Where iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch backups are stored on Mac or Windows

If you back up your iOS or iPadOS devices to a computer, you might find yourself wondering where all that data actually gets stored. Perhaps you want to make copies, extract files, or clear out space by deleting old backups. 

In this post, we’ve shown you exactly where your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch backups are stored on Mac and Windows computers. We even explained how to find specific backups using iTunes and Finder, in macOS Catalina.

Related: 

• How to sync music and videos in macOS Catalina
• iPhone is not connecting to a computer, how-to fix
• How to back up your iTunes library before upgrading to macOS Catalina
• No more iTunes. How to use Finder in macOS Catalina to sync and restore iPhone

Read this first if you don’t want to ruin your backups!

iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch backups you make with iTunes or Finder are saved as complicated sets of folders. It’s impossible to know what each file is because everything from your device is fragmented.

This improves the security of your data but means it’s not easy to extract content from your backup. Usually, you need to use a third-party data recovery app to help you with that. 

You should always make a new copy of your backup before editing anything. Save the copy in a different place on your computer and work on it from there. Don’t ever root around in the backup folder if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing.

Where is my iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch backup stored in macOS?

Click here to find your backups in Windows instead.

Backups you made of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using iTunes — or using Finder in macOS Catalina — are stored in the user Library. This is a hidden folder that holds system files for macOS.

There are two ways to find your iTunes or Finder backups in the Library: using Finder itself or searching for the specific file path with Spotlight.

How to find iTunes or Finder backups with Finder:

1. Open a new Finder window.
2. Hold option and select Go > Library.
3. Navigate to Application Support > MobileSync > Backup.
4. Each folder corresponds to a different device backup on your Mac.

How to find iTunes or Finder backups with Spotlight:

1. Open Spotlight with the search icon in the top-right of the menu bar.
2. Copy and paste the following file path:
   ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
3. Press return.
4. Each folder corresponds to a different device backup on your Mac.

To find a specific iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch backup on your Mac you need to manage your backups from iTunes or Finder. Click here to learn how to do that.

Where is my iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch backup stored in Windows?

The exact location of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch backups in Windows depends whether you downloaded iTunes from the Microsoft Store or from Apple’s website.

That said, there are two methods to locate your iTunes backups in Windows and the first method is the same regardless of where you got iTunes from.

How to find iTunes backups using File Explorer:

1. Open a new File Explorer window.
2. Go to the following folder:
   \Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
3. Each folder corresponds to a different device backup on your PC.

How to find iTunes backups using the search bar

1. Locate the Search bar in your version of Windows.
2. Search for %appdata% or %USERPROFILE% depending on whether you got iTunes from the Microsoft Store or Apple’s website, respectively.
3. Navigate to Apple (or Apple Computer) > MobileSync > Backup.
4. Each folder corresponds to a different device backup on your PC.

Find specific iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch backups using iTunes

It’s not easy to distinguish between devices from the backup folders alone. Instead, it’s much easier to find specific iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch backups using iTunes itself.

If you have a Mac running macOS Catalina or later, click here to learn how to find specific backups using Finder.

How to find specific backups using iTunes:

1. Open iTunes on your Mac or PC.
2. On a Mac: Go to iTunes > Preferences > Devices.
3. On a PC: Go to File > Preferences > Devices.
4. Control-click or right-click the device backup you want to find.
5. Select Show in Finder.

Find specific backups using Finder in macOS Catalina

To locate specific device backups using Finder, the trick is to first connect an iOS or iPadOS device to your computer. It doesn’t need to be the same device you want to find the backup for. 

How to find specific backups using Finder:

1. Connect an iOS or iPadOS device to your computer.
2. Open a new window in Finder and select the device from the sidebar.
3. Go to the General tab and click Manage Backups.
4. Control-click the device backup you want to find.
5. Select Show in Finder.

Wrap up

While you can just delete your device backups from your computers MobileSync/Backups folder, we don’t recommend it. To ensure you do not delete any important backups, it’s always better to use Finder or iTunes to see the specific backup information before you remove anything!

Let us know in the comments below if you can’t find where your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch backups are stored on your Mac or Windows computer. We’ll be sure to do what we can to help you out.

Dan Helyer( Senior Writer )

Dan is a freelance writer based in South West England.

He spent two years supervising repairs as a Genius Admin for Apple Retail and uses that knowledge to keep our troubleshooting guides up to date.

Long before that, Dan turned to Apple products from a musical background. Having owned iPods for years, he bought a MacBook to learn sound recording and production. It was using those skills that he gained a first-class Bachelor of Science in Sound Technology.