RB5SCOTT

Is there a way or can you even backup your whole library onto an external hard drive. Bought a fair bit of music from itunes lately and thought it wise to backup my whole library. I know you can put it onto discs but thats too much hassle when i've got an 80gb hard drive sitting here!

thanks
Scott

KiwiGTI

iTunes: Finding the files of songs you've purchased

Just locate the files as above and copy them.

RB5SCOTT

I know that but i want to backup 20gb of cd's too. I really don't fancy loading them all in again if my computer goes **** up

KiwiGTI

iTunes will probably have put them in the same place.

j.r-xrs

Disclaimer: While I'm pretty sure this will all work without a hitch I can't guarantee anything, it is possible this process could corrupt everything, in which case it might be worth considering a utility like this one [ Download of the Day: iPod -> Folder (Windows/Mac) - Lifehacker ] it might save the day.

I did something similar to this for a friend the other day...

Getting a copy of all the tunes in your library is actually very easy. With iTunes open do the following:

Edit > Preferences > Advanced Tab > General Tab (within Advanced Tab)

You then need to change the location of your default iTunes library to a folder on your External HDD, it's also worth remembering what this original file path was too.

Once you have done this press OK to confirm these options and go back to your library. Then do the following:

Advanced > Consolidate Library

This will (regardless of where the music is currently stored) move all your music into the folder you specified in the first step. It will also arrange all your songs in to what iTunes considers the appropriate folder, usually Artist > Album > Song etc.

This is where it gets a little experimental as I can't quite remember what options you get while consolidating a library...I think you get the option to either copy and leave the original or copy and delete the original. Either way it take it's sweet time to carry out the process.

*Warning* Thinking on my feet here, haven't actually tried this, but:

If you so wish you could take a copy of both your iTunes database file (iTunes Library.itl) and your music library itself (iTunes Music Library.xml), both usually found in My Documents\My Music\iTunes before you do any of the above.
This would allow you, providing you keep the original copy of the music files while consolidating, to replace the new versions of the 2 files above (as consolidation will reconstruct all file paths to your external disk) with the old versions which still point to the original music files. With any luck you will have 100% file backup and still have all your files where they were in the first place. The if you want/need to you can simply change your default iTunes folder back to what it was originally.

I think it's also possible to mimic iTunes' incremental backup using a a method similar to this, if you're interested, let me know.

Cheers,

jrxrs

Ian Cook

I just create a briefcase on my external HDD, drag the folder all my music is in to it, it makes a copy and then if i add any more music i can just update the briefcase and it adds the new stuff for me !! Seems to work fine !

Markus

Scott,
Is all your music stored in the same folder, for example the iTunes Music Folder? You can easily find out where music files are stored by right-clicking on a track and select the the option to show the file's location. Check the path of a few different files and see if they are in the same location or scattered over the disk.

If they are all in the same place, wherever it may be, just copy the whole folder to whatever external device you want.

I've got my Music folder sitting at the root of my drive and I've told iTunes where to find it. I've also got iTunes configured to copy music to this folder when I add it to iTunes, thus I'm guaranteed all the music will be in one location, so when it comes to backing up, I can simply drag copy the folder elsewhere.

If you do happen to lose purchased music then you can contact Apple and they will usually allow you to download the purchased music once more. It's not something they publically state, but I do know a couple of people who have done it. Probably the best starting point would be to fill out the form here

RoosterRoo

Scott,

I have my itunes music library set up within the 'my music' folder of my profile. Microsoft do a handy little utility called 'synctoy' where you set up folder pairs to sync between, so I have a folder pair set up between the 'my music' folder and a folder set up on an external drive. Just run the utility every time you make any changes to your music (or how ever frequently you like) and it just updates the changes onto the external drive.

Hope that makes sense

Rich

Mogsi

Fantastic utility, I've been looking for something like this to sync my digital images to my external backup drive, cheers

Ok as you were, back on subject...

jowl

Synctoy is excellent.

I've used it for mail, music and lots of other things. I'm sure they're are more advanced tools out there but this is pretty quick and relativley easy