and press Enter:

Move "C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "D:\Backup"

Where UserName is your Windows user name. To make iTunes look for the data in the new location create symlink - type in this command and press Enter:

MkLink /J "C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "D:\Backup"

If your preferred drive has a different letter or you already have a folder called "Backup" then edit "D:\Backup" accordingly in both commands.

If you have Windows XP then you’ll need a third-party tool such as Junction to link the two locations together instead of the MkLink command.

The source folder is C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

For Mac Users

  1. Make sure that iTunes isn’t running.
  2. Move your iTunes backup folder ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ to the location of your choice.
  3. Launch Terminal Applications/Utilities/Terminal on your operating system.
  4. Once launched, type the following command line: ln -s /Volumes/DriveName/Backup/ ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup (the DriveName would be the name of the new backup location).

iTunes backs up only certain iOS data such as app files, settings and camera roll photos from the iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch each time you sync. Nevertheless, it is often unaccounted for how quickly the iOS backup files may accumulate on the system drive and take up valuable system resources ultimately leading to a less than ideal system performance.