Backing up iTunes library to external hd

Okay, get ready for a couple questions...
How often do you guys backup your iTunes music library?
Do you store your music on your computer or on an external hard drive or both?
Do you have your iTunes Music folder located in your external hd so that it updates whenever you add new music to iTunes?
Is it a good idea to delete your iTunes Music folder on your Mac and just have your music folder located in your external hd so that it updates whenever you add new music to iTunes?
Hopefully someone can answer those for me! Thanks in advance.

Here's what I do:
1) I use SuperDuper to clone my whole hard drive 4x per week to a 250GB EHD This clone is "bootable", so if my Mac should take a dive, I can boot from the clone. I have a 2nd smaller EHD (160GB) that I run another clone to several times per month, just in case the primary EHD & the Mac try to go down the toilet at the same time. Lastly, I burn data disc backups of iTunes about once per month.
2) With the clone of the hard drive, I would say that I have my music in both places. It is very easy to run iTunes from an EHD, if you need to save space on your main drive.
3) If you are running iTunes from an EHD, any new music, whether it is imported or purchased will automatically go to the iTunes music folder located on the EHD as long as you have "booted up" the EHD prior to opening iTunes.
4) If you intend to run iTunes strictly from the EHD, especially if you need to save space on the main drive, you will most certainly have to delete the music folder off the main drive. The whole trick to all of this is to change the iTunes music folder location in your preferences to the EHD.
I think I've covered everything. If you are considering moving iTunes to an EHD, here is a link that will explain how to make the move. It's very important that you follow the instructions on the link EXACTLY. Hope this helps.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748

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How do I back up Itunes library to External HD?

Hello:
Anyone who read my prior post knows that my internal CD-RW Drive crashed. I am now forced to find another method to finally get around to backing up my itunes library which currently has about 2-3 GB of music. When I open itunes and go to file it gives me the option to backup to disk. Obviously with the external HD I will not be backing up to disk. Can anyone assist me with the following:
1. How will I backup my data to the external HD once I get it today (I am not all that computer literate so as detailed as you can be would be much appreciated).
2. If I ever need to restore my itunes music back onto itunes how do I accomplish this?
3. Will backing up my itunes also back up all of my podcasts or just music that I purchased or downloaded from CD, ect.
4. After I backup today on the external HD can I then open another itunes account on my wife's computer (which is brand new and much faster supporting USB 2.0 where mine is 1.1) and transfer all of my data to her computer so that I do not have to use my computer anymore?
THANKS FOR THE TIME READING THIS!!! I greatly appreciate any replys and have a safe and happy new year!

Its pretty simple to do. Long as you have some extra space to spare on your INTERNAL harddrive (aka the C drive in windows) because you will want to consolidate the library.
In iTUnes when you goto Advanced>Consolidate library it will COPY all songs listed in itunes to the "iTUnes Music" folder, located in My Music>iTUnes.
All purchased items from the itunes store are already in this folder, so itunes will not copy them.
Once this is done all you need to do is goto My Music rightclick the "iTUnes" folder and select copy.
Now open "My Computer" double click the external drive there, rightclick in a blank field and hit "Paste". this will put the whole itunes folder on the external drive with all your music AND the "iTUnes Library.xml" file.
Now use the "Safly remove hardware" to remove/eject the external drive from your PC (This will be a little small green arrow icon in the lower righthand corner of windows, where the clock is).
Far as your wifes computer goes, you may have to create your own user account in windows first UNLESS she doesn't use itunes or you want to combine all your music with hers on her user account in windows.

Backing up Itunes library to external backup hard drive

May have missed this... but I just bought an external hard drive for use as a backup. It didn't come with backup software. For now, I just copy and paste personal folders. What do I copy to backup my itunes library? Itunes internal backup apparently only backs up to CD or DVD. Can I not back up some weird voodoo protected version of my music to an external hard drive wthout having to copy to DVD? I mean, that would go through a lot of DVDs over a year wouldn it?
Mike

Hi, Mike.
Assuming you haven't changed any of iTunes' default settings, everything you need to back-up - the iTunes Music folder, the Album Artwork and the iTunes Library files - is found in the iTunes folder at C:\Documents and Settings\ user name \My Documents\My Music\iTunes .
So, again assuming you haven't changed the defaults, all you have to do is copy the iTunes folder to your external.
If you've changed the defaults, it can be a bit more complicated.

Re: Best Way to (Continuously) Back up iTunes Library to External Hard Drive

Hello friends :
My iTunes music library is getting rather large and I feel it's time to "properly" back it up to an external hard drive.
I understand that you can back up your iTunes music folder to an external hard drive by the simple old "click and drag" approach using Windows Explorer.
What I'd like to know is ... after intially copying the entire iTunes music folder onto the external drive, how can I achieve regular back-ups where only the files, playlists, etc. that have changed since the last back up are then added to the external drive . . . rather than having to copy the entire rather large folder all over again (and again)?
Hopefully, you know what I mean! Thanks for your help.

The first time I backed up my iTunes on an external drive, it took a 1 hour +. Do I basically need to start over on my external hard drive? Or is there an easier/faster way?
Yes there is a faster way.
Check this out -> Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy
Don't change the library location or hold Option to update the backup on the external.

Backing Up iTunes Library On External Hard Drive

Iv'e just bought and installed a LaCie Hard Drive for my mac.
As I have a library of 62gig I want to make a back-up just in case something went wrong and I lost the lot!
Does anyone know if there is an easy way to transfer the files to the hard drive, I have tried to highlight and drag the files to the hard drive folder but this will take forever, if you highlight too many items the computer just freezes.
Any help would be great, Brian.

The link William provided is about Windows computers. It will tell you the principles and the importance of backing up specific files.
If all your music is on your internal HD in the 'iTunes Music' folder (default setting), just drag the iTunes folder (in ~/Users/YourUsername/Music to the external HD.
This way, also your 'iTunes Library' file is copied.
If your ext. HD has a Firewire connection, it will copy about 1GB/min.
To make regular incremental backups, you have to use a 3rd party backup application.
M

How to back up iTunes Library on external hard drive & computer, after purchasing new music?

I keep my iTunes library on my computer's hard drive and also backed up on an external hard drive. I have added more music to my library since my previous back up, and I want to back up the new music to my external drive.
What's the best way to do this?

The first time I backed up my iTunes on an external drive, it took a 1 hour +. Do I basically need to start over on my external hard drive? Or is there an easier/faster way?
Yes there is a faster way.
Check this out -> Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy
Don't change the library location or hold Option to update the backup on the external.

Back up iTunes library to external hd

I would like to know how to save my itunes and library as a backup in to an external hd. Anyone know.

If your advanced preferences are set to "Copy files to iTunes Muisc folder when adding to Library" and your music location is set to Music/iTunes/iTunes Music, then it's very simple. Just close iTunes and copy your entire Music/iTunes folder. This will include the very important iTunes Library file as well as all your song files.
If those preferences are set differently in your case, come back and we can explain how to use the "consolidate library" function to move all your music to one location on your hard drive, which will then be very easy to copy to a backup drive.

How to back up iTunes Library to external drive so it can be restored

I recently moved my iTunes Library from a firewire Lacie external hard drive to a Western Digital USd hard that is now having problems (It keeps unmounting itself and I don't think that's good). It was not easy to move my iTunes folder and make it work again. I do not want to send 3 weeks plus using my spare time relinking songs or recreating playlists. I had to re-link 6,000 songs one by one. I iTunes will make a backup on CDs or DVDs why not an external device? Why would I want to copy 80 plus gigs to CDs?
If I simply copy my iTunes folder to the LaCie drive like apple recommends and the WD fails, I will lose all my playlists, track info, art work. I just got it all back. There must be some type of back up program I'm not seeing.
Please, some one help me. I am very disappointed that this solution is not on here.
I'm going to copy the file for now but it's really a poor solution.
Message was edited by: CindyLoo

I want to back up every thing, but I can't find a way to do it. That is the problem. Apple recommends if you are backing up to an external drive to copy folder the music folder to the drive via drag and drop. But I know when you do this that if you try use the backup you will only have the songs as if they were first added to iTunes.
I was able this time to move my music folder successfully (Last time the problem wasn't immediately apparent as it didn't affect my iPod, so I hope I'm not jinxing it). For now, my music is back on the Lacie drive, but it's still not backed up. If the LaCie drive were to fail I'd be faced with reimporting all my music and re-purchasing the TV shows and movies. (I almost always make a CD of new iTunes Purchases. which is why I have no desire to have a second huge stack of CDs.) My computer will not burn DVDs.
I want to backup everything so that it could be restored and be like it is now, but I don't see a way to do it. And I am not backing up all 80 plus gigs to CDs. My computer would crash and burn.

Backing up Itunes library to external

Can I back up my entire ITunes library to an extternal hard drive? I don't want to move the library off my laptop - I just want to have a back up on my external hard drive in case of a catastrophic laptop failure.
I see options to back up to DVDs or CDs - bt that seems inefficient compared to an external hard drive for storing a back up.

+Can I back up my entire ITunes library to an extternal hard drive?+
Yes, but you don't need iTunes to do it. make sure the external HD is attached, which usually requires a USB connection. In Windows, copy your entire iTunes folder to the External HD. Make sure to get the whole iTunes folder, as it contains the library file as well as the songs themselves.
While you are at it, copy over all your photos, documents, and other valuable items.
You can also set up automatic backups in Windows.

Backing up iTunes library to external Glyph drive

Hi, Folks. I am needing to back up my iTunes library, but am wanting to back up to my external Glyph hard drive instead of hassling with disc backups. Is this possible? What is the easiest way to do so? Thanks in advance, MM

See if this helps: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive

Possible to save itunes library to external HD, when partial is on HDD?

I moved my itunes library to HDD to save space on my macbook, but as i continue to add songs to itunes, it added onto the macbook copy of itunes. Is it possible for me to save this itunes library to overwrite the old copy i saved on the HDD? How?
I know its confusing. Say
I saved my entire itunes library on external drive yesterday
today, i added 5 new albums on itunes, but it's residing on my macbook.
I would like to add this new library (old plus 5 new albums) and permanently move my itunes library to external disk.
I use to not like to have the external drive always attached to macbook since i use macbook as my primary browsing thing, but now i mainly use ipad.

I have most of the iTunes Library backed up in an External HD
What exactly do you have backed up on the external?

Backup and restoring itunes library from external hard drive?

is there a way to backup and restore my itunes library to external hard drive and not through the internal itunes backup utility cos i have over 20gbs of music and i want to keep my album art and renamed songs etc. because i will be reformating my pc and dont want to go through painful task of manually adding stuff again.

Try this...
*Fast backup for iTunes library (Windows Only)*
Grab SyncToy 2.0, a free tool from MS. Use it to create a backup copy of your iTunes library & any other media folders onto another hard drive or network share. After making the initial backup copy use SyncToy to periodically synchronise the backup copy with your library and only the changed files will be copied saving lots of time.
When the time comes to reformat your PC, do a final sync, then open iTunes & deauthorise the PC, reformat & rebuild Windows, copy the backup folders back to the same location as they were previously, install iTunes and it should all work perfectly.
tt2

Back up itunes library

i've backed up itunes library then went back to update cd using option( only back up items added or changed since last back up)using an unformatted disc or formatted i get messages : please insert isert blank disc or disc is not blank. so either way i can't update the disc. the ony way i found to do it is to use a formatted disc and go to source folder and copy from there. not ideal.

If you want to back up everything to an external drive, copy the entire iTunes folder.
Or you can use any backup program to do the same.
Is it also possible to back everythign up in MP3 format to a CD or DVD?
iTunes prefs -> Advanced - Burning.
Set to Data CD/DVD.
Create a Smart playlist where Kind contains MPEG audio file.
Click Burn.

What is the best way to back up iTunes on an external HD w/o getting numbers added to the title?

What is the best way to back up iTunes on an external HD w/o getting numbers & dashes or underscores added to the begenning of the title? ex: "10_Help"

orionsm42 wrote:
That is what I have been doing but when I simply highlight, then drag the files (songs) to the hard drive, numbers and a dash (or underscore) appears at the beginning of the song’s title. There may be as many as ten songs with “10_” (then the title) then there will be ten or so songs with “11_” and on and on. This includes the entire list, making it difficult to locate songs to restore to the library since the group of ‘10s’ will include songs with different “first letters” in the title. Each number-group will have a non-alphabetized group of songs. If the songs are dragged back to iTune library, the numbers and dash always follow and become part of the song’s title in iTunes making it impossible to sort by title.
1. In iTunes, slelct ALL songs in your Library - Get Info - check the box next to the track number - this will remove the track number for ALL music in your library.
or
2. Use a renamer like Renamer4Mac or ABetterFinderRename to remove the enumeration AFTER moving everything ot the external HD.
Personally I'd do the latter as the former will "pooch" album track order in yout iTunes.

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!

Backing up iTunes library to external hd

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