About iTunes Backups

iTunes can create backups of settings and other information on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, such as:

•Photos (photos, screenshots, images saved, and videos taken) and Saved Photos (in devices without a camera).

•Contacts and Contact Favorites. (You should regularly sync your contacts to a computer or cloud service, such as iCloud.)

•Health (only if you have an encrypted backup).

•Calendar accounts, events, and subscribed calendars.

•Safari bookmarks, cookies, history, offline data, and currently open pages.

•Autofill for webpages.

•Offline web app cache/database.

•Notes.

•Mail accounts. (Mail messages aren't backed up.)

•Microsoft Exchange account configurations.

•Call history.

•Messages (iMessage and carrier SMS or MMS pictures and videos).

•Voicemail token. (This isn't the voicemail password, but it is used for validation when connecting. This is only restored to a phone with the same phone number on the SIM card.)

•Voice memos.

•Network settings (saved Wi-Fi hotspots, VPN settings, and network preferences).

•Keychain. (Includes email account passwords, Wi-Fi passwords, and passwords you enter into websites and some apps.)

•App Store app data. (Minus the app itself, its tmp, and Caches folder.)

•App settings, preferences, and data, including documents. (PDFs downloaded directly to iBooks on an iOS device are not included in the backup).

•In-app purchases.

•Game Center account.

•Wallpapers.

•Location service preferences for apps and websites you've allowed to use your location.

•Home screen arrangement.

•Installed profiles.

•Map bookmarks, recent searches, and the current location displayed in Maps.

•Nike + iPod saved workouts and settings.

•Paired Bluetooth devices (which you can only use if restored to the same phone that did the backup).

•Keyboard shortcuts and saved suggestion corrections.

•Trusted hosts that have certificates that can't be verified.

•Web clips.

For more information, see https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204269.  

You can use a backup to restore this information back to your device after a software restore or update, or to transfer information to a different device. For more information about creating a backup and restoring from it, please read:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766

By default, backups are stored in the following folders:

•macOS: /Users/(username)/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

•Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10: \Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

If you are running EPB on the computer where iTunes is installed, it will allow you to browse through all backups stored there.

If you want to encrypt the information stored on your computer when iTunes makes a backup, select Encrypt iPhone backup in the iTunes Summary screen. Encrypted backups are indicated by a padlock icon, and a password is required to restore the information to iPhone. If you forget the password you can continue to do backups and use the device, however you will not be able to restore the encrypted backup to any device without the password. You do not need to enter the password for your backup each time you back up or sync.

Every backup contains many files, but the only one needed for password recovery is Manifest.plist (for iOS 10 and higher, the Manifest.db file located in the same folder is also needed). However, if you want to recover passwords and other data saved in Keychain, you need to have the complete device backup.