Backup your iPhone (or iPad) on External Hard Drive [No 3D Party Software] - Step by Step

still works 2024

Hey, how do you view the files in the backup? Thank you

What happens when you want to restore? Will it normally restore or would I have to do anything specific?

Thanks! Exactly what I needed!

what if you've never backed up your phone and so there's no mobile sync folder. even if I create one it doesn't work. I have yet to find a video explaining that. it all relies on the fact that you already had a previous backup

when i type the command, this message appears "ln: illegal option -- /
usage: ln [-Ffhinsv] source_file [target_file]
ln [-Ffhinsv] source_file ... target_dir
link source_file target_file" why is that?

Do you have one of these tutorials for iPad?

This is still super complicated, anyone able to streamline this

Tired of not having this tutorial on windows.

Hi your video is incredible thank for your support, i have another question for you, if i have two backup for two different iphone how can i make this? in the same folder BACKUP i will see two different backup? or i'll make two folder? thank's for your reponse

There is has to be a space after ln which you do not mention by the way for anybody who gets and error like I did. There is also a space after the s

I get Illegal Action in the terminal? when you put the first ln and you say dash it looks like there is a space there? or is there not a space? you do not say Ln space - s ? I put a space bc yours looks to have a space? Thanks, I tried with out the space and it says no such file or directory?

PLZ HELP, after drag the address of mobile sync, and hitting entering I am getting error message as" ln: /Users/nikko/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup: Operation not permitted" request for your kind attention

Tried this for 3hrs and always says: cannot find source drive location despite copying it exactly ?! So bloody frustrating! FU Apple! Should've included bu location but didn't so we all succumb to the cloud 🤬🖕

honestly this tutorial is pretty bad, like I had no idea what you meant when you said renaming the files if you don't have enough space. Followed this tutorial and my mac got messed up for some reason, watched another tutorial by Arthur Brassart and it was much clearer.

HELP! It says it is a file directory... so it will not change the path. What should I do?

❤ works!!! Very helpful, thanks!!

I have a 2020 macbook air. It doesn’t have the Mobilesync folder.

what happens if you don't have mobile sync????

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

i did the link but the backup with arrow did not appear in mobilesync?

what is the problem when mac do system update?

hi, i tried following your instrctions but wheni hit 'enter', it says 'operation not permitted. please help

hi, a few months ago i followed your instructions and was able to successfully backup my iphone to an external drive, however I recently had to restore a backup but it gives me an error that my backup is corrupt. any idea how i can fix this? should I unlink and link again? or is there any software to repair corrupt backups that you can recommend? thank you

Great content

Thank you so much!!!!

There is no folder called MobileSync or Backup in my Application Support folder. I have a new Mac Studio. Also, I am yet to find a method of backing up my iPhone to an external drive using my Mac. Image Capture does not work, it crashes every time! Photos does not work, it crashes everytime! I have over 40,000 photos/videos on my iPhone 11 Pro Max and all I want to do is back everything up to make it impossible to lose all these valuable photos/videos of my children. Why is such a simple everyday task so impossible? If you have a solution to transfer ALL photos/videos to an external hard drive using a Mac with iPhone connected to a mac i would love to hear it. I gave up trying to use Image Capture and Photos because they always CRASH! I have wasted so much time trying to do this task.

I have an iMac 2022 M1, it is not allowing me to do this.. have things changed?

Hi
Thanks for the smart tips.
QUESTION :
What if I want to change my External Hard Drive?

I have a 2tb hardrive it still says “mac has not enough space”

W video Fr thank you so much

So does the mobile sync folder hold both my iPhone back up and my iPad back up?

Same process for Mac OS Ventura?

I never had a MobileSync folder on my mac, so i created one and followed your instructions but it’s still giving me a error message that my mac doesn’t have enough space.

hi thank you for such helpful vid
need a little help here, I did the terminal step, it said it's an "illegal option" for some reason?
if I follow the website step, add "~" after my external hard drive file, and before the Mobile Sync file, it said the same "illegal option"

it said:
ln: illegal option -- /
usage: ln [-Ffhinsv] source_file [target_file]
ln [-Ffhinsv] source_file ... target_dir
link source_file target_file

Very helpful and perfectly working

Thank you bro

Does anyone else get an Illegal action error?
This seemed simple but didnt work for me, assistance please.

Thank you for this! My suggestion is to reupload this, mention those spaces and take your time on how to unlink the backup. Other than that no complaints because there are others that are less tech savvy than I and would probably need that explained a little slower.

New laptop, no backups or mobile sync folder, now what?! Application support exists but nothing else from there. Tried making folders and rewriting with terminal and did not work

When I type in "ln s" I get this weird error message... "ln: illegal option - /
usage: ln [-s [-F] | -L | -P] [-f | -i] [-hnv] source_file [target_file]
ln [-s [-F] | -L | -P] [-f | -i] [-hnv] source_file ... target_dir
link source_file target_file" - anyone know why this might be?

thank you for this tutorial! if you don't feel comfortable working with terminal, is it possible to just backup your iphone from scratch each time and drag over to external drive? thanks!

I don’t have application support

You’re awesome!!! I asked for help in several places, I have been even in I spot but no one could solve my problem. Your tutorial is the best!!!

also how to reverse it

I can't make it work on my ibook. Can you see the problem here? Dharmadas-MacBook-Pro:
~ Dharma$ ls -s/Volumes/Taygeta/Backup /Users/Dharma/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync

ls: illegal option -- /

When I try to link back to computer just keeps sayin “no such file or directory“no such file or directory“no such file or directory“no such file or directory“no such file or directory…. Please help!!!!!

Can’t unlink back to Mac?? I tried this! -/Library/Application\Support/MobileSync/Backup

Now the backups don’t show up in the “manage backups” anymore