iPhone X: Backup to external hard drive

The backup of your iPhone X is usually stored in the iCloud or on your computer. However, if you run out of memory here, you can also use a trick to offload your iPhone's backup to an external hard drive.

How to outsource your iPhone X backup to an external hard drive

If you back up the data on your iPhone via iTunes, the backup is saved locally on your computer. If you want to change the backup location for space reasons, it usually works simply by moving the directory where the data is stored to the desired location. However, to ensure that future backups are also stored there, you need to use a trick.Follow these steps to move your iPhone's backup to an external disk:

1. Navigate to the backup folder via the file path "C:\User\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\AppleComputer\MobileSync\Backup" and move it to the desired location.
2. If you can't see the folder, it's because of the display settings. There you must activate the function "Show hidden folders".
3. If the folder is in the new location, call the command line via the key combination [WIN] and [R] and enter the command "cmd". Confirm with [Enter].
4. Then enter "cd c:\" to change the directory.
5. About the command "mklink /j C:\User\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\AppleComputer\MobileSync\Backup [file path of the new directory]" create a so-called symbolic link.

Backups via third-party software

Alternatively to iTunes, you can also resort to third-party software, such as EaseUS MobiMover. There you have namely usually the option to choose the location for the backup itself.