backing up ITunes

svjim wrote:
As an iPhone/iPad developer I have love hate relationship with Apple. But one of the best things they have done over the past couple of years is the ability to backup and restore your iOS devices from the cloud. You get 5 gbytes of storage free and there are nominal charges for additional storage. You need to get an iCloud account to enable back up. Also, if you have music on your PC iTunes app, and if you imported music into the iTunes system from CDs or other means you will want to use iTunes Match to transfer your library to the cloud. I guess iTunes match also works for movies, tv shows, etc. that you have also.

Once you go through the pain of getting everything into the cloud and your wife is happy, then don't worry about iTunes any more. You can do all your backups and restores from the iCloud via wifi. I can tell you that I absolutely hate iTunes on the PC. It is a real pain. I now have everything in the cloud. The only thing I need iTunes on the PC for is if my wife gets a music CD as a gift from someone. Then you need to import it and have iTunes Match transfer it to the iCloud.

Anyway, this is not the place to get the detailed information you need. Go to the apple support forums and ask your questions there. In end, the less you need to use iTunes, the better off you will be.

Good luck,

Jim

Great info, thanks!

Let me rephrase my question this way. Without ICloud storage(which I plan to pursue) if someone has ITunes on the computer and the HD crashes, can they just reinstall the ITunes software on a new HD and sync with the IPhone ? In other words does the IPhone store all the data/info to reestablish ITunes data as it previously was on the computer?

As an iPhone/iPad developer I have love hate relationship with Apple. But one of the best things they have done over the past couple of years is the ability to backup and restore your iOS devices from the cloud. You get 5 gbytes of storage free and there are nominal charges for additional storage. You need to get an iCloud account to enable back up. Also, if you have music on your PC iTunes app, and if you imported music into the iTunes system from CDs or other means you will want to use iTunes Match to transfer your library to the cloud. I guess iTunes match also works for movies, tv shows, etc. that you have also.

Once you go through the pain of getting everything into the cloud and your wife is happy, then don't worry about iTunes any more. You can do all your backups and restores from the iCloud via wifi. I can tell you that I absolutely hate iTunes on the PC. It is a real pain. I now have everything in the cloud. The only thing I need iTunes on the PC for is if my wife gets a music CD as a gift from someone. Then you need to import it and have iTunes Match transfer it to the iCloud.

Anyway, this is not the place to get the detailed information you need. Go to the apple support forums and ask your questions there. In end, the less you need to use iTunes, the better off you will be.

Good luck,

Jim

My iPhone backups are all with iCloud. I never back up to iTunes. Would that be a better way to go?

2oldman wrote:

dryfly wrote:
I need to reformat the HD and I don't have clue as to what I need to do to restore the ITunes software's data files on the laptop.

I'm not sure what file you mean by iTunes data files..? I'm sure reinstalling the iTunes application (program) would be sufficient.

If you're asking about backing up iTunes songs, then that's probably a chore for a google search of Apple's help files.

Data files meaning the file(s) that the software on the computer stores the information in. Again, not being an IPhone-Itunes user I'm not familiar with how it works or the specific names.

First, you need to find the iTunes data files! I can only tell you that I backup my itunes library ever 30 days. This is how I do it using a simple file copy in Windows Explorer:
1. Find the iTunes Library (mine is in a folder on the 'C'(main) disc with the label of 'Libraries/music/mymusic/iTunesmedia/Music/' (The deepest folder contains the iTunes data by artist.)
2. I then simply copy the Music folder and subfolders to my external disk with a name of the date&iTunes.
3. After the copy is completed, I delete the second previous backup copy. (That way I always have two full backups.)
Works for me.

You can find the location of your iTunes data using the iTunes software by going to the 'Edit' - 'Preferences' - 'Advanced' window.

Read about it here.

dryfly wrote:
I need to reformat the HD and I don't have clue as to what I need to do to restore the ITunes software's data files on the laptop.

I'm not sure what file you mean by iTunes data files..? I'm sure reinstalling the iTunes application (program) would be sufficient.

If you're asking about backing up iTunes songs, then that's probably a chore for a google search of Apple's help files.