[Solved] iPhone Backup Not Enough Space on Computer

Your iPhone data need to be protected so regularly backing up iPhone is very necessary. It would be very helpful for retrieving lost data after upgrading the iOS version or transferring data from old iPhone to new iPhone.

iTunes is the traditional way to backup your iPhone on a computer. you could create an iPhone backup with iTunes by one click. But sometimes, you may get prompts saying: "iTunes could not back up the iPhone because there is not enough free space on this computer to save the backup" or something like that.

If you can’t back up iPhone to iTunes for not enough space, you can follow this guide to know why it happens and how to fix the issue.

How much space does iPhone backup take on computer and where is it stored?

Before you backup iPhone with iTunes, you need to know what iTunes backup includes. Your app data and iPhone settings will be saved to computer, but the data stored in the server will not be saved, so how much space does iPhone backup take on computer?

Usually, a full iPhone backup is larger than 7GB. iCloud backup saves nearly the same things like iTunes, so you can check iCloud backup size to estimate the iTunes backup size. Go to iPhone Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage > tap your iPhone name and you would see the estimated iCloud backup size.

Tips:✎...

iTunes create a full backup on computer, and you can choose which items you can backup. You can also skip to Solution 6 to backup iPhone flexibly and selectively.

An iTunes backup would be stored in C Drive by default, and usually, you have to leave at least 10GB of free space in C Drive. 

How to fix iPhone backup not enough space on computer bug

After checking iPhone backup size, you are sure there is enough storage place in C drive, but iTunes still reports not enough space error, so this could be a system bug, you can easily fix it.

Solution 1. Restarting PC

More than 90% of system glitches could be solved by rebooting. You could restart your computer and try backing up iPhone with iTunes again.

Solution 2. Update or Reinstall iTunes

The version of iTunes might be too old, so you need to update it to the latest version. Reinstalling iTunes would be much helpful.

Solution 3. Free up iPhone storage space

The iPhone backup size is usually very large, even bigger than the actual size of the data. Because it may backup some non-essential data on your iPhone.

If you want to know how to reduce iPhone backup size on a PC with iTunes, you can go to "Settings" > "General" > "iPhone Storage Space" to check which data take up most of the space. Then reduce some items according to your need.

Solution 4. Delete old backups

You could delete your backup in iTunes settings or Windows Explorer. Just go to iTunes > Edit > Preferences > Devices to delete your old backup. In Windows File Explorer, you could find your backup in C:\Users\[PC name]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\ MobileSync.

Solution 5. Change iTunes backup location

If you find that there is not enough space to backup iPhone on pc, you can change the backup location to another partition on computer or backup iPhone to external drive on Windows.

You could find no options in iTunes settings to change the destination to save iTunes backup while iTunes must obey the rule of Windows so you could use CMD to change it. “mklink /J” could help you connect the folder from another drive.

Step 1. Go to C:\Users\[PC name]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\ MobileSync. Cut the whole folder of MobileSync to your wanted destination.

Step 2. Press Windows + R and input “cmd” in the box.

Step 3. Enter mklink /J “C:\Users\[PC name]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup” “(drive letter):\MobileSync” and press Enter. If it asks for Administration Rights, in step 2, you should type “cmd” in the Search bar, right-click it and select Run as administrator.

✍ Notes: 
1. The drive letter is the drive where you want to store your iTunes backup. 
2. If you could not find the folder AppData, you need to click View at the toolbar in Windows Explorer and check Hidden items.

Solution 6. Use intuitive way to backup iPhone to different locations on PC (Selectively or Fully backup)

If you think it is too complicated to change iTunes backup location, or just can't solve the backup failure, you could try a more convenient iPhone backup software. FoneTool is a free professional iPhone backup software. With its intuitive interface,  you can backup the iPhone to any location of your computer or an external disk.

This tool also comes with some advantages to meet various needs:

√ Full Backup or Partially Backup: You can backup the whole data or choose some file types, like photos, videos, music, contacts and messages to back up.
√ Back up to different partitions or external disks: You can save your backup image to a different partition, even back up your iPhone to an external disk.
√ Completely compatible with iOS Devices:  It supports all iPhone models from iPhone 4 to iPhone 15, as well as iPad and iPod Touch, and would be perfectly compatible with the latest iOS 17.
√ Incremental Backup: If you have done an iPhone data backup with "Selective Backup", you can perform incremental backup to only backup the newly added data, so you can save time and space.

Now you can follow the steps below to see how to use this tool.

✍ Partially and Selectively backup data on iPhone

Step 1. Download FoneTool for free. Connect your iPhone to computer and tap “Trust” on it.

Step 2. Run FoneTool and click the "Phone Backup" button on the main interface. Choose "Selective Backup".

Note: You can also click the "Phone Transfer" feature to save data to PC to view and manage your data on your computer easily. For example, you can transfer music to computer, and play and enjoy your song on the computer.

Step 3.  You could click an icon to preview and select what you want. Click "OK" to return.

Step 4. You could click the path setting to store your iPhone backup anywhere on computer or even backup iPhone to external drive. Click "Start Backup" and your backup would be completed.

✍ Backup all data on iPhone

Step 1. Run FoneTool, and click "Full Backup" under the "Phone Backup" option.

Step 2. To back up some personal data, like Health data, Keychain, please encrypt the backup.

Start 3. Then click "Start Backup".

Conclusion

When iTunes says iPhone backup not enough space on computer, you can follow this passage to fix the system glitch or change iTunes backup location.

In addition, these solutions can't help you, FoneTool is a decent iTunes alternative when your PC doesn't have available space to backup iPhone.  It lets you know and control everything about your backup. Share this guide and it would help more people.