Backing up songs on iTunes

Is it possible to back up your songs that are on iTunes to an external hard drive (like I do for pictures)
I've always had a back up for everything for one never knows when the computer might go belly up (even being new)
They don't need to play from the external hard drive, but just want a place to store them. I realize the iPod is also a back up, but I've been in computers too long and probably have the "overkill" mentallity when it comes to having things backed up.
Thanks, Sue

Sue, external hard drives are dirt cheap these days. You can eiher buy one ready to go or roll yhour own by getting an external enclosure and a hard drive to pop into it.
You can then use programs such as Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper, and several others that will literally CLONE your internal drive to the external backing up EVERYTHING including your iTunes library.
They are also a good place to store really large files (like video) rather than clogging up the smaller hard drives often included on laptaps.
Patrick

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Need help backing up songs from iTunes on DVD and external hard drive

Hi,
I am hoping someone can help me with this. I want to make a back up of all the songs I have in iTunes. I want to save them to a DVD as well as my external hard drive. Can you please give me detailed info on how to do both of these things?
Thank you in advance!
Brenda
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

In Itunes set burning preferences to DATA CD/DVD
Create a playlist called "Backup", put all your track into it, make sure that all checkboxes are selected.
Burn that playlist
Assuming that you are using standard folders for storing your music:
Through finder navigate to ./Users/YourUserName/Music - now drag the folder "iTunes" onto your ext. drive.

Backing up songs from itunes player while maintaining the song information I manually organized through itunes player?

I want to clean out my current comp, so I would like to back up my music and only the music that in my itunes player. I have music in my itunes library folders that I have cleaned off my itunes player. I didnt know that when i deleted songs from my itunes player that it left the origonal downloaded file in the folder.
So is there a way to get my itunes player and itunes media folder looking the same, with song titles, artists, and even the songs that have been deleted off my itunes player? I have had a lot of music through this computer so there is alot of memory i could free up by deleting the songs completely that i once deleted off the itunes player.

haha Original**** sorry for the errors

How Do I Back up Songs on ITunes

I'm going to have to erase my hard-drive and reinstall Windows. All the songs I have on iTunes are currently backed up on many CD's, but is there a way to save my entire iTunes library on an external hard-drive so when I get Windows reinstalled I can just copy the library back into iTunes (so I don't have to upload them all from the various CD's)?

The safest way to move all of your music and your library is this:
1. Change your iTunes Music Folder location in iTunes preferences > Advanced > General to be a new folder on the EHD.
2. Choose Consolidate Library from the Advanced menu.
This will copy all of the files in your iTunes library to the folder you created on the EHD, regardless of where they are.
3. Copy the iTunes Library file from your (My)Music\iTunes folder to the EHD.
Now you'll have the iTunes Library file and all the media files themselves on your EHD.
4. Once you have Windows reinstalled on your main hard disk, open iTunes. It should be empty at this point.
5. Quit iTunes, connect the EHD, and copy the iTunes Library file from the EHD to (My)Music\iTunes, replacing the empty one that iTunes just created.
6. Open iTunes, and try playing one of your files to make sure iTunes can find it.
7. Check the iTunes Music Folder location in iTunes preferences > Advanced > General to make sure it is the default: (My)Music\iTunes\iTunes Music. If it isn't, change it so that it is.
8. Choose Consolidate Library from the Advanced menu again. This will cause iTunes to copy all the files from the EHD to the iTunes Music Folder location on your computer.
9. Disconnect the EHD, verify the files still play in iTunes, and then have a beer.

I have purchased songs from itunes on my ipad but now they are not there anymore. How can they get them back? Dont come up in songs not on this ipad and in itunes it asks to buy again

I have purchased songs from itunes on my ipad but now they are not there anymore. How can they get them back? Dont come up in songs not on this ipad and in itunes it asks to buy again

If you are now in the US then you can only use the US store, so you should update the address on your account
Changing country : Change the country of your iTunes Store, App Store, iBooks Store, and Mac App Store account.
Had you copied the songs over to your computer's iTunes library, do they show in the Music section on it ? You can copy purchases that you still have on your iPad over to your computer's iTunes library via the File > Devices > Transfer Purchases menu option

When I try to buy any app or song from iTunes app or app store on iPhone 5 it seems to start the stops and goes back to baseline in a second or two

When I try to buy any app or song from iTunes app or app store on iPhone 5 it seems to start the stops and goes back to baseline in a second or two.
It did it with my old iPhone 4 in last month or so, and it I hoped it would go once I updated to new iPhone 5. The problem has transferred to new phone too.
I can't sign in to iTunes account on iPhone. It takes the password then resets to baseline. No error message comes up. On the base computer (pc) it will allow me to sign up and buy songs, apps etc. I can then sync the phone and put them on it. It just won't let me buy direct from the .
As there are no error messages I am at a loss what to do. I have updated the payment details on my account, and my husband has an iPhone 4 and has no such problems. We share the same wifi. I have tried with 3G as well as wifi, with no luck.
I am pretty much out of ideas, and have tried searching forums but there is so much overlap between queries that I can't find a similar problem from someone else, but I am sure it exists!
Can anyone please help me?
Thanks in advance
Sarah

I figured it out!
I read a solution for something that sounded similar.
Anyone in similar position:
Open iTunes app on iPhone, and pick an option from bottom, such as music. Then scroll down to bottom of page and where your iTunes ID is, press on it, and pick sign out.
Then return to home screen, and double press home button and press and hold on first icon showing, until a minus symbol appears in the top left of icons present. Press on each minus symbol on each app in turn, until all app icons have disappeared. Then Restart the phone by pressing and hold the home button and the on/off/standby button at top of phone, until the apple symbol appears in centre of blank screen.
Swipe to turn phone fully on and open settings and scroll down to iTunes and apps option and tap that. Pick sign in and put in your apple ID, it will accept it and then return to home screen and open iTunes a you'll find it works fine
Simple really, but some like me won't think f this themselves!
Hope that helps

HT204406 i want to download all the songs from itunes match back to my pc. there are well over 2000 songs. instead of downloading one by one, is there a way to download all of them while I sleap?

I want to download all the songs from iTunes Match back to my PC (iTunes). Instead of downloading one by one, can I have all the songs downloaded back to my iTunes by one shot (while I sleap)?

I just found the answer by myself. Instead of clicking Cloud icon one by one, highlight all the songs in Cloud (after sorting by Cloud status) and riight click, download. Now I am getting all the songs back to my local machine. I will sync my iOS devices tomorrow and just GET RID OF iTUNES MATCH. To me, it was a disaster. Worse than their map app.

TS4124 Hi, do you know how can I upload inelegible songs from itunes to Icloud. They are songs added from original CDs. Another question would be how can I transfer all the music I have in my Ipod Classic to my Itunes or ICloud as I want to back it up.

Hi, do you know how can I upload inelegible songs from itunes to Icloud. They are songs added from original CDs. Another question would be how can I transfer all the music I have in my Ipod Classic to my Itunes or ICloud as I want to back it up.

Depends on why it's ineligible. If it's under 96 Kpbs, try right-clicking on the file and choosing Create AAC Version. (If you don't see this option, go to iTunes>Preferences, click "Import Settings..." then choose "Import Using: AAC Encoder" and "Setting: iTunes Plus".) Then rescan your library to see if this version will add to iTunes Match. Or, after changing your import setting, just re-import the song to your iTunes library.
If the song is over 200 MB you would have to reduce it's size to make it eligible.

When I edit a song in itunes (i.e change the year) on purchased songs, the next time I return to itunes, the information has reverted back to the original information. How can I change that?

When I edit a song in itunes (i.e change the year) on purchased songs, the next time I return to itunes, the information has reverted back to the original information. How can I change that?
When I purchase ITunes music, and it is a song from a Greatest Hits album, the Year of the song shows the year the CD was released and not the year the song was released (i.e. a song may be from 1986, but the Greatest Hits album was released in 1999, so my songs in ITunes show 1999). So, I go into each of those songs and change it to the year that I want to be displayed. As long as I don't exit out of ITunes, it will show the year that I changed it to (i.e. the 1986 year in this case). But if I exit out of ITunes and then return to ITunes, the year reverts back to 1999. The same happens if I change the genre of a song from, say 'Pop' to 'Alternative', it will revert back the next time I log in.
Oddly enough, as soon as I right-click on that song to change it back, the year/genre that I had entered returns.
How can I make it so my changes are permanently displayed as I want them? This is pretty annoying when I try to find a song on my Ipod under a certain genre, but it doesn't appear in that genre because the incorrect information gets synched to the Ipod.

Make sure that these two options in Edit > Preferences > Store are turned off:
Then exit iTunes and open it up again. Your metadata entries should then be persistent - with these options checked iTunes will be comparing what you have with the information held in the iTunes Store, and will overwrite with the latter for Store purchases (and if you have iTunes Match). If you have any iOS devices you should also turn off Show All Music under Settings > Music.

Sometimes when I play songs in Itunes by double clicking on them, Itunes will place the song as the first one on the album. It will chnage the order of the songs on the album, and I can not switch them back to the correct order.

Sometimes when I play songs in Itunes by double clicking on them, Itunes will place the song as the first one on the album. It will chnage the order of the songs on the album, and I can not switch them back to the correct order. This onloy seems to happen when I double-click on the song to play it in itunes. If I just hit play, this doesnt happen. As a result, I have several albums now in which the songs are in the wrong order. Its very frustrating, as this error then transfers over to my ipod every time I sync it. When I choose the info. for the songs, it has them correctly listed (i.e., it lists the songs as being #1 of 19 on the CD, for example). But then the song will have placed by Itunes as #5 of 19 for whatever reason. Itunes does not do this every time, but does it with enough frequency to be maddening. Any thoughts?

The problem of tracks becoming de-linked between iTunes and the music files in your iTunes music folder happens for different reasons - this seems to come up fairly commonly in this forum.
The solution can be to locate each song in the iTunes library, as you mentioned - or, but wait, before I get to that...
trouble finding the original track in your iTunes music folder? maybe look for it under compilations, or if not using the 'group compilations preference' then look in the folder under the songs artist name, but what song artist name iTunes uses depends on what you have in the metedata tag spot for album artist or song artist. Any varyation in artist name spelling, in the menu item 'get info' metadata for any selected individual track will cause iTunes to create that as a separate artist folder in the library, even names like 'various' or any difference at all (even the word 'the' can change where in your iTunes music folder a track gets placed by iTunes). You can try to use the finder function of find file (finder munu item outside of iTunes) to locate hard to find items.
Back to how to re-link any de-linked tracks .
There may be scripts that can help re-link de-linked music files - or, at least provide you a list of such files, Scripts are easy to install and use...
at Dougs Scripts, there is one called iTunes Track CPR that might work
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=itunestrackcpr
or, if you just want a list of de-linked tracks, go to
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/
and find the script called List MIA's, this will create a text file listing all de-linked tracks
if you review the thread at
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3633708
also the thread at
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17513078#17513078
you may find more insight into dealing with this kind of issue there, although some of that thread may not apply to your case, aspects of it might help.
Good luck.

I have copied my iTunes library onto a new computer, but when I play back the songs there seems to be random "miss" or "drop out". No probs with old computer, just the new one. I'm onto my third new computer - same problem. Any suggestions please?

I have copied my iTunes library onto a new computer, but when I play back the songs using the new computer, there seems to be random "miss" or "drop out" during play back, similar to a small scratch on a vinyl record. Although when I play the same song over again, the "miss" occurs in a different location during the song. No probs with old computer, just the new one. I'm onto my third new computer - same problem. Any suggestions please?

You don't say which version of iTunes you are using, but the symptoms you describe have been encountered by some users with the 64-bit version of iTunes 12.1.
There is an alternative version for 64-bit editions of Windows here:
iTunes 12.1 for Windows (64-bit — for older video cards)
that seems to address the most of the playback issues that some users have been reporting with the full 64-bit version of 12.1.0.77 - including problems with Bluetooth speakers where either sound is degraded or completely absent. The alternative installer here is the same architecture as most previous "64-bit" versions of iTunes, i.e., a 32-bit application with a 64-bit installer. The "for older video cards" label appears to be something of a misnomer as some people have reported that this corrects problems found on current / high-spec systems.
Some users have reported that after installing this alternative version it is necessary to adjust the "Play audio using" selection (normally to "Direct Sound" rather than "Windows Audio Session", though this may vary based on your audio hardware/drivers) in Edit > Preferences > Playback to restore glitch-free audio (one part of the reported symptoms is that the "Direct Sound" choice isn't available, usually in Windows 8). It may also be necessary to ensure that your Bluetooth speakers are active and selected as the default audio device before you run iTunes.
If this doesn't address the issue, you may want to think about reverting to iTunes 12.0 - see Turingtest2's notes on Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates for steps needed to completely remove all installed iTunes components, and for links to the 12.0 installers.

I moved iTunes folder location, now all my personal song ratings and playlists are gone. How can I get them back? All the iTunes files are intact, just in a new location. Running iTunes 11.1.5.5

I moved iTunes folder location, now all my personal song ratings and playlists are gone. How can I get them back? All the iTunes files are intact, just in a new location. Running iTunes 11.1.5.5 on Windows 7

Put everything back the way it was.
Them move the folder correctly.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1364

My hard drive had to be replaced and I no longer have my songs in Itunes. How do I get them off my Ipod and back on Itunes?

my hard drive had to replaced and I no longer have my songs in Itunes, how can I transfer my songs from Ipod to Itunes again??

See this excellent user tip from another forum member turingtest2 outlining the different methods and software available to help you copy content from your iPod back to your PC and into iTunes.
Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device
B-rock

I have been purchasing songs on itunes for a year. I just got a new computer and I synched my iphone to it. I had over 100 songs, now I have only 10. Where did my music go and how can I get it back?

I have been purchasing songs from itunes for the past year. I have over 100 songs. I recently got a new computer and I synched the iphone to it. I can't find 90% of my music. Where is it and how can I get it back? I checked itunes under purchased and it only shows 13 songs. Please help.

You can only sync with one computer. When you synced to the new computer it would have erased it and synced what was on the new computer.
You always need to have a backup, an iPhone is not a storage device.
When you get a new computer you need to transfer your library before syncing
If you don't have a backup you may be out of luck
The only thing would be if you're in the US and have access to the iCloud beta to reload purchases
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519

Backed up my songs from itunes onto a hard drive and now my playlists in itunes are gone! How do I retrieve them back to the way it was before?

Help! My husband backed up my songs from itunes onto a hard drive and now my playlists in itunes are gone from my library! How do I retrieve them back to the way it was before?

Hello Nataroo007,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities!
There is a file in the iTunes library folder that contains your playlist information is the iTunes Library.xml file.
Try and find the file, usually located in one of these locations depending on your OS:
Operating System
Default location of iTunes Folder
Mac OS X
/Users/[your username]/Music
Microsoft Windows XP
\Documents and Settings\[your username]\My Documents\My Music\
Microsoft Windows Vista
\Users\[your username]\Music\
Microsoft Windows 7
\Users\[your username]\My Music\
Then you can import this file to your iTunes Library like this:
1. Choose File > Library > Import Playlist.
2. Navigate to the "iTunes Library.xml" file
3. Windows users: Click Open.
If your Podcasts list in iTunes is empty after following these steps, learn how to add them back into iTunes.
Note: information in this post comes from article:
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451
Cheers,
Sterling

Backing up songs on iTunes

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