I used to be able to back up my library onto CDs. File -> Library -> Back Up to Disc. Now I don't have that option. How do I back up my library onto a disc without the **** option?
iPod touch, Windows Vista, Hand me down iPod.
This has been asked and answered many, many times.
Try a forum search ( right side of this page).
Yes, but no satisfactory rationale has been given. It is arbitrary and capricious. And stupid, stupid, stupid!
THANK YOU! I've searched through all the discussion questions and haven't gotten anything that will work with backing up the entire library.
Directed towards logres just for clarification.
extremely_irratated wrote:
How do I back up my library onto a disc without the **** option?
Apple provides instructions on how to backup the entire library to an external hard drive, they can be found here. This is a better option as it's unlikely that the majority of users library's will fit onto a single CD or DVD.
It is also still entirely possible to backup the library to a CD or DVD, the option has simply been removed from iTunes (my personal opinion is it never belonged there to begin with).
To backup the library to a CD/DVD, simply use the burner software on the computer to burn a copy of the entire iTunes folder.
By default, the iTunes folder is located in:
Mac OS X: /Users/username/Music
Windows XP: \Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\
Windows Vista or Windows 7: \Users\username\My Music\
I hear what you're saying, believe me. My annoyance was due to the fact that there was a nice feature there to do *incremental* backups on disc. I have my main library at my home computer (Mac), and a copy of it on my office computer (Windows). It was nice to be able to periodically sync the updates as I added files at home (the music files as well as the playlists), plus have a backup on disc. I know that there are other ways to do incremental backups with backup software, but working within iTunes was convenient and one step and didn't require recopying the entire library. It just seemed kind of unnecessary to me for Apple to bother to remove this functionality which wasn't really interfering with anything, and I don't believe they told users this was in the software update.
Agreed. It didn't slow down anything to just have the option there. And it was so much easier without figuring out what hard drive to use that will actually be able to hold the whole library and back up files. Extremely irratating and tedious to try and figure out an alternative without too much of a headache.
I liked having the option there. Thanks for listing out an alternative. I guess I'm stuck with it.
Fast backup for iTunes library (Windows)
Grab SyncToy 2.1, a free tool from MS. This can be used to copy your entire iTunes library (& other important data folders) onto another hard drive or network share. You can then use SyncToy periodically to synchronise or echo your library to the backup. A preview will show which files need to be updated giving you a chance to spot unexpected changes and during the run only the new or updated files will be copied saving lots of time.
If your media is all organised below the main iTunes folder then you should also be able to open the backup library on any system running the same version of iTunes, regardless of the drive letter or path it appears on.
tt2
Why can't I back my iTunes library onto a CD?
