Can I create a new user account with its home folder on an external SSD to backup iPhones and iPads?
Mac Studio 2022, macos Tahoe latest version
I have to backup the iPhones and iPads of many family members to my Mac. We prefer it to the iCloud backup (although we do both) because the backups are more complete and quicker to restore. The backups occupy about 300 GB on my Mac which I would like to move to an external SSD as simply as possible I was thinking of creating a new user in my Mac and changing its home drive to an external SSD Is this a realistic solution or fraught with problems? Any other simple solutions?
Much simpler to just create a folder on an external and symlink ~/Library/ Application Support/ MobileSync/Backup to this folder. Been doing this for years.
macOS accomodation of $HOME (~/) on an external drive has a history of arbitrary breakage upon OS update. Recovery is not trivial. Symptoms include apps ignoring the user directory definition entered through System Preferences/Settings, resulting in spurious creation of new folders in /Users and other evidences of programming errors. The idea of a dedicated device backup user is more management workload than is desirable. I did use symlinks for some data storage on external drives, but in my multi-device and multi-location situation I simply use iMazing.app to external volumes – licensing is per backed-up device so I can use any of several macOS instances to do the job. I use multiple external volumes for offsite backup for this in the same manner as for CCC backups of other user data. I do not depend on unchanging definitions of ~/Library/… usage by Apple and separate my backup processes as is appropriate.
I wouldn’t do this—moving the Home folder is a recipe for problems.
I’m not sure why the speed of restoring from iCloud is much of a factor in the decision to use it. How often do you erase and restore your iPhone? Even with all the testing I do, I don’t believe I’ve done this more than a handful of times ever.
If they go out of business, could you still restore from those backups
Yes there is nothing proprietary about the iMazing backups. I have at times used Finder+Symlinks and iMazing to back up to externals. If you use a symlink to the iMazing backup, Finder can see and use it. iMazing can also open and use Finder created backups. IMazing support confirmed this to me.
The default location for iMazing backups is on the internal but you can specify an external location and make this the default.
IMazing creates larger backups because it can save versions. Finder can also create versions but you have to manually “archive” a back up to stop it being overwritten. Don’t think Finder could use the iMazing versions, but iMazing can use Finder archived backups.
iMazing is not cheap and has a bit of a learning curve, but of course can do a great deal more.
I also use iMazing to back up my devices to an external SSD as a matter of redundancy (they also back up automatically to iCloud). iMazing makes it drop-dead simple, and can even be configured on a per-device basis.
This is funny to me because I only ever need the last backup. I’d hate to lose data in even one app because I restored something older for another app.
There isn’t much. As far as I can tell, the only real difference is, “data stored in other cloud services, like Gmail and Exchange mail”, which presumably would sync with an iCloud restore. This is, of course, presuming an encrypted computer backup.
For me, I travel often enough that the ability to simply restore without having to carry a Mac with me everywhere makes iCloud backup better for me.
Also, I’ve long since realized that syncing everything with iCloud means that I can build a phone from scratch and lose absolutely nothing except a small amount of time changing settings.
I may not be remembering this accurately, but I think a difference between iCloud and encrypted Mac backups is that a Mac backup saves Keychain data. This may not matter with Apple’s recent rollout of the standalone Passwords app but I haven’t looked into this.
I don’t use Super Duper, so I can’t say for sure. But if SD doesn’t require entire and exclusive access to that drive, then you ought to be able to park an iMazing backup folder there without issue. But let’s wait for another SD user to confirm before you rush out and buy iMazing.
I haven’t used SD!, but I know that CCC has an option to preserve the contents of the root of the destination volume. So you could create a folder there, which would not get clobbered during a backup/sync operation.
It may be worth checking to see if SD! has a similar option.
It appears that their preferred procedure for this (page 16) is to back up to a sparse image on the destination volume. So you can store other things there in addition to your backup.
Maybe you can create a script that excludes a specific folder on the destination, so the files you put there will not be touched by the backup.
I have 1 external SSD drive I use to back up with Super Duper. Could I also use this drive to back up with iMazing –which I haven’t bought YET?
Yes no problem. Create a second APFS volume on the external (in the same container so that it will space share with the Superduper backup). Specify this second volume as your iMazing backup location. I have been doing similar for years (but with CCC not Superduper).
Note that at present your Superduper backup includes the backup of the iDevices backup. Once you move the iDevices backup to an external this will no longer be the case. You may feel that not having a backup of the backup is OK especially if also backing to iCloud. Otherwise you would need to arrange to backup the iMazing external drive another way.
