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glocke12

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
I have several tv shows/movies Ive purcahsed off of itunes that I need to delete. How can I back these up so that they can be restored and watched later?
 
It looks like the original poster has the files on his computer already.

Open up a finder window where you want to move the backup to. Drag and drop the files from iTunes to this window. Use CMD-TAB to switch programms if you need to. Now you can delete the stuff from iTunes.
 
I have several tv shows/movies Ive purcahsed off of itunes that I need to delete. How can I back these up so that they can be restored and watched later?

Have a look through all the menu items in iTunes. Maybe you can find one that says "Backup to Disc". 😛
 
Have a look through all the menu items in iTunes. Maybe you can find one that says "Backup to Disc". 😛

Trouble is that only backs up to CD's or DVD's, my purchases are bigger than that and there is no option to back up to external hard-disk..... which seems like an oversight to me..... or do they assume everyone is using TimeMachine!
 
Trouble is that only backs up to CD's or DVD's, my purchases are bigger than that and there is no option to back up to external hard-disk..... which seems like an oversight to me..... or do they assume everyone is using TimeMachine!

Have you tried going into the iTunes root folder (Where everything is organised, Usually User/Music/iTunes/TV Shows or Movies/) then you click the item you want & drag the Video across to the external HDD?
 
Have you tried going into the iTunes root folder (Where everything is organised, Usually User/Music/iTunes/TV Shows or Movies/) then you click the item you want & drag the Video across to the external HDD?

Yes but that backs up the entire library or all music, what I want is the option of just backing up all my iTunes Purchases via this menu option but to my Hard-Drive as it's bigger than a DVD. I don't want to back up all my tracks as I have them on CD just my iTunes online purchases.

I've tried, from within iTunes, dragging all the purchased tracks into a finder window of my External Hard Drive but this always seem to fail with this volume of files.
 
Yes but that backs up the entire library or all music, what I want is the option of just backing up all my iTunes Purchases via this menu option but to my Hard-Drive as it's bigger than a DVD. I don't want to back up all my tracks as I have them on CD just my iTunes online purchases.

I've tried, from within iTunes, dragging all the purchased tracks into a finder window of my External Hard Drive but this always seem to fail with this volume of files.

OK so you didn't follow what I said then, you go to User/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/TV Shows or Movies/ select the videos you want and drag them to our HDD. Not from within iTunes.
 
OK so you didn't follow what I said then, you go to User/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/TV Shows or Movies/ select the videos you want and drag them to our HDD. Not from within iTunes.

This is still not as simple as you are making out, I don't need.want to drag /User/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music as it has more stuff in it that I want to backup and for the drive I am using. So just select the artists right? Well no as for some artists I have the CD's and some iTunes content, I only want to back up the iTunes content.

So you didn't follow what I said.... I want to back up from within iTunes using the button that Apple have provided "Back up.... purchases" but to a hard-drive as the DVD is too small. I know there are many ways to skin a cat and I do currently have my own convoluted way of doing this BUT.... they put the option there.... is it so hard to have to "External HardDrive" option added to CD or DVD?!?
 
There is a program that will do this: iTMSBackup
Seems to be for audio files only though.

Note I have NO experience with it and seeing as it was released in 2004, don't know if it would even work on the latest iTunes.

Just letting you know that is exists....

b.
 
You want to delete them...but not delete them? 😕

You might just have to get your hands dirty and go through each one individually and put them on an external drive. Best way I could see for this is to delete them within iTunes and move it to Trash. Then just copy from the Trash to your external drive?
 
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