How do you back up your iTunes Library?

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ZollyMonsta

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# 31285 11-Mar-2009 18:40

I've just started buying tracks from iTunes (The higher bitrate/non drm ones) for $1.79 kiwi.
Pretty good deal considering they have a lot of hard-to-find tracks I'm after.

Wondering what other peoples thoughts on the best way to back them up?

Theres...

Burn to an audio CD
Burn to a Data DVD/CD
Backup using the built in library backup/restore
Just copy the itunes music library to a cd

Files are in m4a format, winamp can play them as can vlc.

So, how do you back up your purchased tracks in case of failure?

Also curious as to the 'play counter' seeing as they are meant to be 'drm free'. Anyone know?

stevenz

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# 200699 11-Mar-2009 20:23

The play counter is just for your reference unless you're talking about something other than what I'm thinking of. The DRM free tracks are functionally about the same as if you'd ripped them yourself.

If you want to backup the library in it's entirety, then just copy the "iTunes Music" folder from within your "Music" directory to a DVD (or several?). If need be you can just wipe the iTunes database and reimport them all at a later time. iTunes does cache albumart rather than write it into the metatags, so that'd be about all you'd lose. If you copy the whole iTunes folder, database and all then you can retain that but you'd have to restore by overwriting any existing database.

ZollyMonsta

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# 200749 11-Mar-2009 23:18

Excellent.. Where do I find the itunes database file?

stevenz

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# 200758 12-Mar-2009 06:59

Generally it's

\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl
\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml

The .xml file isn't really used by iTunes itself for much, it puts it there for the convenience of other apps.

within the same folder is probable another 'iTunes Music' folder which is where it downloads files to by default, unless you've told it otherwise.

manhinli

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# 200866 12-Mar-2009 17:27

I've always just copied the iTunes Music folder when I format my computer. Everything and anything in the folder.

It retains all the details including album art...

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