Backing up itunes library files

Each night using .mac I backup my iTunes Library and iTunes Music Library.xml files. Is there really anything else I can backup in case of that ever so unlikely chance of losing my iTunes data? Or are these the only two key files?
G5 Dual 2.5ghz 2.5ghz RAM LaCie FireWire DVD Burner Mac OS X (10.4.5) 17" Studio display, JBL Creature Speakers, Logic, Edirol USB Keyboard Controller

The really important file is the 'iTunes Library' file, which holds all song locations, playlists and ratings.
The 'iTunes Music Library.xml' file is not used by iTunes, but created by it to be used by other applications (e.g. iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto)
You will find more info here:
What are the iTunes library files?
M
17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9) Several ext. HD (backup and data)

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Trying to back up iPad to external hard drive, "iTunes library file cannot be saved. The disk you are attempting to use is full."

This issue is somewhat complex so I will try to explain it as clearly as I can. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
It all began when I kept getting popups from my iPad saying that I had not backed up since May. I realized that was pretty dangerous so I decided to finally try syncing it to iTunes, though I had avoided doing so for so long because I knew that when I tried there was no room on the computer. I then remembered that I have an external hard drive with plenty of storage space, so I got that out and set it up with a folder to move iTunes and the backup into.
On iTunes I went to the Advanced Preferences and changed iTunes Media Folder Location to the G: folder, with the keep organized box checked. I also copied the previous backups from the original C: drive to G: so that I could delete the ones on C:.
I used Junction Link Magic to link my now empty MobileSync backup on C: to a new (JLM would not work unless it was empty) backup folder on external hard drive G:.
I plugged in my iPad to iTunes to sync it, and while it was backing up I checked the new folder on G: to make sure that the backup was being put there. It was.
However, about halfway through I got the message "iTunes library file cannot be saved. The disk you are attempting to use is full."
My question is Why? If it is being made in a 1.5 terabyte hard drive now, and not the computer, why is there no disk space? My guess is that it must still somehow be saving to the computer. But how? And how can I get it to save solely on the G: drive where there is enough room?
I am running Windows XP and the latest version of iTunes.
An additional but not as crucial issue:
Much of my music has been lost, with the being displayed next to the songs in the iTunes library, and only 50 (purchased) songs remain on my iPad. This was because those missing songs were stored on a different external hard drive ( I:). However, I copied many of the music folders on I: over to G: so that everything could be together. I am wondering if it is possible for me to get these songs back onto my iPad. But this is not my most important issue right now, because I believe that once I get the first issue solved I can simply plug in I: and G: at the same time while syncing the iPad, and get the songs back.
Note: I have come to realize the iTunes program itself is still under Program Files in the C: drive. Does this have to do with anything?

Short term, free up some disk space. Long term, move the library to a bigger drive.
tt2

I upgraded to iTunes 10.5 and now I can't back up iTunes library to disc. In previous versions it was in file library backup to disc. In iTunes 10.5 that is gone!

I upgraded to iTunes 10.5 and now I can't back up iTunes library to disc. In previous versions it was in file>library>backup to disc. In iTunes 10.5 that is gone!

Some of us have our enture itunes library backed up on CD/DVD - what a waste of time and effort as now presumably you can't use these discs to restore itunes on a new computer! WHY NOT APPLE?
Very unimpressed with itunes 10.5/ios5 - wifi tracking apps have been removed from the store (and won't function in ios5), it's impossible to sync photos (I have spent a whole day trying to sync my iphone 3GS with itines 10.5) to no avail and now, no CD backup facility.
I have never had problems with apple before - I was thinking of upgrading my whole system from PC to Mac but now I am doubtful - if this is typical of apple software, I will stay with windows!

Corrupt Files When Backing Up iTunes Library

Hi
I want to back-up my iTunes library so that I have it incase anything goes wrong. I have read the article on how to back-up to an external hard disk (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751) and have bought a 16GB USB memory disk to put the contents on. However I keep hitting a problem........
When copying the library in explorer I always seem to get a message after a while saying that a certain folder/file cannot be copied due to being corrupt. I have tried a few times (starting from scratch) and it is not always the same file, and I have even managed to copy across files that it previously flagged as corrupt. The files do not actuallyappear to be corrupt as I can play them through iTunes (touch wood).
Has anyone else had this problem and got any solutions. Spent around 3 hours trying to back-up last night but ultimately I have got nowhere.
Grateful for any advise.
Chers

You're welcome!
+I have tried though copying other stuff to it (films from my main computer) and it seemed to work fine so problem seems to be limited to iTunes library.+
This is a good clue.
I suspect you're dragging the entire itunes folder over to the drive using Windows Explorer, and it is going for the whole thing at once? But when you just copy a few files over (those films), it does work?
That makes me think one (or three maybe) files in your itunes folder are giving it problems. You could try copying over in smaller batches. For instance, artist folders A through E, then F through O, P through Z.
If it still fails, try even smaller batches. Watch out for C, because the "Compilations" subfolder might be fairly large.
You might also want to back up your itunes library file, iTunes Library.itl.
That file holds all ratings, play counts, play lists, etc.
If you want to assign a drive letter,pick something pretty far down in the alphabet like M for Music.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844
I don't know if formatting it a different way (NTFS vs. FAT32) will help; just a thought.

How do you back up the iTunes Library files?

I recently installed Leopard and messed things up so badly that I am considering doing an Erase and Install on my boot drive to get a fresh copy of OSX 10.5 - see topic:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1317126&tstart=0
I am searching for crucial files that will be lost in the process and backing them up to a second drive. My iTunes Music folder (with all the audio files) is already on my second drive, but I need to preserve my iTunes Library so I don't have to re-enter all the info for them. I planned to back up these files:
/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library
/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml
and then restore them to their proper locations after re-installing 10.5.
Does anyone know if this is the correct way to preserve all your iTunes music and data during a clean install?

Those are certainly the correct files to back up. The iTunes Library database file holds all the information about your songs (Playlists, Ratings, Play Counts, Last Played, Date Added, etc). The iTunes Music Library.xml file is to make your music and playlists available to other applications on your computer. There's more information including the Folder/File structure in this article: What are the iTunes library files?

I have multiple libraries on an external drive. Somehow all the iTunes library files i.e. iTunes Library.itl, xml, itdb, Media folder, etc disappeared! Only the music files remain. Now when I start iTunes w/option it can't find any of the old libraries!

Help! I 'm using an old G4 powerbook, Mac OSX 10.5.8, iTunes ver 10. I have multiple iTunes libraries on an external drive. Everything was fine for a while, then all of the iTunes library files, i.e. iTunes Library.itl, xml, itdb, artwork folder, Media folder, etc mysteriously disappeared! Only the music files remain (thank god) So now when I start iTunes w/option key to choose a library, I can't choose any of them because iTunes won't recognize them. Because all the library stuff is missing. So can I re-create the library files? (I don't care if I lose my ratings)
Or should I create a new empty library on the external drive, then manually move all the music files to the Media folder in the new library?
I tried some stupid ideas like creating a new library just to start iTunes, then going into prefs and advanced, then under iTunes Media folder location, selecting the location of the old library on the external, to see if iTunes would then find all the music which is still there, but no workee.
I'm out of ideas, and I searched the archives.
Help! anyone?
Scott

I don't know if this is me adding files to iTunes when the external wasn't connected
it is.
is it OK to just keep deleting that library on the Air?
i wouldn't - at least not until i
mount the external
point iTunes media folder location back to the external via preferences > advanced
consolidate my library via file > library > organize library
The ntfs hasn't seem to be causing any problems, but I've always wanted to know.
in order for your Mac to write to NTFS drives, it needs some help by installing e.g. the NTFS 3G driver. apparently that or something similar is installed on your Mac already. preferably, it would be formatted for Mac but then windows machines would need to have e.g. MacDrive installed to recognize the drive.

Syncing iPhone to new iTunes w/o iTunes library file

My MBP's hard drive died and I got it replaced, so it's good as new - everything was clean, iTunes was empty, etc. I'm filling up the computer again, and I realised that I backed up all my music (the mp3 files/iTunes media folder), but I stupidly forgot to back up the iTunes library file.
So I have my iTunes filled with songs but no play count, playlists etc. All the playlists and information, however, still exist in my iPhone 4, which I haven't synced to my new laptop yet.
I'm preeetty sure because of my ****-up with not saving the library file, there's no way, but I still have to ask: is there any way to sync the song data and playlists from the iPhone back into iTunes? It's not the end of the world if I can't, but I built up all the playcounts, playlists, mixtapes over the past few years and I'm a little sad to lose them.

" This iphone already has content on it but I want to add songs from my old computer."
You cannot do this. You can have content from one and only one computer at a time on the iphone.
Have you tried restoring the iphone?

How to delete multiple old ITUNES LIBRARY files safely ?

I'd like to clean up my Itunes LIBRARY files, but don't know what's safe to do and not to do. (I have Itunes 8.1 / OSX10.4.11)
MY QUESTION IS TWOFOLD :
(1) how do I create a new Itunes library file now with today's date; and
(2) how do I delete multiple (old) Itunes library files, without risking the loss of what I've got ?
This all stems from exploring Itunes as a result of a problem I had today... when trying to import mp3's from my terrabyte drive, after about 150 successful mp3 track imports, Itunes froze and everything else on my MAC froze as well (constant spinning colored wheel). After many failed attempts to force quit Itunes, I turned off my MBPro. On restarting, Itunes tooks ages to "import" files. Eventually Itunes opened but with only half of my original tunes (1500+ songs 8.11GB) and had nothing from today's import.
I found a post suggesting to hold down OPTION while starting Itunes. Then I selected a file from my hard drive > me > music > Itunes > "Itune library" with the most recent date and shezam, Itunes once again has all my songs, as before. Nothing I imported from the terrabyte drive today appears however, but no matter.
In my "Itunes" file there appear MULTIPLE Itunes libraries ! such as Itunes library, Itunes Library (damaged), and as well a folder called "Previous Itunes Libraries" which itself contains multiple Itunes Library files and multiple "previous Itunes Library files" with dates back to 2007. These I want to clean up and delete .... should I ? ... Can I ?
I really could use some words of wisdom from the wise ! Thanks in advance

Whenever you install a new version of iTunes and run it teh first time, iTunes will create a backup of the current iTunes library file and copy it into \Music\iTunes\Previous iTunes libraries, then update the iTunes library file in \Music\iTunes\ for the current version of iTunes.

ITunes Library File Cannot be Saved. The Disk Cannot be Read From . . .

I use a MacBook Pro with a healthy battery. My iTunes songs are on a USB drive. The Database and XML files are on my MacBook. Power went out in my house and the USB drive shut off. The MacBook stayed up and running. Power came back, powered on the USB drive, open iTunes, and bang: This sorry error: iTunes Library File Cannot be Saved. The Disk Cannot be Read From or Written to.
The disks are healthy, did an fsck and ran disk verify/repair. No problems. Restart iTunes, same error. Obviously a corrupted Databse file. This wouldn't be a big deal if only the XML info would be useful and actually restore critical info such as play count and dates which is essential for the Not-So-Smart Playlist dependencies to work.
This is the third time I've been burned with corrupted iTunes "Database" files. I use "Database" in quotes because a true Database wouldn't crap out like this. It would be recoverable. It would understand a simple SQL "Where" statement. It would have a maintenance script and some means for recoverable backup beyond the lame process of copying the XML file. Or it would at least read in the info the XML file.
I am becoming disillusioned with iTunes and I'm beginning to yearn for my old Linux box running GTKPod which never failed me....

OK, here's an update - After doing the restore as mentioned having everything seemingly work, I erroniously downloaded the iTunes 7.4 & 7.4.1 updates. Now, about 80% of library is non-responsive, ie: shows up in iTunes, but clicking to play does nothing at all. the other 20% of my library plays, but it's not the song it is supposed to be playing. For example, clicking on a song from say, ABBA prodes a wonderful Gorillaz track :-/ (The same Gorillaz track which will not play if I select it...)
I reiterate: WE NEED A MEANS TO BACKUP OUR LIBRARIES RELIABLY!!!!!!!!!!

How Can I Roll Back my iTunes Library?

I'm guessing it may no tbe possible at all, but here goes.
What I would like to do with my music estate is roll back my current iTunes library file, automatically updated to iTunes 11 when updated on MPBr when this was my only PC using iTunes. Now I have three and some iOS devices too. My library has been moved from windows machines to macs and is several years old and has received 100s of hours of tweaking to get it just right.
Now my server is a PowerPC mac and I can only go as far as iTunes 10.6.xx, I want this to be always on and share the library with other PCs accross home sharing (i will sync iPhones over the wi-fi with this PC too, though it may not play with iOS7, so perhaps not).
I want to see the iTunes library on the macbooks, probably through Home Sharing, I also want to be able to sync the iphones, but only have a single copy of the music files on the server. is this possible? This will just be for when out of the house as I can also use home sharing in the house for music.
Thanks

You say you want to do this with multiple devices. Let's say you have a new iPhone 5 that requires iTunes 11. You will not be able to sync that if your base iTunes is iTunes 10.6 since your hardware will require at least whatever version of iTunes was current at the time of purchase. You're seeing this with your iOS7 phone. Anyway, unless all your hardware is old enough to use the lowest version of iTunes you need to run, you may be out of luck. You cannot share the library. Sharing media is different, and relatively easy, but it will be complex to ensure all the multiple libraries are kept up to date.
You also can't roll back iTunes libraries to earlier versions unless you kept a backup of your library from the point to which you wish to revert, or it is still in the previous libraries folder.

Is There A Way To Edit The Raw iTunes Library File?

I have thousands upon thousands of songs. I'm of a mind to (in effect) do a find/replace on every instance of a phrase in one particular field and don't want to have to go though every single one manually, since that would take forever.
Anyone have any ideas?

You cannot edit the library file itself, but you could perhaps edit the XLM file and then import that, basically following the procedure you use when the library file has been damaged:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451
You'll need to be very careful about editing the XML, though, as it's really easy to completely mess up your library if you edit the wrong thing. Make absolutely sure you have backup copies of the original iTunes library file and XML file, so you can put them back just in case something does go wrong.
Hope this helps.

I downloaded the Special Edition of 'Avatar' with the included 'Extras'... I use to see them in my iTunes library, but, can no longer locate them anywhere on my computer or in the iTunes library files! What happened?

I purchased 'Avatar' The Special Edition with the included Extras with a gift card. I had enough money in my account to cover this purchase. I only got to watch the 'Extras' for one or two times, and now, they have vanished! They no longer appear in my iTunes library or anywhere on my computer! Where are they and how do I regain access? The movie, itself, is still in the library...only the downloaded 'Extras' are gone!

Visibility of the Podcasts section is controlled from within the Edit > Preferences dialog.
Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
Missing tracks
Typically this can happen because a file or folder is accidentally shunted to the wrong location. iTunes can also get confused if it expects to be talking to an external drive which isn't there. If will often reset the default media folder location and may have trouble finding files in the old folders.
Select one of your tracks that is missing in action. Press CTRL-I to Get Info. Cancel when asked to try to locate the file, then look at the location given on the summary tab. This where iTunes thinks the file ought to be? Now find out where it actually is. Post back the two locations for comparison. I should be able to give you some steps to reconnect everything once I can determine which of the things that might have gone wrong is most likely in your case.
When you get it all working make a backup!
tt2

ITunes Library File Size Limit?

I've been struggling to get my AppleTV to work as advertised since I bought it on the day it was originally released. I'm a big music fan and wanted to use it mostly as a music device. My iTunes library is huge. I have my entire CD collection ripped in lossless, as well as AAC for my iPod. I also have lots of other music, some DTS audio files, etc... and very detailed organization.
At any rate, I could always get the AppleTV to work if I just set it up to sync and play the files locally, but never to properly stream in a manner that's useable. And any syncing would take FOREVER. I'm on an N network, and I was getting speeds around 100KB/second. And then after it finally would get setup, I would often get pauses up to a minute where the AppleTV would freeze between menus while "thinking". It would take me 5 minutes just to navigate to a song and start playing it.
I tried all sorts of troubleshooting. Test libraries always worked fine. I've rebuilt my iTunes library from scratch, suspecting a corrupt library file, even though there was no other evidence to support this theory. No dice.
I'm finally giving up, and deciding that AppleTV has a limit to how large an iTunes library file it can handle. My iTunes library file is 160MB. Just the library file. You figure it's only got 256MB of RAM, and it's no wonder it can't handle it. I'm not sure how large the AppleTV OS is, but I suspect with a library file that large that the ATV has to do lots of going back to the HD to retrieve information it just doesn't have enough room for in RAM.
So my new strategy is to set up a secondary iTunes library just for my AppleTV that contains just music I want to sync, and any video I may want to stream. If I want to stream video, I'll launch this new library. If I want to listen to music without my computer on, the AppleTV will have a selection on it from this new library. If I want to stream my huge library, well, now I can use my iPhone as a remote to control my large iTunes library, and use the AppleTV with airtunes feature. And this works wonderfully, 100% responsive with no "waiting".
At any rate, I'm very disappointed that I couldn't get the AppleTV to work as advertised. I wish Apple would specify that there's a limit to how large a library it can handle. I've been screwing around with this for a long time and am essentially giving up, although the iPhone remote / airtunes solution works well for me.
Maybe down the road they'll come out with a new hardware revision with more RAM that can handle things better.

Well, I was hoping I could send you a private message, Greg Neil, because I don't know if you'll ever see this message. Regardless, your iTunes library is NOT the problem no matter what others have told you. 7000 files it's child's play. My iTunes library currently has 14,639 music files in it and 129 Movies ripped at 3000kbps. The library size is NOT the problem. If your network is slow then that will be what is hurting you. The second fastest behind 'n' (i always forget this bit of trivia) should be fast enough for streaming music and most movies. I know that because I've done it. Having said that, go out and buy a bit of ethernet cable and hook it directly into your machine and see if you can stream that way. If you can't then you need to take back your aTV because, in that case, it's the problem. If your network is of adequate speed per what I and the previous poster have mentioned and it still won't stream at all wirelessly then TAKE IT BACK. Mine has streamed fine in the past however, I eventually just hardwired it via ethernet to prevent any drops ever. Hope this helps. I just wanted you to know that going to that amount of trouble to make it work should not have been necessary, and btw, aTV running all your favorite music to your home stereo is worth the price of the device itself. You shouldn't have to suffer.
All the best,
A fellow music lover

ITunes Library File Not Valid! What the Heck?

I have 11,500 songs in my music library and am running iTunes 7.0.2. My iTunes Library file from time-to-time becomes corrupted, on probably at least a weekly basis. I have no idea what's causing this.
Here's the typical scenario ... iTunes works fine, I quit it, and the next time I open it it shows the dialogue box that says, "Importing 'iTunes Libray.xml'..." Then it organizes the files and a dialogue box indicates "iTunes Library" does not appear to be a valid iTunes Library file ... Renamed damaged file ..."
When it's finally all done, I get my music library back minus all my playlists as well as EQ and volume settings.
This happened today and my most recent backup (done earlier in the day) was also corrupted. This is why I've learned to keep a set of four recent backups just to insure I have a reliable and useable one not more than a couple of days old. But it seems a very unnecessary hassle and I'm always losing adjustments made to my database!
Anyway ... would anyone among our distinquished and experienced iTunes geeks out there have a clue as to why this is happening OR any suggestions as to what I might do to help alleviate the problem?
Is anyone aware of a program that will search for corrupted files within your music library? I suspect this might be part of the problem.
Thanking you in advance for your help!
PowerBook G4 17" | 80GB Video iPod Mac OS X (10.4.5)

It seems like the ITL file is not being properly written after iTunes closes. Then when you re-open iTunes, it cannot load the ITL file and creates a new one. Forcing you to recreate your Library manually, again and again.
Several things to check:
-Double check to see that the ITL file or the folder it resides in is not read-only.
-Using Windows Explorer, right-click on the file (or folder) name, go to Properties.
-If it is, then close iTunes, change it, and reopen iTunes.
See this thread to reset the iTunes preferences: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1216090#1216090
And see this post to use TweakUI to check the location and validity of your My Music 'Special Folder': http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=487067&messageID=1197027
Once the main cause of the inability to save the ITL file is corrected, you'll need to recreate your Library one last time to finally save it. No way to resurrect the original one, unless you had backup copies of the ITL file.

ITunes library file ("iTunes Music Library.xml") being trashed and not read

My iTunes music library is being recognized as a .xml file and comes up looking like a Dreamweaver file. It no longer can be loaded in iTunes (grayed out) when loading the app. Can't find the Library.
So iTunes no longer recognizes it, nor does it see the backup on a different drive! I have no idea how it got recategorized. I also check in my Time Machine backup and all the similarly named files show up as the same way (with a Dreamweaver icon). This did occur after a restart of this machine. I see the same problem with a backup of the library on the same machine.
I have not yet opened a new library and tried to import all my music over again. Is that the only viable fix? I remember this problem (or a similar one, I think) happening a year or so back. I didn't know what it was at the time but it caused me a considerable amount of grief with subscribed music not getting reloaded, etc. Is this what I'm in for again???
How can I fix this? Here's what I did so far:
1. Rebuilt Permissions. Here's the log.
+Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”+
+Permissions differ on "usr/share/derby", should be drwxr-xr-x , they are lrwxr-xr-x .+
+Repaired "usr/share/derby".+
2. Checked time machine to see if the folders' icons are the same. They are.
3. Tried to open up iTunes library manually (option+open iTunes). Grayed out.
4. Older backed up libraries show the same icon. Only version 3 or version 4 labelled libraries do not. Version of iTunes is 9.0.2
Henry

Chris CA wrote:
iTunes does not use the .xml file. It is created only for other applications to use the iTunes library.
Try this...
Hold Option and launch iTunes.
Select *Choose library* and select the iTunes library file in \Music\iTunes\ folder.
That's what I've said, Chris. The files that open when selecting the Choose Library are:
Yes they all exist. Also the following files exist:
*iTunes 3 Music Library*
*iTunes 4 Music Library*
*iTunes Music Library (2)*
Is there a pref I can delete somewhere to get rid of these? Copying the files from TIme Machine doesn't fix this.

Backing up itunes library files

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