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Dilanniss's avatar
Dilanniss
Copper Contributor
Mar 19, 2026

Safe way to backup iphone to macbook pro without icloud

Hi everyone, I recently got an iPhone 17 Pro (128GB), and I'm starting to worry about storage since I have a lot of important photos and videos. I want to back everything up to my Mac safely, prefer...
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Drakeka's avatar
Drakeka
Brass Contributor
Mar 19, 2026

Some open-source options can help you create a full backup or extract media files without compression. Using libimobiledevice along with idevicebackup2 is an excellent approach if you want to backup iPhone to Mac without iCloud. These open-source tools allow you to manage and back up your iPhone directly from your Mac without relying on Apple's iCloud service, giving you more control over your data and avoiding storage limitations or privacy concerns associated with cloud backups.

How to backup iPhone to Mac without iCloud:

1. Install Homebrew:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https//raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

2. Install libimobiledevice:

brew install libimobiledevice

3. Create a backup:

Connect your iPhone via USB.

Run:

idevicebackup2 backup ~/iPhoneBackup

This will create a full backup in the folder ~/iPhoneBackup.

4. Access your media:

The backup contains your photos and videos in their original quality.

You can browse the backup folder or extract specific media files manually.