Most effective method of backing up iTunes media metadata

[m021478]

I've spend hours and hours and hours over the last week or so going through my iTunes music and applying ratings to all of my tracks, and I've now just completed giving adequate ratings to nearly 10,000 songs.

It was at this point that I realized that if my hard drive crashed, or my iTunes library file got corrupted, etc, etc, then I would lose all of the ratings information that I've just spend hours on. I wanted to find out if anyone knew of any other ways I might want to consider for backing up all of the ratings info I've applied.

I've exported my iTunes library file and have uploaded it to my Box.net account, which I assume would be my first line of defense in case of a catastrophe (as I do believe this will restore all of the ratings I've applied).

I've also created a backup of my iTunes library folder on a locally connected hard drive using ChronoSync

I've scoured Doug's iTunes Scripts for a script that could help with backing up and restoring my media's metadata, but didn't really turn up too much that seemed like it might help.

Anyone else have any ideas that I might want to consider? Thanks!

 

[SuperSnake2012]

Sync it to an iPod! Ratings are saved if you ever restore your iPod with a program like Senuti.

 

[m021478]

Only have an iPhone, which doesn't have nearly enough storage to backup all of my music (not to mention that I like to use some of my iPhone's limited storage space for movies, photos, apps, etc...)

Any other suggestions?

 

[zacharydz]

I was under the impression that that data was saved in your "iTunes Library.lib" file in your iTunes folder. I just copy my entire iTunes folder to an external hard drive, and copy that back to restore- it's kept my info that way. Copying the entire iTunes folder to an external hard drive is the best bet. N.B. Copying the data to an internal hard drive isn't the best idea - if anything happens to your computer (motherboard issues, electrical surge, etc) that can take out your main hard drive and backup hard drive at the same time). I recommend copying all the data to an external hard drive and then disconnect the external hard drive (and take it to another location if you're really paranoid). An internal hard drive that is always on will fail much faster than an external hard drive that is only on when backing up files.

 

[killerrobot]

I was under the impression that that data was saved in your "iTunes Library.lib" file in your iTunes folder.

In Windows, the metadata is kept in an .itl file.
Unfortunately the metadata is not stored in the .xml file under OSX.
I've backed up the full itunes folder before I installed leopard, did a clean install, imported all the music again and all the ratings, play count, last played etc. were all missing.
I used Senuti to pull it all off my ipod as SuperSnake2012 mentioned. I'm not aware of any programs for mac that save or can extract the metadata.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660

 

[devburke]

Time Machine? It’s all saved in your iTunes Library files, so unless you specifically tell Time Machine to ignore it, it’ll have you covered.