You can save the extraction backup to a directly attached external drive instead of your computer's internal storage. This is helpful if your computer does not have enough space or if you prefer to store the backup separately for long-term preservation.

The backup must be written to a local drive: either your computer's internal storage or a directly attached external drive (USB hard drive or SSD). Do not select a cloud-synced folder (such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive) as the backup destination, because the sync process can interfere with the extraction. After the backup is complete, you can move the finished backup folder to a cloud-synced location and open it later using Find Existing Backup.

During extraction setup, click the Browse button to choose where the extraction backup is saved.

Select the folder or external drive where you want to save the backup, then click Open. If using an external drive, an external SSD is recommended for best performance. Flash or thumb drives are supported but tend to be slower and more prone to errors.

Once you have selected a location with enough available storage, click Start Backup to begin the extraction.

Continue with How to run an iPhone backup or How to run an Android backup.