When you Backup iPhone to computer using iTunes, the Backup File of your iPhone gets stored at a specific location on the computer. While most users are happy with this setup, there are users who want to change iTunes Backup Location.
Depending on your preference, you can change the location of iTunes Backup on your computer to Desktop, any Folder or Location on the computer and even to an external storage drive.
Based on our experience, changing iTunes Backup location to Desktop has worked well, while changing it to External Storage Drive has led to problems and appears to have corrupted the backup file.
Change iTunes Backup Location in Windows 11/10
Currently, the only way to change iTunes Backup Location on a Windows computer is by creating a Symbolic link pointing from the current iPhone Backup location to your desired New Backup Location.
Once the Symlink to your desired New Location is created, it tricks iTunes into storing the backup of iPhone to this New Location on your computer.
Step 1. Create MobileSync Folder at New Location
The first step is to create a Folder at the New Location, where you want iTunes to store the backup files of your iPhone and name this New Folder as “MobileSync“.
1. Open the File Explorer on your computer.
2. From the File Explorer screen, navigate to Desktop or any other Location where you want iTunes to save the Backup of your iPhone.
3. Once you are at your desired location, right-click in any Empty space and click on New Folder.
4. Name this New Folder as MobileSync and do not close the File Explorer screen.
Step 2. Copy Current iPhone Backup Folder to New MobileSync Folder
The second step is copy the current iPhone Backup Folder to New MobileSync Folder that you created in the first step.
1. Open another File Explorer window and navigate to C:\Users\UserName\Apple\MobileSync.
Note: If iTunes was installed from the App Store, go to C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync.
2. Right-click on the current iPhone Backup Folder and select the Copy option.
3. Go to the New MobileSync Folder that you created in the first step and paste the Backup in the New MobileSync Folder.
4. After this, go back to the current MobileSync Folder and Rename the current iPhone Backup Folder as Old Backup.
Step 3. Create Symlink from Current to New MobileSync Folder
The final step is to create a Symbolic link pointing from the current or default iTunes Backup Folder to New iTunes Backup Location.
1. Right-click on Start button and click on Command Prompt (Admin).
2. On the Command Prompt screen, type MkLink /J “C:\Users\UserName\Apple\MobileSync\Backup” “C:\MobileSync\Backup”.
Note: If iTunes was installed from the App Store, type MkLink /J “C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup” “C:\MobileSync\Backup”
If things go properly, you should now see a Symlink created in MobileSync Folder.
Once the Symlink is created, it should force iTunes to Backup iPhone to the New Selected Location.