I know Apple has protections in place to keep people from just trading iTunes music. That is not what i am trying to do here. What i did is setup an external hard drive on the back of my Airport Extreme router and "copy/paste" the iTunes folder onto it. My library is small, about 1.9GB, but i wanted it backed up b/c of iTunes store purchases. Either way if my Mac was to die tomorrows would i be able to drag and drop that iTunes folder right back after i reloaded my MBP? Would this work? Is there a more efficent way to BACKUP my iTunes to an external HDD. Note that i do wish to move my library there, just back it up. Thanks for your help.
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Someone help me understand this?
- Thread starter marine610610
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Yes, it will work, you would just have to re-authorise, using up one more of your 5 allowed registrations 
If your HD is big enough, I recommend using SuperDuper to clone EVERYTHING, not just your iTunes library.
If your HD is big enough, I recommend using SuperDuper to clone EVERYTHING, not just your iTunes library.
Yes, it will work, you would just have to re-authorise, using up one more of your 5 allowed registrations
If your HD is big enough, I recommend using SuperDuper to clone EVERYTHING, not just your iTunes library.
I think i am still missing something here. I only get 5 total registrations? This would only allow me to import my music 5 times and then it is lost forever? I did download superduper, and my external drive is larger than the HD in my MBP, so i should be good on that. I do not have anything else on my MBP that i wish to preserve as is, just my music, and i didnt want to eat up all that external HD space. If there is no way around what you are saying i may have to bite the bullet on that and do it anyway.....
Music purchased from the iTunes Store can be authorized for use on five computers.
Chances are it would reload just fine if you had to replace your hard drive, since it's still the same computer, but I'm not sure about that. At the very worst, you'd have to authorize again...that would make two. You would still have three more machines that could be authorized to use the music.
And if you use up all five (say you get new machines and forget to deauthorize old ones), you can deauthorize all of them easily through the iTunes Store and start over...just authorizing the ones currently in use.
So if all you want to do is back up your music, you can back up just the iTunes folder. If you have to replace your hard drive at some point, just drag it back once you've got everything reinstalled on the replacement drive and you should be good to go.
Chances are it would reload just fine if you had to replace your hard drive, since it's still the same computer, but I'm not sure about that. At the very worst, you'd have to authorize again...that would make two. You would still have three more machines that could be authorized to use the music.
And if you use up all five (say you get new machines and forget to deauthorize old ones), you can deauthorize all of them easily through the iTunes Store and start over...just authorizing the ones currently in use.
So if all you want to do is back up your music, you can back up just the iTunes folder. If you have to replace your hard drive at some point, just drag it back once you've got everything reinstalled on the replacement drive and you should be good to go.
I believe itunes has it's own backup thing now under file-->Backup to disc, but it's only for purchased songs.
Essentially, yes, moving the whole iTunes folder should work just fine.
Regarding Authorization: You have 5 total computers that you can authorize to play DRM-ed iTunes tracks at any given time. So if something happens to your computer and you have to reinstall, you may have to authorize that computer again. But you can also deauthorize any old computers you're not using anymore. Apple also allows you to (Once per year) deauthorize ALL of your computers in one fell swoop).
So no, you won't lose them forever after five authorizations. You'll just have to deauthorize an old computer.
Note that all of this only applies to DRM-ed purchases from the iTunes Store. Music you've ripped yourself has no such restrictions.
Edit: Beat'd. Doh!
Essentially, yes, moving the whole iTunes folder should work just fine.
Regarding Authorization: You have 5 total computers that you can authorize to play DRM-ed iTunes tracks at any given time. So if something happens to your computer and you have to reinstall, you may have to authorize that computer again. But you can also deauthorize any old computers you're not using anymore. Apple also allows you to (Once per year) deauthorize ALL of your computers in one fell swoop).
So no, you won't lose them forever after five authorizations. You'll just have to deauthorize an old computer.
Note that all of this only applies to DRM-ed purchases from the iTunes Store. Music you've ripped yourself has no such restrictions.
Edit: Beat'd. Doh!
You are correct about iTunes backup options, however it does not allow you to backup to a HD. It only gives you the option of DVD's or CD's.