Backing up iTunes on external hard drive

I'm getting a new computer. How can I back up my all of my musice on iTunes onto my external hard drive so I can move it all onto my new computer? Every time I try to do this iTunes tells me to put it on a CD.

Instead of using ITunes - which doesn't seem to be designed for people with laptops... - use your own machine's back up, or copy function.
Basically copy the Itunes music folder onto the external.
Then do the same copy to put the folder on your new computer. Then tell Itunes where the music is and use the import folder to make it draw the music into the library.
Manual, boring, but better than anything Apple have designed for this fairly common scenario...

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What is the best way to back up iTunes excluding external hard drive

*iTunes gives you the option of backing up your library on CDs. It would take me 100s of CDs to back up my library. Is there any other way to back up excluding external hard drive? Can you put music on a DVD and fit more than on a CD? Having just had to reload my whole computer, I would like some advice. I put my iTunes libary on an external hard drive. When I wiped that hard drive clean, it also took out my iTunes on my C drive! I had to buy a program that would save the songs from my iPod and put them back in iTunes.*

I backup regularly to data DVD's without a problem.

Backed up ITunes to external hard drive, now what?

My computer kept giving me a "Low Disk Space" bubble. So I went and brought an external hard drive and have backed up all of the music (and I think the podcasts too) but I am still getting the low disk bubble. What else do I have to do to make this pop up go away?
Thanks In Advance!

Quit iTunes.
Copy the entire /My Documents/My Music/iTunes folder from the C: drive to the external drive.
Start iTunes and immediately press and hold Shift.
Select *Choose existing library* then select the iTunes library file in the iTunes folder on the external.
Delete /My Documents/My Music/iTunes folder.

Backing up iTunes to External Hard Drive AND burned DVDs/CDs

Hello.
I want to back up my iTunes library.
I realize that if I want to back the library up to an external hard drive, all I have to do is copy the entire iTunes folder and paste it on to my external hard drive. Correct?
Assuming that is correct, and now I want to back the library up on DVDs, do I need a DVD burner to do so?
Also, I have about 6,200 songs in my library. using CDs, can someone give me an estimate of how many CDs I would need to back up my library?
I know it's a lot, but I'll buy them online and just wanted a ball park figure.
10/50/100/500 CDs?
Anyone know?
Thanks.

Casper,
OK. I understand now. I thought that if I was to back up my iTunes library, that I was backing it up as data and would be able to hold hundreds of songs, or something.
But I think your math is wrong, is I misunderstand.
Let me break it down and tell me if I'm wrong.
6200 songs.
4 mins per song (average)
6200 multiplied by 4 = 24,800 minutes.
24,800 minutes divided by 80 (per CD) = 310 CDs.
No?
So to save my iTunes library, I'd need 310 blank CDs?

Re: Best Way to Continuously Back-Up iTunes 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.

I backup regularly to data DVD's without a problem.

How to back up itunes to external hard drive?

I am trying to back-up my I-Tunes library from my PC to my external hard drive. There used to be an icon under file in the top left corner that offered the option to back up to disc or an external drive. I just looked through all the drop down down menus and could not locate these options. Has the procedure changed and what is the procedure. I have to replace my Ipod touch with a new model from an external speaker malfunction. I was told to back up my library again so that the newer ipod will load the entire library since my last back up was 5 months ago. If I do not back up my library again I will only get what was on the ipod from the back up done 5 months ago when the the new Ipod gets hooked up. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

in iTunes, just hilight the "Music" playlist at the top of the sidebar and drag?
Or the entire folder from Applications
Don't do either of these.
In the Finder, double click on Macintosh HD.
Click on Music on the left sidebar.
Copy the entire _iTunes folder_ from /Music/ to the external

I deleted all the music from my itunes library because I thought I had it backed up on an external hard drive. Can I restore the library from my ipod touch?

I deleted all the music from my itunes library because I mistakenly thought I had it backed up on an external hard drive. Can I restore the library from my ipod touch?

Maybe here:
iCloud: Troubleshooting creating backups

Have copied my iTunes library back-up from my external hard drive (saved from my iTunes on my pc) onto my new Macbook and loads of the tracks have been duplicated, some four times some not at all?? any ideas guys?

Have copied my iTunes library back-up from my external hard drive (saved from my iTunes on my pc) onto my new Macbook and loads of the tracks have been duplicated, some four times some not at all?? any ideas guys?

Have copied my iTunes library back-up from my external hard drive (saved from my iTunes on my pc) onto my new Macbook and loads of the tracks have been duplicated, some four times some not at all?? any ideas guys?

Help copying files from iTunes to external hard drive

I have a bunch of music files (about 15,000 of them) that I want to back up to an external hard drive. They are only files of a certain bit rate, so I can't just locate them in a particular folder and copy them; I need to sort them in iTunes and copy them from there. I tried to highlight all of them and just copy them, but I got the spinning wheel for a couple minutes and then the operation stopped. I then figured out that I could transfer about 1,000 at a time -- I got the tracks by bands starting with A, then B, then C, to transfer. But now I am stuck. When I try to transfer files now, when I highlight them in iTunes, the window showing the destination folder on the external hard drive disappears, and I can't transfer them. Before, it seemed like both windows were active, but now they are not. Anyone know the solution to this?

The Windows drive is probably formatted NTFS which is not natively writable
by the Mac. It should be formatted as FAT32 to be usable on both.
Dave

I trying to backup movies that I have purchase from Iturnes onto a cd and my Macbook pro does not recognize any of the CD or DVDs that I tried, nothing seems to work can I back up to a external hard drive?

I am trying to backup the movies and TV show that I purchase from Itunes onto a cd or DVD, and nothing seems to work. I tried using CD-R, CD+R, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW and DVD+RW and they all failed. Is it possible to back up to an external hard drive instead of a CD?
Tyler

I know this isn't a complete answer because I am not sure why or if your backups to CD/DVD are not working, but one thing I do know is yes you indeed can backup any of your iTunes Media (music, movies, tv shows, podcasts, etc.) to an external hard drive. In fact, it's recommended that you do this anyway (in case of a hard drive crash, computer being stolen, etc.)
You can manually back up your movies by finding them in your iTunes Media folder, or since you have a Mac you can just use Time Machine, which will automatically back up either your entire computer (or only certain folders and items if you want). It's pretty handy. I use a 1TB external and Time Machine to keep everything backed up including my iTunes

HT1766 How do I back up onto an external Hard drive?

I am trying to back up my iphone 4 but my computer does not have enough space. I need to back up onto an external hard drive. How do I do that?

Have you considered using iCloud 5GB free
How to set up
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4436
See here for guidance on how to use
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4859
and how iTunes backs up your iPhone
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946

Backing Up Songs on External Hard Drive

I saved my iTunes music out to an external hard drive. However, when I go to My Computer/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/My Music/iTunes Folder I notice that all of my music (iTunes Purchased and CD loads) is not saved and listed. My iTune Purchased songs are backed up, and SOME of the songs that I loaded into iTunes from CD aren't. All the songs that I purchased or loaded from CD are appropriately listed under the Music label on the iTunes Main Page, but they certainly aren't all backed up on the external hard drive. I'm puzzled. Any ideas on what the problem is?

See: Managing your iTunes Library on an External Hard Drive
Best of Luck

I have an older macbook pro and the hard drive is starting to go (making loud noises). i tried to back up to an external hard drive (my passport essential se) using time machine and the computer keeps shutting down. suggestions to complete backup please?

I have an older macbook pro and the hard drive is starting to go (making loud noises). i tried to back up to an external hard drive (my passport essential se) using time machine and the computer keeps shutting down. the same thing happens when just trying to save my pictures from iphoto to a flash drive. suggestions to complete backup please?

Sounds like you'll need to access that drive while it is not booted. You need to replace it anyway, so do that, then one way or another (ext enclusure, et), access it and copy files.
If you keep trying to boot it, you might kill it for good and not get your files, so just swap it out first.

How to Back up iPhone to External Hard Drive on Mac/Windows

How are you to Back up iPhone to External Hard Drive on Mac/Windows?I need to Back up iPhone to my External Hard Drive on Mac computer,Whether have you more method to help me quickly to Back up iPhone to External Hard Drive on my Mac?If you have more method to solve this question,I will thank you very much,I'm looking forward to your answer.Best wish: Merry Christmas !

How are you to Back up iPhone to External Hard Drive on Mac/Windows?I need to Back up iPhone to my External Hard Drive on Mac computer,Whether have you more method to help me quickly to Back up iPhone to External Hard Drive on my Mac?If you have more method to solve this question,I will thank you very much,I'm looking forward to your answer.Best wish: Merry Christmas !

I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up. I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?

I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up.
I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?
When I bought the new (used) iMac, I also bought an external hard drive for backups. It worked fine, but my husband stole it.
Then I bought a new external hard drive (Seagate) and it worked fine for three weeks, then died.
So I just got a new external hard drive, which was put together from an internal hard drive and a hard drive enclosure.
Time machine did the first backup today, and it should have taken 9 hours like it did on the previous first time full back up. Instead, it took 30 minutes. That can't be right. I want to start over and do a full backup to make sure everything gets onto my new external hard drive, but I can't figure out how to do that. Please help.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
tmutil compare -E
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command will take at least a few minutes to run. Eventually some lines of output will appear below what you entered.
Each line that begins with a plus sign (“+”) represents a file that has been added to the source volume since the last snapshot was taken. These files have not been backed up yet.
Each line that begins with an exclamation point (“!”) represents a file that has changed on the source volume. These files have been backed up, but not in their present state.
Each line that begins with a minus sign (“-“) represents a file that has been removed from the source volume.
At the end of the output, you’ll get some lines like the following:
Added:
Removed:
Changed:
These lines show the total amount of data added, removed, or changed on the source(s) since the last snapshot.

Backing up iTunes on external hard drive

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