Itunes Backup is a Joke!!!!! Or Am I an Idiot?

Ok, so i am pretty obsessed with backups and backups of backups. I ALWAYS back stuff up, and have had to restore my laptop or ipod a few times from these discs.

my ipod is the hardest thing in the world to rebuild, as i have about 15,000 songs of just about every genre, so playlists are REALLY important. I also work as a VJ and sometimes use my ipod at shows in between. so its very important that i be able to maintain my playlists and not be one of those people who just dump everything on there and sort through by album. i have over a hundred playlists for just about every mood and contingency.

which is awesome, except when my ipod poops the bed and i have to go into my itunes library backup hoping that THIS time it preserved my playlists.

and despite the fact that EVERY time i say "yes" to the dialogue that asks, "would you like to preserve your playlists and videos blah blah blah" it NEVER EVER does. not once. i have done about 4 massive comprehensive backups which usually take about a half a day to burn onto dvds. and every time i think, whew, i'm smart, i can just pop these in ! and every time i am disappointed. and then i have to spend over a week getting my songs back in order.

at this point i am realizing i am going to just have to get a dedicated hd for just my music library, and not depend on dvds. i am going to have to do the dreaded sync, which i hate. i like keeping my itunes clear of crap so that i can just keep sound files i build tracks with in there and not have to look at 15000 songs.

what are my options? i want to attempt a backup of my ipod using time machine, is this possible? seems like alot more sensible than depending on itunes, which either really sucks, or else i am a moron. has this happened to anyone? what am i doing wrong? and anyone have any other random thoughts on this?

I don't think you're a moron, but I'm confused about what the problem is. Just backup your iTunes folder (the entire folder), either as part of an overall Time Machine backup or as a separate item. This will preserve all your playlists, star ratings, cover art and everything else.

You can also make an "image file" of your iPod, you just have to mount it like a drive and use a program like Disc Utility to make an image file" of it if you like.

I recently had to restore my iPad (bought the new one) and found that the automatic iTunes backup that happens during sync had preserved everything, so I'm not sure why you're not just using that.

at this point i am realizing i am going to just have to get a dedicated hd for just my music library, and not depend on dvds. i am going to have to do te dreaded sync, which i hate. i like keeping my itunes clear of crap so that i can just keep sound files i build tracks with in there and not have to look at 15000 songs.

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Yup, and thats your problem. The songs aren't actually in your iTunes Library. If I read correctly, the songs aren't even on the HD but scattered on DVDs. When iTunes asks you if you want to keep playlists and the such it may have a XML list of what you had on the iPod in the backup file, but it will always go back to iTunes, get the songs and copy them to the iPod. If the songs aren't in the iTunes Library where will it get them from? Because it does not back them up in the actual iPod backup file, which would be HUUUGE if it did.


I have my entire music, and iTunes library on a 500GB external HD. Now, I also have that music imported into iTunes and sorted into playlists in iTunes.
If my iPod bites the dust, and I restore it from a backup it will have all the playlists i had on the iPod checked under the iPod Name>Music tab. Once I hit sync, they get pushed onto the iPod. Same if I loose my iPod, I still have the playlists setup in iTunes and can push them to a new device.

McYukon said:

Yup, and thats your problem. The songs aren't actually in your iTunes Library. If I read correctly, the songs aren't even on the HD but scattered on DVDs. When iTunes asks you if you want to keep playlists and the such it may have a XML list of what you had on the iPod in the backup file, but it will always go back to iTunes, get the songs and copy them to the iPod. If the songs aren't in the iTunes Library where will it get them from? Because it does not back them up in the actual iPod backup file, which would be HUUUGE if it did.


I have my entire music, and iTunes library on a 500GB external HD. Now, I also have that music imported into iTunes and sorted into playlists in iTunes.
If my iPod bites the dust, and I restore it from a backup it will have all the playlists i had on the iPod checked under the iPod Name>Music tab. Once I hit sync, they get pushed onto the iPod. Same if I loose my iPod, I still have the playlists setup in iTunes and can push them to a new device.

Click to expand...

well, i had used the backup utility in itunes itself thinking it would automatically burn the itl. or xml file that keeps the playlists in it, and it never does. i should just make a copy of that file from now on and keep it elsewhere, because i do NOT like having all my music on an external drive. i don't have alot of money and i use my drives for my film work and i don't want those drives just sitting there with a library on it.

sorry for not replying sooner but i have had other, deeper issues with my puter this week, which i have to get some answers on, so i am posting another thread.