Forum Discussion
How to backup iphone to mac without icloud preferably external hard drive?
Using libimobiledevice is a great, free, and open-source way to help with how to backup iPhone to Mac—especially if you're comfortable with command-line tools. It provides a set of utilities that can communicate with your iPhone without needing iTunes, making it handy for advanced users who want more control over their backups.
How does it help with how to backup iPhone to Mac?
- You can use tools from libimobiledevice (like idevicebackup2) to create backups of your iPhone directly on your Mac.
- It’s especially useful if you want a free, open-source alternative to iTunes or want to automate backups via scripts.
Basic steps to use libimobiledevice for backup iPhone to Mac:
1. Install libimobiledevice on your Mac. You can do this using Homebrew:
brew install libimobiledevice
2. Connect your iPhone to your Mac with a USB cable.
3. Trust your Mac on your iPhone if prompted.
4. Open Terminal and run:
idevicebackup2 backup ~/path/to/backup-folder
Replace ~/path/to/backup-folder with the location where you want to save your backup.
This command will create a full backup of your iPhone's data in the specified folder.