'Backup to Disc' feature missed 11 songs

Question

Hi people,
I have a collection of 4500 songs which I have backed up to 9 DVDs using the new 'Backup to Disc' option in iTunes 7. However, after burning all the discs, I checked the total amount of files across all 9 DVDs and I came to a total of 4489 songs. SOMEWHERE iTunes has lost 11 songs.
Does anyone know why this might happen and how can I find out which ones are missing?
Thanks

Answer 1

Hi Robert. At the risk of being censured for speculating there are a couple of ways at looking at this. The "Apple are evil" crowd will tell you that backup to disc was removed to push people into buying into iTunes Match but another way of looking at it is that they have simply removed an outdated and inefficient feature that most users haven't taken advantage of anyway. Apple have also been renegotiating their arrangements with rights holders so that most purchases can now be redownloaded on demand, so there is less reason for them to have a feature primarily introduced to ensure that you backup your purchases. (Note you get reminded to backup after buying from the iTunes store, not when adding new media from other sources.)
My guess is that the "my computer crashed and I don't have a backup" posts outnumber the "where's my backup feature gone?" ones by at least a thousand to one. I've also seen the "my DVD backup set won't work" ones too. Newer computers are being made without optical drives. And of course everyone should know by now that they need to backup their data. Why include an feature to redundantly backup a subset of data that should already be being managed elsewhere?
Long before the backup to disk feature was withdrawn I was recommending the utility I suggest in this User Tip. It does the job of working out which new or changed files need backing up. By making a full file by file copy of your library should the worst occur and your primary drive fails you can hook up to a fully working copy of your library and have access to it instantly. If you just need to recover a song or album deleted in error then this is trivially easy with this type of backup, but almost impossible to do from a spanned DVD set without restoring everything. And the same tool can be used for backing up other stuff you should be backing up.
tt2