Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iTMS reminding you to backup...
- Thread starter voodoofish
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Yep, I think that's always been there, nothing new.... And obviously good advice, that should go without saying... 
Was going to point out the iPod but then realised that not everyone has one.
Well, not yet anyway.
Well, not yet anyway.
I agree, I learned the hardway.
when I purchased my G5, I transfered all my files from my imac G4.
I thought that all my purchased songs were transfered as well.
Wrong. not all of them went thru. 2 albums that I had recently purchased did not go thru. On top of that, I erased my g4's HD.
so I called apple and explained to them what had happened. They were nice enough to let me download them again, and strongly advised to BACKUP my purchased music.
Since I have been backing up my music, just in case.......
when I purchased my G5, I transfered all my files from my imac G4.
I thought that all my purchased songs were transfered as well.
Wrong. not all of them went thru. 2 albums that I had recently purchased did not go thru. On top of that, I erased my g4's HD.
so I called apple and explained to them what had happened. They were nice enough to let me download them again, and strongly advised to BACKUP my purchased music.
Since I have been backing up my music, just in case.......
senseibiz said:
you are very lucky you got to download them again, im sure with this warning they will not allow such things to happen
combatcolin said:Was going to point out the iPod but then realised that not everyone has one.
Well, not yet anyway.
and then, of course, they're that whole thing about how you can't get songs off the iPod, if your computer's HD gets killed. which is why you back up to DVD or DataCD
They should add that feature to iTunes. The ability to just back up your whole library to a set of DVDs or something. Yes I know you can just copy the music files with the Finder, but it would still be nice to have.
broken_keyboard said:
I made myself a nice Smart Playlist which includes all my songs, and then you can burn the playlist to DVD just as you can another
Adding another rule about whether the music is in your Purchased Music playlist or not means you can make separate backups of that is your wish (sometimes I, ahem, lend my friends my backup DVDs, but obviously there's no point including iTMS files in them).
Attachments
x86isslow said:and then, of course, they're that whole thing about how you can't get songs off the iPod, if your computer's HD gets killed. which is why you back up to DVD or DataCD
That's if you're a *good* boy or girl. But if you get to the point where your computer loses all your songs, I would think that would justify being a bad boy or girl.
I would go straight to software to pull the songs back off the iPod...I consider my iPod my iTunes backup. 
Why even bother with software? A simple UNIX command will copy all of the files for you.mkrishnan said:That's if you're a *good* boy or girl. But if you get to the point where your computer loses all your songs, I would think that would justify being a bad boy or girl.
what I did
I just create a smart playlist with the type being "protected AAC". It brings up all the songs I have ever downloaded from the itunes music store because I have transfered to a new computer and that original list isn't the same. I just back that one up to a couple of cd's since you can't make an MP3 cd with them, that seems to work for me. Of course, I don't have 476 iTMS songs, I have about 60.
I just create a smart playlist with the type being "protected AAC". It brings up all the songs I have ever downloaded from the itunes music store because I have transfered to a new computer and that original list isn't the same. I just back that one up to a couple of cd's since you can't make an MP3 cd with them, that seems to work for me. Of course, I don't have 476 iTMS songs, I have about 60.
A better option than backing up your aac files to an audio cd is just to select "Data CD" from the itunes burning preferences. This will copy your aac playlist without modifying the fiiles in anyway. So if you ever have to use those backups, you won't have to reencode them (losing audio quality) or put up with the large file sizes if you import them as aiff or apple lossless.
I have three drives in my mac and I back up important data to each one so even if two drives die on me I'm ok. Of course if I have a fire or something then I'm out of luck. I used to work for University of Iowa computer help desk and we used to get pale and sweating students clutching a crumpled/bent/burnt floppy disk saying "this is... this is my thesis.... I uh.... oh god can you help me?" Not a pretty sight.
~ Mr.T
I have three drives in my mac and I back up important data to each one so even if two drives die on me I'm ok. Of course if I have a fire or something then I'm out of luck.
I used to work for University of Iowa computer help desk and we used to get pale and sweating students clutching a crumpled/bent/burnt floppy disk saying "this is... this is my thesis.... I uh.... oh god can you help me?" Not a pretty sight.~ Mr.T
Mr_T said:I have three drives in my mac and I back up important data to each one so even if two drives die on me I'm ok. Of course if I have a fire or something then I'm out of luck.
Yah, there's something to be said for off-site backup.
it's good advice
back it up. I got a new eMac for school, and bought quite a few songs from iTMS. Then I installed an iChat update, restarted, and it came of with the good old question-mark of death. I reinstalled the OS and the computer worked again, but my music was missing so I emailed Apple, and they let my download my music again (which you are allowed to do only once). It was my first OS X machine so I didn't really know what was going on. Turns out that the music was still on my computer, so I wasted my one extra dowload for about $300 worth of music and had 2 copies of every song. my point? back it up; you never know what could happen.
back it up. I got a new eMac for school, and bought quite a few songs from iTMS. Then I installed an iChat update, restarted, and it came of with the good old question-mark of death. I reinstalled the OS and the computer worked again, but my music was missing so I emailed Apple, and they let my download my music again (which you are allowed to do only once). It was my first OS X machine so I didn't really know what was going on. Turns out that the music was still on my computer, so I wasted my one extra dowload for about $300 worth of music and had 2 copies of every song. my point? back it up; you never know what could happen.
~Shard~ said:Yah, there's something to be said for off-site backup.
I'm very loyal about backups. What concerns me is the safety and longevity of those backups. I have some things in the wrong places on my hard drive, very soon I'm hoping to see if a Mac Genius can help m.