Smartphone data is an electronic commodity that contains private and sensitive information. Data protection should include securing data through regular backups to prevent losses during unpredictable scenarios.
If you plan to restore your iPhone backups on a Mac or transfer them to a new iPhone but do not know where to find iPhone backup on Mac, then you will learn the methods here.
4 Different Methods to Locate iPhone Backups in Mac
1] iTunes
iTunes is a handy official software that can copy your whole iPhone data and save it on your Mac. You can use those stored backups to restore your data or to transfer them to another iPhone.
iTunes will be available on your Mac if it is below macOS Cataline. For the latest versions, an alternative named Finder is used. Follow these steps to locate your backups.
- Launch iTunes.
- Go to ‘Preferences’.
- Select the ‘Devices’ tab from the popup window. All your current backups will be displayed here.
- Click the desired backup to delete, access, or archive.
2] iCloud
iCloud is another great official option that also allows you to restore or access your backups remotely from any device. You can even set up a new iPhone with iCloud backups and delete some unwanted ones to create space. Here is how to find iPhone backup on Mac via iCloud.
- Click the Apple logo at the top of the menu bar or choose the Dock option.
- Select ‘iCloud’.
- Tap on the ‘Manage’ button.
- Tap on the ‘Backups’ option from the menu on the left panel.
All your iCloud backups will be listed; you can move, copy, or delete them.
3] Finder
The Finder utility is available as an alternative to iTunes for macOS with Catalina 10.15 or above. Here is how to find an iPhone backup on Mac.
- First, connect your iPhone to your Mac.
- Launch Finder.
- Tap on the ‘Go’ tab.
- Select ‘Go To Folder’.
- Type the path as “~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/”
The ~ (tilde) symbol in the path is for going to your home directory. You can also use the path “/Users/[USERNAME]/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup”.
Another way to do this is to press the Command + Shift + G buttons to open the ‘Go To Folder’ window and paste the path directly there.
4] Find Specific Backup with Finder
There is also another way to find a specific backup with Finder.
- Connect your iPhone to your Mac.
- Launch the Finder.
- Tap the ‘Manage Button’ under the ‘General’ tab. A list of backups will appear.
- Right-click any backup to delete, archive, or show in Finder.
Are You Locating Backups So You Can Read?
If you are using backup files other than for restoring, deleting, or archiving, you might find yourself wasting a lot of time. This is because the backups that iCloud or iTunes take are not human-readable, which means that they are not meant for human consumption.
They are only geared for your devices and are in a particular format. Besides, reading the backup content does not offer any unqiue advantage. Using those backups to restore data is sufficient to get your current or new iPhone started with the data.
Conclusion
You might need to delete, archive, or restore the backups, for which you will need to know where is iPhone backup stored on Mac. The good news is that accessing the backups is not difficult and can be done in a minute or two. You can use any of the above methods to locate your iPhone backups on your Mac.
