Change macOS iTunes Backup location - Andy's Blog

Environment

• macOS Sonoma 14.5

Your iTunes backup location is located at ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync

“On June 3, 2019, Apple stated that they would no longer include iTunes with future Mac computers. Starting with the operating system macOS Catalina, Apple instead split iTunes into separate apps: Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Podcasts. iTunes continues to be available on Windows and on macOS operating systems prior to Catalina.” – Wikipedia

Steps

1. Rename the Backup folder to Backup.old.

   If you wish to switch back to storing your iTunes backup locally in the future, you can delete the symbolic link and rename the Backup.old back to Backup to restore everything.

2. Open Terminal

3. Type commands

   Check your external volume name

   # Go to Volumes
   cd /Volumes
   # List all volumes connected to your Mac
   ls

   Create a symbolic link

   Remember to replace Your_External_Drive_Name with your actual external volume name

   # Syntax
   sudo ln -s /Volumes/Your_External_Drive_Name ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync

   • ln -s: This is the command to create a symbolic link (soft link).

     The -s flag specifies that it should be a symbolic link rather than a hard link.

   • /Volumes/Your_External_Drive_Name: This is the target of the symbolic link. It’s the directory or volume that you want to link to. In this case, it is assumed to be an external drive or a separate volume named “Your_External_Drive_Name”

   • ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync: This is the location where the symbolic link will be created.

     The ~ symbol represents the current user’s home directory.

     The backslash (\) before the space in “Application\ Support” is used to escape the space character, ensuring the command interprets the path correctly.

   This command will create a symbolic link named Your_External_Drive_Name in the directory ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/ and this symbolic link points to the /Volumes/Your_External_Drive_Name directory.

   Eg.

   My external volume name is Backup

   sudo ln -s /Volumes/Backup ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync

   Enter your password and it’s done.

   You can find the symbolic link in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync.

   It should direct you to your external drive when you click on it.

   

4. Now when you are trying to back up your devices from iTunes (Finder), you can find the backup files appearing on your external drives instead of your local computer.

   

Reference

• ChatGPT
• History of iTunes