Backing up your music files in iTunes 4


Learn how to back up songs that are in your iTunes library. If you have iTunes
5 or iTunes 6, click here.
Be sure to make regular backups of your music files (in your iTunes Music
folder) by copying them to an external hard disk or other media. Otherwise, if
your hard disk becomes damaged or you lose any of the music you've
purchased, you'll have to buy any purchased music again to rebuild your
library.

Backing up your music to a CD or DVD
You can burn a data CD or DVD with any of the songs and spoken word
content in your iTunes library. You might want to do this to make a backup
copy (or archive) of all your audio files, or to transfer them to another
computer.
To burn a DVD, your computer should have an internal SuperDrive and Mac
OS 10.2.4 or later. Some third-party DVD burners may also work. You can
store about 650 MB of files on a CD, and about 4.7 GB on a DVD.

To create a playlist of your entire library
1. Open iTunes.
2. Click Library in the Source list.
3. Click the Browse button or choose Show Browser from the Edit menu.
4. Make sure "All" is selected for Genre, Artist, and Album.


5. Click any single song, then choose Select All from the Edit menu.


6. From the File menu, choose New Playlist From Selection.
7. Type a name for the new playlist.

Note: If you don't mind re-importing your other music from your CD
collection, you can just back up yout iTunes Store and Audible content by
creating a smart Playlist that contains all songs and audiobooks with Kind set
to Protected AAC audio file or Audible file as shown here:


To burn a data CD or DVD
1. Open iTunes.
2. From the iTunes menu, choose Preferences (Windows: From the Edit
menu, choose Preferences).
3. Click the Burning button.
4. Choose Data CD or DVD as the Disc Format.
5. Click OK.
6. Create a playlist that includes all the items in your library (see steps
above), or all the items you want to back up to the CD or DVD.
7. Select the playlist you want to burn to the CD or DVD, then click the
Burn Disc button.
8. Insert a blank CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, or DVD-RW disc, and click Burn
Disc again.
Any audio files in the playlist (MP3, AAC, AIFF, WAV, Audible) are copied to the
CD or DVD.
Tip: You can only burn a CD or DVD from the songs in a playlist. If the playlist
contains more songs than will fit on a single disc, iTunes will notify you and
will give you the option to use multiple discs. You can see the size of the
selected playlist at the bottom of the iTunes window.
Data CDs or DVDs will work on your computer, but will not work in most
CD/DVD players.
You can make regular, incremental backups of your music (that means only
backing up what has changed).

Restoring music files from backup:
To add music files back into your iTunes library from your backup discs:
1. Insert the disc into your computer. The disc shows up in iTunes.
2. Click the disc in the Source list.
3. Click the Browse button in the upper right to make browsing the disc
easier.
4. Locate the songs, albums, artists or entire genres you are missing.
5. Drag the missing files to Library in the Source list.



A note about copyright iTunes software may be used to reproduce materials. It is licensed to you only for reproduction of non-copyrighted
materials, materials in which you own the copyright, or materials you are
authorized or legally permitted to reproduce. If you are uncertain about your
right to copy any material, you should contact your legal advisor. See the
iTunes Store Terms of Service for additional information.

0 comments: