Question about backing up iTunes library to hard drive

So I was looking at getting a MacBook Pro, and was going to buy an external hard drive (WD My Passport for Mac) to transfer the files to the new computer. I was wondering if my movie / digital copies will go to the external hard drive as well as music & everything. Also how would I go about doing the transfer, I'm sure it will be pretty easy to figure out just want to make sure everything goes to the new computer.
Thanks

it may not be necessary to get an external HD, although you could use it for back up purposes.
one simple solution to transferring your complete library would be to connect the two Macs with a firewire cable, boot the source Mac in _*Target Disk Mode*_, and copy the entire iTunes folder (not just the iTunes music folder) from <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on the source to <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on the target (overwriting the iTunes folder in place there).
launching iTunes on the MBP should then take you to the exact same library you were used to on the old machine.
JGG

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Question about backing up to an external hard drive and then restoring

I want to back up my iPhone to an external hard drive rather than to CDs/DVDs, and it isn't an option under "Backup." I thought this could be done by consolidating the iTunes library and then copying the entire iTunes folder to the hard drive. But now I've read some things that make me not so sure. Can this be done? And if so, how do I restore everything if need be? I want to have a way to backup/restore in the case of having to reformat the hard drive or if I switch to using another computer. I am using a Windows computer.

Your iPhone's backup, which is created and maintained by iTunes stores data such as most iPhone settings, email account settings, contact info, SMS messages, notes, recent calls, call favorites, photos available in your iPhone's camera roll (you shouldn't depend on your iPhone's backup alone for these photos, which should be imported by your computer as with any other digital camera), and 3rd party app settings and data created and stored by a 3rd party app.
It isn't necessary to backup your iPhone's backup. You can manually update your iPhone's backup at any time without syncing, and the same when connecting your iPhone with iTunes on another computer. With your iPhone connected to iTunes and without syncing, control-click on your iPhone and at the menu window that appears, select Back Up.
Maintaining a backup of your iTunes library is much more important - copying the entire iTunes named folder to an external drive or some other external media used for backup purposes.
Since the iPhone is designed to be synced with a supported application on your computer for contact info and calendar events, you should maintain a backup of the supported application on your computer for this data. Photos transferred from your computer to your iPhone are not included with your iPhone's backup, so these photos should be included with your computer's backup along with all other important data.
When syncing an iPhone with iTunes on another computer, only iTunes content on the iPhone will be erased first, not all data on your iPhone such as contact info and calendar events. When selecting photos to be transferred to your iPhone from another computer, all photos available on your iPhone that were transferred from another computer will be erased first. If you don't select to sync contact info and calendar events with a supported application on another computer, contact info and calendar events on your iPhone will not be touched.

Deleting a song from iTunes library and hard drive on Itunes 11.0

how do i delete a song from iTunes library and hard drive on Itunes 11.0 at the same time.

Hello CleveCo, Inc
And welcome to Apple Discussions!
At some point in time, you may have selected the option to prevent that dialog from appearing again when trying to delete tracks from your library. To reset all of iTunes warning dialogs, click the Edit drop down menu and choose Preferences from the list (on a Mac it is *iTunes -> Preferences* ). When the window pops up, head over to the Advanced tab and click the *Reset Warnings* button. Then quit iTunes and relaunch it. That do the trick for you?
B-rock

Still Questions about Backing-Up Itunes

When I tried to reinstall iTunes (9.2.1) library from my external hard drive to a newly installed iTunes 10 on a new HDD, I noticed my play count, ratings, and EQ settings weren't present. Well, the new HDD was a bust in lease than 24 hours. I took out the new busted HDD and put my old HDD back in to my computer with iTunes and upgraded to iTunes 10. . . so I could finally play with my new Touch 4g. I'm getting another new HDD today; I'm going to back-up my iTunes 10 library and then move them to the new HDD.
My question , what am I doing wrong? I thought I read Apples instructions on backing up, and reinstalling an iTunes Library. Thank you for any assistance you can give me.

Thanks Katrina for joining the conversation. To be honest, I had copied and paste my iTunes folder back into Tunes. I'm sure I'm making this far more complicated than it is. Even so, I'd hate to go through 35000 songs and set EQ settings and ratings again. Thanks again for your assistance.
Here's Apples Support Instructions . . . I posted the wrong link but for me I don't think it makes any difference. lol! http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1751

Restoring iTunes library after hard drive crash

The hard drive on my Macbook pro (mid-2009) crashed. I took it to the genius bar for a diagnostic. The drive was physically fine so they wiped it and reinstalled Mavericks, which is now running 10.9.4. I am restoring user files from Time Machine individually to keep things clean. Hooray!
I'm now running iTunes 10.3.1. Years ago, I placed the iTunes library in Users>Shared on the hard drive, so my wife could access the files when she logged in. We don't need to do that now, so today I dragged all the music files from Time Machine to the "Music" section on the iTunes window.
They seem to have installed and indexed fine, but I lost some of the original data--like date added and numbers of plays--which would be nice to have. (Then all now read as installed today with zero plays.) My playlists are all gone as well; I'd like to have them back.
Is there any way to restore the music so those things stay intact, by basically making my library the way it was?
I considered dragging the entire set of folders over from the Shared section of Time Machine, but was afraid the music would not index, and the folder structure and nomenclature was different (for example, it had iTunes Music instead of iTunes media and there were a couple other anomalies). I imagine this is because the Shared library was set up under a different version of iTunes.
I hope this doesn't further complicate things but my user name was changed at the genius bar (from what it was prior to crash); they added my last name to my user name. I didn't notice till I got home. So far I have had no trouble accessing the files I have dragged in (Numbers, Word, etc), but don't know if the permissions on the music files might be affected.
All help greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answers to all your questions are in the links below:
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847 - plus supplemental information about organizing to new structure https://discussions.apple.com/message/26404702#26404702
Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7392 and making an iTunes library portable.
06/2014 ChrisCA post: Restore iTunes library from Time Machine backup - https://discussions.apple.com/message/26104480#26104480

Restoring iTunes Library after hard drive failure.

So a few days ago I had to re partition my hard drive (erase all the data) because I received an unfixable problem from Finder error 10810. The problem created overlapping files on my hard drive which was able to be solved by doing a repair disk from Disk Utility. So I made sure I had a backup of all my information on my iMac, and erased the hard drive and re-installed Snow Leopard. After the installation was complete I began restoring all the files I had from Time Machine, but when I got to my iTunes library I received the error message saying that "You cannot access the iTunes folder because you are not authorized". So if anyone can help me out with this that would be great, I tried calling Apple but i'm not willing to pay the ridiculous $50 fee to speak to a human being.

I'm trying it file by file, because I don't need everything back on my hard drive but things like my iTunes Library I want. And I did use a different username when doing the setup assistant, but I thought about that and went back and re-named my current account and then went into my backup files and set all the sharing permissions to Read and Write for all accounts.

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?

Backing up itunes library to pexternal drive v. CD

I'm a new mac user and very confused about most everything... question - can i back up my library to a portable harddrive, or does it only go to CD (it seems). What about DVD?
Thanks!

can i back up my library to a portable harddrive
Not through iTunes. Find the library location from the iTunes preferences and drag it to the external drive in the Finder. If you haven't changed its location, it's in the Music folder of the Finder's sidebar.
What about DVD?
Yes, if you have a compatible drive.
(35493)

Trouble with iPodrip - won't come back into iTunes, just to hard drive

This question may be simple to answer, but I am racking my brain and becoming more frustrated. Used iPodrip to get my music back into iTunes from my iPod, but it wouldn't bring it into iTunes and their support was no help so I tried to bring it back just to the hard drive instead and that worked. Problem is, now I have 5200 songs sitting on my hard drive and since they are not in the iTunes library I get the error that the original wasn't found and would I like to find it. Even if I drag all the files into the iTunes library it does this. Anyone with a quick solution other than going into each music file and re-routing the directory?

Thanks, Nick.
Well, it's there, I didn't glue it back because I didn't know what sort of glue to use and I figure this region gets really hot, so it shouldn't be just any kind of glue. I just slid the hd in with it, it's as good as glued.
A hint here: if you close the upper case just a bit wrong, chances are your dvd drive won't work anymore, it will start spitting discs and behaving like it's broken.
I for one wouldn't advise anyone opening the macbook case, it's absolutely painful and a lot can go wrong. But if you, like me, wasn't satisfied with the Apple Care service - here in Brasil the service provider I sent my mb to changed my battery for an older one and dented one of the tips of the battery case to the point it lost it's color - and you have a spare mac (I have a Core Duo mini, then good luck!
Message was edited by: Spiceee

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.

A zillion questions about setting up and using external hard drive

Hello. I recently purchased a Cavalry 440GB CACE USB/FW800 7200 RPM 3.5 in Mac Formatted hard drive. My Mac is a Power PC G4 using OS X 10.2.8.
After much back and forth with the Cavalry support desk, I was able to connect it to my Mac. (The USB cable included was not compatible--fortunately, my printer cable was.)
Through Disk Utility I see that my Mac is detecting the hard drive, but there's no icon on my desktop. My questions are as follows:
1. How do I get the icon on my desktop?
2. It was suggested on this board to partition the hard drive. What exactly is partitioning, and is it necessary?
3. If I do partition the hard drive, into how many partitions should I make it?
4. Once the number of partitions is set, can that number be changed? In other words, can it be repartioned without erasing anything?
5. My main purpose for getting the external hard drive is to move all my movies off my Mac. I'm sure I will want to back up other files as well. Should I create one partition for all the movies, and one for photos, one for files, etc.?
6. Once I get the icon on my desktop, is transferring files as simple as dragging the files onto the icon?
7. Once I move files to the hard drive, is it simple to move them back to the Mac if I need to use them again?
OK, that's all for now. I appreciate your patience in dealing with all my questions! Thanks.

Hello,
I'll try my best on the first seven. The remaining zillion minus seven questions will have to wait!
1. If the drive really is Mac-formatted it should just appear. Firstly check that hard disks are set to appear on the desktop. In the Finder go to Finder > Preferences... >General tab and ensure that the box to show hard disks on the desktop is checked. If that doesn't work go to Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities >Disk Utility. Select the drive in the left hand pane and then click on the "Erase" tab. Erase the disk and ensure the format is "Mac OS Extended (with Journalling)".
2. Partitioning is splitting the physically drive into two or more volumes. This will allow you to compartmentalise your data. You will have two or more icons appear on the desktop if you do partition. Although they are on the same physical disk you will be limited on each of the volumes to the size you set at the time of partitioning. If you do partition the drive be sure to use the "Apple Partition Map" not "GUID Partition Map". The latter is for Intel Macs.
3. Whatever you want. My experience is that too many partitions and you loose flexibility in your storage space. Personally on my external drive I have a partition that is exactly the same size as my internal hard drive. I then use that to do a regular clone backup. I then have a second partition for general use. This means I can put files on the external but still guarantee I have enough spare to backup fully.
4. No. Not without third party tools.
5. As I said above, in my opinion the best use is to create a partition for backup and a partition for all other use.
6. Yes absolutely. However if you plan on moving libraries like iTunes or iPhoto then you'll need to show the applications where the libraries are again.
7. Yes.
Some extra pointers:
A. Use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup your internal drive to the external. Clones are fantastic backups as even if the internal drive bursts into flames you will have an identical copy of all user data and settings: http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html (scroll to the very bottom for the version suitable for 10.2.8).
B. Don't use USB to connect the hard drive it's not very fast. Firewire 400 is significantly faster and will allow the iMac to be booted from the external drive in an emergency (USB will not boot a G4 Mac).
Hope that helps a little.
mrtotes

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...

Retrieving content for iTunes library after hard drive crash

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's encountered this situation, but i couldn't find a decent answer anywhere. My HDD crashed, but i recovered all my documents, together with all iTunes documented files (including songs). I didn't lose any data. The problem is that iTunes can't just read copy pasted files (to avoid the spread of bought iTunes songs/apps). How can i get all those songs back in there?
1) I've still got everything on my iPod, but my iPod won't even be recognised with the name i've given it. Synchronising my iPod is out of the question...
2) I've got screenshots of files i found in the back-up document files
http://s720.photobucket.com/albums/ww201/Ollii/Computer%20Info%20Screens/
3) I can upload every song back again, but that takes ages. And I would like to have my apps back too
Thank you in advance

I built a new computer and I copied and pasted the entire itunes file that was in my music for XP to the music file in win 7. After it was done I downloaded itunes agreed to all the fun stuff and it found everything when i opened it. To play the purchased music I need to sign in to my account. After that everything worked great with no problems and it was like it never moved. As for your apps I still live in the stone age with an 80G ipod and an apple TV. So good luck with that but I do not see a problem with that as well. For any purchase from apple you have a total of 5 computers to use with you account. So I hope you were able to unauth. the old hard drive. If not you have to rest you count which can only be done 1X a year.

Updating iTunes library after hard drive reformat

Is there a way to upload songs from an iPod to the iTunes library? I had to reformat my hard drive and was able to upload purchases, but I would like to upload all songs on my iPod as opposed to reloading all the CDs.

For everything else (music from CDs, other downloads etc.) there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod. You'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos, podcasts and games as well. You can read reviews and comparisons of some of them here:
Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
Comparison of iPod managers
A selection of iPod to iTunes utilities:
TuneJack Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
SharePod Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod2PC Windows Only
iDump Windows Only
YamiPod Mac and Windows
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows
Floola Mac & Windows
iPodRip Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
Music Rescue Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iGadget Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iRepo Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod Access Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
TouchCopy Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
There's also a manual method of copying songs from your iPod to a Mac or PC. The procedure is a bit involved and won't recover playlists but if you're interested it's available on page 2 at this link: Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide
I would also advise that you get yourself an external hard drive and back your stuff up, relying on an iPod as your sole backup is not a good idea and external drives are comparatively inexpensive these days, you can get loads of storage for a reasonable outlay: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive

Question about backing up iTunes library to hard drive

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