How to Back Up Your iTunes Media

All your files are important, and I’d strongly recommend backing up everything. Some of you may back up your documents, but it’s best not to ignore an important part of your Mac’s files: Your iTunes media. There may be a lot of money in your iTunes library, and a lot of time spent building it. After all, iTunes holds music, videos, and audiobooks that you’ve bought, as well as any CDs or DVDs that you’ve ripped. While you can replace the latter, if you lose your files, it would take a long time to get everything back.

Now if you’re short on space, there are some iTunes media files that you don’t need to back up. Here’s an overview of how to back up your iTunes media files, and which ones you need to back up.

Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.

6 thoughts on “How to Back Up Your iTunes Media

  1. If application developer cancels the account, it is possible that all apps developed by that developer will be removed from App Store. So it is still necessary to backup mobile applications.

    But yeah, this is not a deal breaker if apps used are so popular or highly common.

  2. If application developer cancels the account, it is possible that all apps developed by that developer will be removed from App Store. So it is still necessary to backup mobile applications.

    But yeah, this is not a deal breaker if apps used are so popular or highly common.

  3. Kirk I have a 2TB external hard drive that I have connected to an old MacBook Pro that I use only for storing my home movies and DVD movies that I ripped into iTunes. I use home sharing so my Apple TV’s in my room and my children’s rooms can access the movies and play them on my home network on our respective TV’s.
    I did not set up Plex as you suggested because I got confused on how it operates. The system as I have it now works fine for my purpose. Kirk my question is I backed up my iTunes media file to my 2TB external drive after I had put 100 movies on in iTunes. I subsequently added about 120 more movies and am in the process of backing up my media folder again to the external drive. Are the original 100 movies going to be duplicated during this process? Will I have 2 copies of the first 100 movies? I have tried to find the answer to this all over the internet and simply cannot. You are the only person I know who knows the answer and has a presence on the internet. Thank you. Larry Croft. Martinez GA USA

    • It depends on which app you use for the backups. If you just copy the folder in the Finder, then it will recopy everything, replacing the original files (so, no, you won’t have dupes). If you use a dedicated backup app – such as CarbonCopyCloner, ChronoSync, or SuperDuper – it will only copy those files that are new or changed.

  4. Kirk I have a 2TB external hard drive that I have connected to an old MacBook Pro that I use only for storing my home movies and DVD movies that I ripped into iTunes. I use home sharing so my Apple TV’s in my room and my children’s rooms can access the movies and play them on my home network on our respective TV’s.
    I did not set up Plex as you suggested because I got confused on how it operates. The system as I have it now works fine for my purpose. Kirk my question is I backed up my iTunes media file to my 2TB external drive after I had put 100 movies on in iTunes. I subsequently added about 120 more movies and am in the process of backing up my media folder again to the external drive. Are the original 100 movies going to be duplicated during this process? Will I have 2 copies of the first 100 movies? I have tried to find the answer to this all over the internet and simply cannot. You are the only person I know who knows the answer and has a presence on the internet. Thank you. Larry Croft. Martinez GA USA

    • It depends on which app you use for the backups. If you just copy the folder in the Finder, then it will recopy everything, replacing the original files (so, no, you won’t have dupes). If you use a dedicated backup app – such as CarbonCopyCloner, ChronoSync, or SuperDuper – it will only copy those files that are new or changed.

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