Edit an iPhone or iPad's backup

At first glance, editing an iPhone or iPad's backup seems like a strange proposition. But there are actually quite a few very good reasons to do so:

• Repairing corrupted backups.
• Restoring data from a bricked device without restoring the settings which bricked it in the first place.
• Merging data from different devices.

Some tools only offer light backup editing, such as removing data from backups. iMazing goes further: you can add files, folders, and apps to backups, even when they are encrypted and regardless of the iOS version (works with iOS 10 and above). If you need to recover only Messages or Health data, delete corrupted settings, or inject files into an app, iMazing can handle it.

The video bellow allows you to see this feature in action. In this example, an old iOS device's messages are being transfered to an iPhone that already has important data on it:

💡 Note: Backup editing is an advanced feature only recommended for experimented users. If you're unsure whether or not you should be editing your backup, then you probably should not be: you can probably achieve what you want in a much simpler way! Have a look at our backup guides to see what you can do before resorting to backup editing.

Here's how to edit an iPhone or iPad backup:

1. Launch iMazing on your computer
2. Select the Backup
3. Select a specific backup
4. Click on Create and Editable Copy
5. Edit the Backup
6. What to keep in mind

Before you begin

Always make sure you are running the latest iMazing version, to do so select Check for Updates from the iMazing menu, or just download the latest available version for your computer below.

Download and install iMazing on your Mac or PC computer.

Step-by-step instructions

1. Launch iMazing on your computer

If you haven’t already, download and install iMazing. For more details please refer to our guide available for PC and for Mac.

2. Select the Backup

From the Backups view, you will see all the backups previously created on your computer. Click to select the device backup you want to edit.

3. Select a specific backup

By default, iMazing shows the most recent snapshot for this device. To choose a different one, click the backup date in the path at the top of the window.

4. Click on Create and Editable Copy

Once you've selected the backup you want to edit, on the right side in the Quick Actions panel, click on Create an Editable Copy of this Backup. This will create an editable copy of the selected backup.

iMazing will prompt you to choose a name for this editable backup.
Once the process is complete, your editable backup will appear in the Backups section. You can also clik on Show from the Operations pannel to access it directly.

5. Edit the Backup

You can now safely edit your backup using the File System section's tools. You can also choose to add or remove apps. Some restrictions apply when editing backups. Apps (virtual folder): Contains all app domains (AppDomain). Each AppDomain is the sandboxed container of a specific app.

• Apps (virtual folder): Contains all app domains (AppDomain). Each AppDomain is the sandboxed container of a specific app.
• App Plugins (virtual folder): Each AppDomainPlugin is the sandboxed container of a specific app plugin.
• App Groups (virtual folder): Each AppGroupDomain is the shared sandboxed container for apps from the same developer. For instance, WhatsApp and Facebook can share common containers since they are both developed by Meta. For an illustration of this, read our blog article: No, end-to-end encryption does not prevent Facebook from accessing WhatsApp chats.
• System Containers (virtual folder): Each SysContainerDomain contains files related to various system services.
• System Shared Containers (virtual folder): Each SysSharedContainerDomain contains files shared by various system services. The most important one is SysSharedContainerDomain-systemgroup.com.apple.configurationprofiles, which contains all user and system configurations and information related to device supervision and MDM enrollment.
• Files (On My iPhone) (virtual folder): A shortcut to AppDomainGroup-group.com.apple.FileProvider.LocalStorage, which contains all files you can see in the Apple Files app under "On My iPhone."
• CameraRollDomain: Contains all photos and videos stored on your iPhone, including the Photos library.
• DatabaseDomain: Contains iOS launchd daemon information.
• HealthDomain: Contains all health data.
• HomeDomain: Contains all user data not specific to a sandboxed app, such as configured accounts, contacts, messages, TCC, etc.
• HomeKitDomain: Contains all data related to HomeKit (Apple Home app).
• InstallDomain: Contains system apps installation state.
• KeyboardDomain: Contains settings related to keyboard and keyboard dictionaries.
• KeychainDomain: Contains the encrypted backup of your iOS Keychain. Passwords and other secure items cannot be retrieved from it since they are encrypted.
• ManagedPreferencesDomain: Contains managed preferences—currently only web content filters, as far as we know.
• MediaDomain: Contains attachments from the Apple Messages app, such as files and photos.
• MobileDeviceDomain: Contains provisioning profiles for enterprise apps.
• NetworkDomain: Contains diagnostic data related to the network (not much as of today).
• ProtectedDomain: Contains TrustStore.sqlite3, the system-level certificate trust database. It tells the OS which certificates to trust, distrust, or treat with special constraints.
• RootDomain: Contains preferences of various system daemons.
• SystemPreferencesDomain: Contains various other data and preferences, especially related to network, Wi-Fi, thermal status, etc.
• TonesDomain: Contains custom ringtones.
• WirelessDomain: Contains databases related to cellular and data usage and other radio preferences.

6. What to keep in mind

• To view the contents of a file, double-click it to open a copy. Changes you make to this copy will not affect your editable backup.
• To edit a file, extract it from your backup to your computer, make the changes, save it, and copy it back to the backup.
• To avoid taking up unnecessary disk space, iMazing will create a shallow copy of your backup. Only the changes you make will use up space on your hard drive.
• Some changes might corrupt your backup, and prevent you from restoring it. Proceed with caution.
• On Windows PCs, you can only edit backups if you are running the 64-bit version of Windows.