How do I back up iTunes properly?

[JaySoul]

Hey everyone, not sure if you have addressed this before.

I am a working DJ and use Serato on my MacBook. I have a pretty extensive library on iTunes, and if anything were to happen to it I would be severely messed up...

It recently came to my attention that Time Machine doesn't actually back up iTunes properly! So if something happened to my MacBook, my entire collection would be gone.

How should I back up iTunes properly? Is there an easy way besides SuperDuper etc?

Cheers

 

[jemeinc]

you can just use the "backup to disc" option from the drop down menu in iTunes to back all of it up to DVDs. I do this a couple times a year. I would imagine my collection is much smaller than yours (5,000 songs) so it doesn't take me long. you would have to get creative with your playlists so that you're only burning new music after your initial backup- iTunes may already do this for you- but thats pretty easy.

 

[gnasher729]

It recently came to my attention that Time Machine doesn't actually back up iTunes properly! So if something happened to my MacBook, my entire collection would be gone.

Who says that? Time Machine backs up everything unless you tell it not to back up something, so your iTunes music or videos will be just as save as everything else.

Apart from that, you can always buy _good quality_ DVDs and use the iTunes "Backup" feature, but that is a pain compared to using Time Machine. As an alternative, just get two cheap external 500 GB drives, partition them so that each partition can hold the complete contents of a MacBook, and then you can just use Disk Utility to copy your complete MacBook hard drive onto these partitions. For example, if your MacBook is 160 GB, you can make six complete backups onto two 500 GB drives until you have to overwrite old data. Always keep one drive in a separate location.

 

[JaySoul]

Who says that? Time Machine backs up everything unless you tell it not to back up something, so your iTunes music or videos will be just as save as everything else.

Apart from that, you can always buy _good quality_ DVDs and use the iTunes "Backup" feature, but that is a pain compared to using Time Machine. As an alternative, just get two cheap external 500 GB drives, partition them so that each partition can hold the complete contents of a MacBook, and then you can just use Disk Utility to copy your complete MacBook hard drive onto these partitions. For example, if your MacBook is 160 GB, you can make six complete backups onto two 500 GB drives until you have to overwrite old data. Always keep one drive in a separate location.

From what I've heard, Time Machine only backs up images of your iTunes library - not the actual MP3's. Therefore it has the "library" but not the actual songs. I might be totally wrong - in fact I hope I am - but this is what I've been told but a few Apple experts.

As for the Disk Utility Copy, I think that is a very good idea - I'm going to do that today, thanks!

 

[handsome]

back up iTunes properly

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[GilesM]

Am I right in saying that in a system with default configurations, one can simply use an external drive and back up the following folder;

Macintosh HD:Users:<name>:Music

IF you back just this folder up, does that not do the job?