How To Access Mac Library Application Support Mobilesync Backup

31.03.2020by
How To Access Mac Library Application Support Mobilesync Backup Rating: 4,7/5 4135 reviews
  • /Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ The symbol signifies your home directory, which is the same place all your other personal documents are stored. The easiest way to go there in OS X is by hitting the Command+Shift+G keyboard shortcut and pasting that directory path in.
  • On Mac systems, your iTunes backups are stored in this location: ̴/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ Steps to Access the Location of Your Backups Manually on Mac. There are two options you can explore: Step 1: Click on the menu bar.
  • Aug 20, 2018  Type or copy and paste this: /Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ Press Return. To find a specific backup: On a Mac with macOS Catalina 10.15 or later, open the Finder. On a Mac with macOS Mojave 10.14 or earlier, or on a PC, open iTunes. Click your device. In Finder, under the General tab, click Manage Backups to see a list of your.
  • Restore iPhone from backup. Open iTunes on the PC or Mac that you backed up your iPhone to. Connect your iPhone with your USB cable. Select your device icon in iTunes. Click 'Restore Backup.' Pick the backup you'd like to restore, and click 'Restore'.
  • Jan 25, 2018  Select an iTunes backup that you want to view the data. Here you can find all iTunes backups you did on your computer. The backup with the lock image is the encrypted backup for your important data. If you select such backup, you need to enter your backup password.

How To Access Mac Library Application Support Mobilesync Backup Windows 10

If you have ever synced your iPhone, iPad, or other Apple devices using your Mac, you have backup folders stored on your internal drive. It's just the way life is. Maybe you only have a few files from a couple of backups and they don't take up much space. Maybe you've been backing up your iPhone for years and have a space hog on your hands.

On Mac OS X, you can find iPhone or iPad backups created by iTunes (macOS 10.14 or earlier) or Finder (in macOS 10.15 or later) in /Library/Application Support/MobileSync. Each backup is stored in a separate folder named with a long string of random letters and numbers. No matter what version of Mac OS X you are running, iTunes stores your iPhone backup in the same directory: /Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ To quickly access the backup folder, just simply hit Command + Shift + G on keyboard to open the Go To Folder screen, then paste this directory path above and click Go.

If you back up your iPhone or iPad through your computer and feel the need to remove these files and place them instead onto an external hard drive, it is possible to do, but beware, Apple really doesn't recommend it.

Note: This guide is for people who back up their iPhone or iPad using a computer, not through iCloud.

What are these backup files and why are they taking up so much space?

When you back up your mobile device using your computer, the backup is stored on your Mac. The location of the backups is in a folder called MobileSync, and sometimes it gets pretty big, especially if you are syncing multiple devices. Old backups are replaced with new ones, but families that have multiple devices backed up to one computer are going to take up a lot of storage space.

We highly recommend syncing on iCloud, and then deleting the backups on your Mac, rather than relocating them. But, if you're still bent on moving them to an external hard drive, we're here to help.

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 then the ones I suggest, be sure to replace it with the exact name you have in the Terminal command in Step 3.

  1. Connect your external hard drive to your Mac if it isn't already connected.
  2. Open the external hard drive.
  3. Go back to the Finder window with your iOS backups in it and select the device backup folder (It will either be called 'Backup' or have a bunch of numbers and letters).

  4. Drag it to your external hard drive.

    Source: iMore

  5. Enter your administrator password to authenticate your action.
  6. Rename the iOS backup folder that is now on your external hard drive to ios_backup. You may have to enter your administrator password once again to make this change.

  7. Rename the old backup folder in Finder to old_backup.

    Source: iMore

Do not delete the old_backup folder yet.

Step 3: Create a symlink to tell your computer the new location of your backups

This is the more difficult and most important step to moving your iOS backups to an external hard drive. If you don't perform this step, your computer won't be able to back up your iPhone or iPad anymore. You'll have to manually move the folders back to your Mac instead.

In this step, you'll create a symlink — or symbolic link. When you create a symlink, you are creating a new path for Finder to take to get to the backups folder.

Backup

Former iMore writer and Mac genius (seriously, he's a genius with a Mac) Peter Cohen explains symlinks perfectly.

Some applications don't follow aliases properly. An older way of creating those sorts of connections is more reliable for actions like what we want iTunes to do: Symbolic links, or symlinks. They work at a low enough level that applications and operating system functions don't have as hard a time with them as they do aliases.

We're going to use the Mac's Terminal app to create a symbolic link to trick iTunes into backing up onto your external drive rather than the boot drive.

If you're using macOS Mojave or later, you will first need to change the permissions for Terminal on your Mac. Otherwise, you won't have permission to follow the remaining steps of this process. To do so:

  1. Open System Preference.
  2. Select Security & Privacy.
  3. Choose the Privacy tab.
  4. If this screen is locked, select Click the lock to make changes at the bottom left of the screen. Otherwise, skip to Step 6.

  5. Enter your system password and click Unlock on the popup screen.

    Source: iMore

  6. Click Full Disk Access on the left-hand side of the screen.
  7. Choose + to add Terminal to the list of apps with full control on your computer.
  8. In the Finder screen that's displayed, type Terminal in the search box.
  9. In the search results, highlight Terminal.

  10. Tap Open.

    Source: iMore

Next, a lesson in using Terminal. The proper pathway is very important for this to work. Every person's hard drive name and every backup folder name will be different. The following is the anatomy of the Terminal code we are using:

ln -s /Volumes/External/ios_backup ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/4f1234a05e6e7ccbaddfd12345678f1234b123f

  • ln -s: The command that tells the operating system to go to the new location.
  • Volumes: A hard drive.
  • External: The name of a hard drive. Yours will likely be named something else. In the Terminal command, you must change 'External' to whatever your external hard drive is named.
  • ios_backup: The renamed backup folder you dragged into your external hard drive. This is the new place that your iOS backups will be stored.
  • ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup: The command that tells the operating system where the backup is.
  • 4f1234a05e6e7ccbaddfd12345678f1234b123f: The name of the device backup folder. If you are transferring all of your backups, this will just be named 'Backup.' If you are transferring one device, use the name of the backup folder for your device. The one above isn't even a real file name. You must change the above backup folder name to whatever is the name of the folder you are transferring.

If your external hard drive's name has a space, be sure to use the proper coding. For example, if your hard drive is named 'My Passport' be sure to use a backslash after My, then Space, then Passport. Like this: My Passport. Don't forget to capitalize when necessary.

  1. Find Terminal using Spotlight.

  2. Type the code below.

    Don't forget to change the hard drive name and the backup folder name to reflect the name of your hard drive and backup folder.

    Source: iMore

  3. Hit Return.
  4. Quit Terminal.

You will see a new folder in your MobileSync folder that is either called 'Backup' or the series of numbers and letters that represent your device. You can tell this is a symlink because it will have an arrow in the bottom left corner.

Next, you'll need to confirm that it worked before deleting your old_backup file on your Mac.

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

  3. Click on Back Up Now on the General tab.

    Source: iMore

  4. Open the ios_backup folder on your external hard drive.

  5. Check to see that the date and time on the latest backup is for the one you just completed.

    Source: iMore

If the pathway relocation worked, and you can confirm that backups are now happening on your external hard drive, you can delete the old_backup folder on your Mac. Where is library application support on mac sierra.

Note: If you go back to the MobileSync folder and open the symlink folder, you will see the names of the files that relate to your backup. These are aliases. Not actual files. It's like a thumbnail of a picture.

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.

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

  3. Tick the box at the bottom next to Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected.

    Source: iMore

Don't forget to manually back up your iPhone whenever you connect it to your computer and have your external hard drive plugged in too.

How to remove the symlink and go back to storing your backups on your Mac

If you made a mistake and the symlink didn't work, or you simply just want to go back to storing your backups on your Mac, all you have to do is delete the symlink folder you created. No need to enter any kind of 'rm' or 'unlink' command in Terminal.

  1. Type ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup into Spotlight.
  2. Select the symlink folder. Remember, it's the one with an arrow in the bottom left. It will either be called 'Backup' or have a series of numbers and letters representing your device.
  3. Delete the symlink folder.
  4. Back up your device via the computer.

  5. Delete the ios_backup folder on your external hard drive (optional).

    Source: iMore

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 March 2020: Up to date for macOS Catalina.

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Find backups stored on your Mac or PC

To avoid ruining any of your backup files, here's what you should know:

How To Find /library/application Support/mobilesync/backup/ On Mac

  • Finder and iTunes save backups to a Backup 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.
  • Don't edit, relocate, rename, or extract content from your backup files, because these actions might ruin the files. For example, to restore from a relocated backup file, you need to move it back or the file won't work. Backups serve as a safe copy of your entire device. So while you might be able to view or access a backup file's contents, the contents usually aren't stored in a format that you can read.

Backups on your Mac

To find a list of your backups:

  1. Click the magnifier icon in the menu bar.
  2. Type or copy and paste this: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
  3. Press Return.

To find a specific backup:

  1. On a Mac with macOS Catalina 10.15 or later, open the Finder. On a Mac with macOS Mojave 10.14 or earlier, or on a PC, open iTunes. Click your device.
  2. In Finder, under the General tab, click Manage Backups to see a list of your backups. From here, you can right-click on the backup that you want, then choose Show in Finder, or you can select Delete or Archive. In iTunes, choose Preferences, then click Devices. From here, you can right-click on the backup that you want, then choose Show in Finder, or you can select Delete or Archive.
  3. Click OK when you're finished.

Backups in Windows 7, 8, or 10

To find a list of your backups, go to Users(username)AppDataRoamingApple ComputerMobileSyncBackup

You can also use these steps:

  1. Find the Search bar:
    • In Windows 7, click Start.
    • In Windows 8, click the magnifying glass in the upper-right corner.
    • In Windows 10, click the Search bar next to the Start button.
  2. In the Search bar, enter %appdata% or %USERPROFILE% (if you downloaded iTunes from the Microsoft Store).
  3. Press Return.
  4. Double-click these folders: 'Apple' or 'Apple Computer' > MobileSync > Backup.

Delete or copy backups on your Mac or PC

Don't edit, relocate, rename, or extract content from your backup files, because these actions might ruin the files. Use the following sections to make copies of your backups or delete backups that you no longer need.

Copy backups to another location

If you need copies of your backups, you can find the Backup folder and copy the entire folder (not just part of it) to another place, like an external drive or network-storage location.

When you use Time Machine, it automatically copies your Backup folder when you back up the Home folder on your Mac.

Delete backups

  1. On a Mac with macOS Catalina 10.15 or later, open the Finder. On a Mac with macOS Mojave 10.14 or earlier, or on a PC, open iTunes. Click your device.
  2. In Finder, under the General tab, click Manage Backups to see a list of your backups. From here, you can right-click on the backup that you want, then select Delete or Archive. In iTunes, choose Preferences, then click Devices. From here, you can right-click on the backup that you want, then choose Delete or Archive. Click OK when you're finished.
  3. Click Delete Backup, then confirm.

Locate and manage backups stored in iCloud

If you use iCloud Backup, you won't find a list of your backups on iCloud.com. Here's how to find your iCloud backups on your iOS or iPadOS device, Mac, or PC.

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:

  • Using iOS 11 or later, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage > Backup.
  • Using iOS 10.3, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud. Tap the graph that shows your iCloud usage, then tap Manage Storage.
  • Using iOS 10.2 or earlier, go to Settings > iCloud > Storage > Manage Storage.

Tap a backup to see more details about it, choose which information to back up, or delete the backup.

You can choose which content to back up only from the Settings menu of the device that stores that content. For example, while you can view your iPad backup from your iPhone, you can choose which iPad content to back up only from the Settings menu of your iPad.

On your Mac:

  1. Choose Apple () menu > System Preferences.
  2. Click iCloud.
  3. Click Manage.
  4. Select Backups.

On your PC:

  1. Open iCloud for Windows
  2. Click Storage.
  3. Select Backup.

Learn more about how to delete or manage iCloud backups from your Mac or PC.

Learn more

  • Learn the difference between iCloud and iTunes backups.
  • Follow steps to back up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
  • Learn about encrypted backups in iTunes.
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