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b2387692

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 9, 2014
146
8
Hello all,

How can I backup iphone 7, directly to external hard drive without using itunes or icloud?

I appreciate your feedback!
 

b2387692

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 9, 2014
146
8
You cannot.
Ah, Thanks!
I've never used either and was trying to avoid them, if possible. That said, I have an external drive connected to mac mini, which I want to backup iphone 7 to. If I backup to iTunes, on mini, is there anyway to then backup to external hard drive?
 

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,025
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b2387692

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 9, 2014
146
8
You can relocate iTunes library to external drive. I do this because my iPhone backups are huge.

https://www.iclarified.com/28429/how-to-change-the-location-of-your-itunes-iphone-backups-mac
Thanks!
So, this is still using iTunes to backup iPhone but I can change the location of folder that iTunes will back up to, from mini to external drive?

If yes Step Three says to "rename your old backup folder using the following command...mv Backup Backup_Old". What do I do, if I don't have an old backup folder because I've never used iTunes, let alone backed anything up to it?
 

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,025
Thanks!
So, this is still using iTunes to backup iPhone but I can change the location of folder that iTunes will back up to, from mini to external drive?

If yes Step Three says to "rename your old backup folder using the following command...mv Backup Backup_Old". What do I do, if I don't have an old backup folder because I've never used iTunes, let alone backed anything up to it?

Yeah, don't worry bout it then - I never backup to my OS drive so that backup folder either doesn't exist or I delete it then do the ln command.
 
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b2387692

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 9, 2014
146
8
Yeah, don't worry bout it then - I never backup to my OS drive so that backup folder either doesn't exist or I delete it then do the ln command.
Great, thanks!
[doublepost=1546533828][/doublepost]
If you won't have any luck with symlinks iMazing is your best friend imo. And incremental backups are a good bonus.
Thanks!
Who is that from, Apple?
 
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KeepCalmPeople

macrumors 65816
Sep 5, 2012
1,457
659
Los Angeles, California
It stands to reason that a piece of software is required to create a working backup of a device as complex as a smartphone, however this is just one of the functions (device backup) that many people have been asking Apple to remove from iTunes and create a separate, lighter program for.
 
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