Backing up iTunes

Kirk McElhearn explains how-to. This is one of the most frequent problems I hear about from readers and friends. It goes something like this:

1. Big iTunes library goes on external drive (Not Time Machine);
2. External drive goes up in smoke;
3. Tears.

Once you put your iTunes library on an external drive, outside your normal backup regime, there be dragons. You need to have a second drive (at the minimum) and routinely make a copy of your iTunes library. I do this once a month. I figure I can deal with losing a month of play counts and new content. I know there are some online backup solutions but still can’t get over the idea of how long it would take to upload a 1TB library.

Comments

[Markus]

If you keep the library data file of iTunes (containing play counts, etc.) on your "home" drive, time machine will backup it and you only have to rip the new content again.

[Wells Baum]

The iTunes cloud is coming...soon!