Where Can I locate the iTunes Backup Files on My PC?

Q: Hello. I really need to make some important phone calls right now but I can’t access the contacts I saved because my iPhone is broken and won’t start. However, I believe I have some iTunes backups sitting somewhere. I vaguely remember I have backed up my iPhone at least once some time ago. Where can I locate my iTunes backups on my Windows PC? Since I’m currently using my old Samsung Android phone, I guess the iTunes backup file won’t be of any help even if I somehow find it? Any ideas? Thanks a lot!

A: The good news is that you guessed wrong. If you have iTunes backup files stored somewhere, it would be very helpful, even if you are not currently using an iPhone. Let’s first try to locate the iTunes backup files.

1. Find the Search bar. In Windows 7, click Start. In Windows 8, click the magnifying glass in the upper-right corner. In Windows 10, click the Search bar next to the Start button.
2. In the Search bar, enter %appdata%
3. Press Return.
4. Double-click these folders AppData>Roaming>Apple Computer>MobileSync>Backup

Now that you can find the iTunes backup files, how do we get useful information from them? Before we do, here are some important tips to avoid damaging or corrupting the backup files:

1. Though we can copy the Backup folder, we should never move it to a different folder, external drive, or network drive.
2. We should not edit, relocate or rename the backup files.
3. While we are able to view or access a backup file’s contents, the contents usually aren’t stored in a format that we can read.

To extract the information saved on iPhone, we need to find a safe way to extract data from these iPhone backup files. Here, we would recommend H Data iPhone Data Recovery Software as the solution. H Data iPhone Recovery Software allows you to preview and selectively extract certain files from iTunes backups to your computer, even if your iPhone is not functioning or is lost. Here is how to recover iPhone information from iTunes backups with H Data iPhone Data Recovery Software:

Step 1. Free download H Data iPhone Recovery and install it on your computer.

Step 2. Select View and Restore Files from iTunes Backups. Click Browse for iTunes Backups to manually select an iTunes backup file. Navigate to the folder we previously located and import the iTunes backups.

Step 3. When the scanning process is done, choose Contacts on the left panel. You will be able to view all the contact information contained in the iTunes backup file. The contacts marked in red color are the deleted ones. You can check the Hide Existed box to view only the deleted contacts.

Now that you can view the contact information directly from your iTunes backup files, you can also select the contacts you want to save and export them to your computer for later review.