How to Back Up iPhone Data to an External Drive

A recent incident reminded me of the importance of backing up one's phone regularly. Soon after carrying my recycling out to the curbside, I realized I had misplaced my 6-month-old iPhone. Cue brief panic, followed by deep concern that I'd somehow tossed my device into that transparent bag I'd left outside for the world to see.

That led me to yelling "Hey, Siri" a few times around my apartment until the familiar chime sounded, revealing my trusty phone was hiding on a stepladder underneath a coat. Phew.

I have no idea how or why I managed to leave my phone there, but had I not found it, the situation could have been much worse: It had been months since I'd backed up my data. I was lucky to escape what could have been a potential disaster caused by my absent-minded tendencies.

Using Windows 10:

Here's how I solved the problem on my Windows 10 machine. First, since I had the capacity on my current drive (but only just), I created an iPhone backup using the regular iTunes sync method to the default location, just in case any mishaps should occur. I went to the folder Apple uses to store backups, typically this one:

C:\Users[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
You should replace [Username] with your own actual username, naturally.
You'll want to copy that folder to your desired new backup location, and then either delete the original Backup folder or rename it as "BackupOld." Then hold the shift key and click the right mouse button to open a command window. There, enter the following:

mklink /J "%APPDATA%\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "[External Drive]:\iTunes Backup"
Of course, you'll replace [External Drive] with your actual drive letter.
You can add subfolders here too if you like to keep your storage as organized as possible. So, something like this would work just fine:

E:\MyBackups\iTunes Backup
Then you can close the command prompt window, and try an iPhone backup to see if it works.