Move iTunes backup to another drive

Many Windows computer might have more than two hard drive. Windows laptops and desktops should been shipped with the partitions or volumes created already on the hard disk. The C drive is usually our Windows system partition which we install the Windows operating system on. If you are running low of space in the system drive in Windows, you can move some user created or app generated files from the C drive to D drive or other hard drives you have to free up space in system drive. iTunes backup files are very big. If you have multiple iOS devices, such as iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and you have used iTunes to keep them synced and backed up, you will save very large backup files in iTunes on your Windows system volume.

Although we can repartition or resize the hard disk to enlarge certain drive or volume, but to avoid data loss, most people choose to move files from crowded drive to other drive with more free storage space.

To move iTunes backup to another drive on PC, you have to firstly find out where iTunes backup files are saved on computer. After that find another drive or location with more free space on computer and copy iTunes backup files to the new location. Finally delete iTunes backups from its original path or folder.

move itunes backup files to another drive or computer

Where are iPhone iPad iTunes backups saved on computer?

iTunes for Windows will save all iOS device backups to your system drive by default and there is no option in iTunes you can customize or alter the iTunes backup folder location. You can refer to the iTunes backup location for Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista, XP and Mac below. You can also refer to this page to find out where iPhone backups are stored on computer.

  • Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
    The “~” represents your Home folder. If you don’t see Library in your Home folder, hold Option and click the Go menu.
  • Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10: \Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
    To quickly access the AppData folder, click Start. In the search bar, type %appdata%, then press Return.
  • Windows XP: \Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

How to move iTunes backup to another drive on computer?

Now open Windows Explorer on your PC, browse to the hard drives and find a new location with enough storage space for iTunes backup files. Create a folder on the new drive specifically for iPhone iPad or iPod backups via iTunes. Open  the old iTunes backup folder, copy the existing iPhone backup file, iPad backup file or iPod touch back file, and paste them to the new iTunes backup folder on another drive. You can then go to delete the old iTunes backups from computer to reclaim valuable space on the system drive.

Are we done yet? Now we have another question for you, how can we back up iOS device to the new iTunes backup folder.

How to backup iPhone to different drive?

In previous step, we learn how to move iPhone backup to another drive. But this can’t make iTunes to backup iPhone to a different drive or folder. In fact, the iTunes backup location has never been changed so far. How to assign a new back up folder location for iTunes? The solution is to create a folder mapping or junction point in the original iTunes backup location. You can map iTunes backup location to another drive, so the next time iTunes will create backups and save them in the new location or folder. You can also point to the flash drive, so iTunes will even backup iPhone to flash drive. Sounds interesting? Do not miss out this quick solution to change iTunes backup location on Windows computer.

This solution to move iTunes backup location works for various Windows OS, including Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Vista. It however does not work for Windows XP or earlier versions.