I have a small hard drive on my MacBook, and a (not so) large iPhone. Is there a way I can back up my phone to my laptop but exclude the hundreds of bulky apps? Most of the apps can be reinstalled quite easily from the App Store, and store no unduplicated local data worth protecting. I don’t see any reason to concern myself with including them in the backup and they make the size of the iPhone backups prohibitive.

Alternatively, is there a way to get iTunes to allow me to store my iPhone’s backups on an external drive? That too would resolve the problem well enough.

Unfortunately, I am not enthusiastic about backing up my phone to the cloud, so that is not a solution for me.

  • 2015 MacBook Pro 256 GB HD
  • iPhone 5S 64 GB
  • The best backup for your situation (you just want a small backup and aren't concerned about the apps) is to use iCloud. I know you said it's not a solution for you but is that because you don't like it or there's a network or technical reason? I'm just curious. – fsb Apr 3 '17 at 20:04
  • It's personal, not technical. – Keith Apr 3 '17 at 20:06

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