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nojokews6

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 24, 2008
167
8
When i drag audio or video into my itunes where does it go? the origional stays where i had it filed but does itunes copy it again into another folder? iam planing on buying a new computer but i spent a large amount of hours organizing my itunes with proper name and art, and dont want to lose it all. is there a way to back it up?
 
when i drag and drop from limewire, i pull it over to my library heading and wait for the blue outline.
then i drop it, and i go to my recently added playlist and its there ready to play!
easy enough.
 
but when i edit my artwork,title,playlists the source file remains unchanged. so if i back up my audio from my folders i will lose all my hard work:eek:
 
First off, right-click any file to find out where it is on your hard drive.

It's LIKELY being copied somewhere else, but your settings can change that, so it's not a sure thing.

If I'm reading this right, you probably have duplicates of everything on your computer.

Do yourself a favor and read the iTunes help file. I mean, we can answer questions but when you get to the point where you're wasting dozens of GBs of space, it may be time to break down and read the manual. A few answered questions probably aren't enough in this case.
 
I just bought a new computer and was facing the same problem. You can burn your library to DVDs or back it up onto your iPod/iPhone if you have enough space for your entire library. I burned my library to 4 DVDs and when I opened iTunes on my new computer and inserted my back-up disc iTunes asked me if I wanted to restore from the disk, so I just clicked "yes" and it copied my library over.

Here's the link on the Apple Support Site for step-by-step directions on how to do it.
 
First off, right-click any file to find out where it is on your hard drive.

It's LIKELY being copied somewhere else, but your settings can change that, so it's not a sure thing.

If I'm reading this right, you probably have duplicates of everything on your computer.

Do yourself a favor and read the iTunes help file. I mean, we can answer questions but when you get to the point where you're wasting dozens of GBs of space, it may be time to break down and read the manual. A few answered questions probably aren't enough in this case.

I just checked, no duplicates but the file name is the same as before i changed it on itunes. i want the itunes names to overright it.
 
or back it up onto your iPod/iPhone

NOOOOOOO!!! iPod/iPhone cannot be used as backup devices for your music/videos. Well, they can be, but you need third-party software to do it. iTunes will not copy music/videos from your iPod or iPhone to a new computer. If you try, it may delete your music/video, leaving you music/video-less if that was your only copy.
 
By default (on Windows at least, anyway), iTunes will leave the file in it's original location and put a copy of it in My Documents > Music > iTunes > iTunes Music

You can either set the iTunes Music folder location to where all of your music currently is, or use its default location and enable Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library and delete the original copy.

These options are in Edit > Preferences in iTunes under the Advanced tab.

Also, if you have Keep iTunes Music folder organized ticked, it will organise your songs into artist and album folders and modify the filenames for you too.
 
NOOOOOOO!!! iPod/iPhone cannot be used as backup devices for your music/videos. Well, they can be, but you need third-party software to do it. iTunes will not copy music/videos from your iPod or iPhone to a new computer. If you try, it may delete your music/video, leaving you music/video-less if that was your only copy.

You can use your iPod to copy music etc from one computer to another without the need for 3rd party software.

I did exactly that in October 2006 when I converted from Windows to Mac.

There was a two week gap between the Windows PC going and my MBP arriving.

I can't remember precisely what I had to do to make the iPod capable of doing this but I did it following instructions available on the ilounge website.

http://www.ilounge.com/

So it can be done via your iPod but the poster above is correct in warning you that it isn't just a case of plugging in your iPod and assuming everything will be copied over - that way can lead to music oblivion!
 
When i drag audio or video into my itunes where does it go? the origional stays where i had it filed but does itunes copy it again into another folder? iam planing on buying a new computer but i spent a large amount of hours organizing my itunes with proper name and art, and dont want to lose it all. is there a way to back it up?

I recommend always reading some of the documentation or help files before using a piece of software. With a complicated piece of software like iTunes and the value I have put into my media library, I want to be sure I know what it is going to do with my files before I trust it with them.

There are settings in iTunes that you can tell it to copy files or leave them where they are; and where to put the files if you tell it to copy them.
 
When i drag audio or video into my itunes where does it go? the origional stays where i had it filed but does itunes copy it again into another folder? iam planing on buying a new computer but i spent a large amount of hours organizing my itunes with proper name and art, and dont want to lose it all. is there a way to back it up?

Importing music will depend on how you have iTunes setup. I have mine set to copy all files and organize them in an iTunes folder but it's all changeable so worth having a look in your settings to check where they are going (bearing in mind it will be different between windows and mac as well).

iTunes has a great backup feature which will backup your entire iTunes library (complete with album art, ID3 tags, playlists, etc) on to cds or dvds so i'd recommend using that. You can backup on to some iPods as you can plug them in and use them as external hard drives - however, you can't sync music onto the ipod / iphone and then sync it back as it is a one-way process to stop file sharing.

Oh, and if you're iTunes is authorised (e.g. you've bought stuff on iTunes and so computer is authorised to play it), then make sure you deauthorise before you switch computers as you can only have 5 computers authorised at once (that has got me several times when formatting or switching computers!). You can wipe all authorisations once you've maxed them but it's still a pain.
 
If you want to backup your music you can just command A in iTunes which will highlight all music, then right click and click copy. Then paste into your desired folder.
 
You can use your iPod to copy music etc from one computer to another without the need for 3rd party software.

I did exactly that in October 2006 when I converted from Windows to Mac.

There was a two week gap between the Windows PC going and my MBP arriving.

I can't remember precisely what I had to do to make the iPod capable of doing this but I did it following instructions available on the ilounge website.

http://www.ilounge.com/

So it can be done via your iPod but the poster above is correct in warning you that it isn't just a case of plugging in your iPod and assuming everything will be copied over - that way can lead to music oblivion!

when you hook the ipod to your computer- you can tick the box that says enable use as disk drive or something to that effect. you can then drag and drop from your folders- anything you want and vice versa.
 
If your iTunes is like mine then you probably DON'T have a duplicate of the file. For instance, if I drag and drop a file from my desktop into my library, my iTunes doesn't duplicate the file, it just reads that desktop file. So if I move the desktop file, or delete it, iTunes won't be able to find it. The key to actually organizing iTunes properly is to have the original music files in the same place (preferably inside a series of folders like Music>Red Hot Chili Peppers> Californication). That way, if you ever want to transfer your library from one computer to another all you need to do is copy the main Music folder. As far as adding album art and editing the information in iTunes, that data should actually have written to the music files themselves, so you won't lose any of your organization when you transfer the files and import them into a different iTunes on a different computer.
 
You can use your iPod to copy music etc from one computer to another without the need for 3rd party software.

I did exactly that in October 2006 when I converted from Windows to Mac.

There was a two week gap between the Windows PC going and my MBP arriving.

I can't remember precisely what I had to do to make the iPod capable of doing this but I did it following instructions available on the ilounge website.

http://www.ilounge.com/

You probably did it with an iPod with disk mode enabled, which allows you to copy the music/video files off your iPod like it was a regular backup drive. Of course, your filenames will be all gibberish, so you probably set iTunes to organize the music for you, so it will copy, sort and rename the files properly.

However, this cannot be done with the iPhone or Touch, because they don't have disk mode.
 
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