backing up iTunes
 

Please forgive me if this is a totally pedestrian question... iTunes and OSX are kinda new to me (although Macs aren't)
What's the most efficient way to back up all my iTunes music without burning a billion CD-Rs? Would love to have it on an external HD, but couldn't figure it out.

When you plug the external HD in the Mac mounts it, right? So an icon shows up on the Desktop?

Just drag your iTunes folder onto it and it will copy everything over.

aw geez, how embarrassingly simple. thanks.
i'm assuming you mean my Users/Spoonie Luv/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music folder, correct?

ok... when I tried it, I got an [error code -50] message. I think that's what happened last time and made me wonder if it was more complicated. That and the message saying there's not enough room for 14.7 GB of music (even tho there's 19 GB on backup HD available).

also, did you happen to see my other question posted 10/13 about song names disappearing when clicking on them (as if deleted)? (both store CDs and burned) Why does that happen and how can I prevent that? Very annoying.

Don't try dragging the tracks across in one go, select the first half of the folders, copy them across, then copy the second half, they should all then fit.

As for your disappearing tracks, are they still in the music filesystem?

~/Spoonie Luv/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music folder/'Name of Artist'/'Missing track'?

dD

re: backing up
I still get an "unexpected error [error code -50]" message, no matter how many individual song files or song folders I try to drag over. I don't seem to be having this problem with other file types.

re: disappearing song names
the songs remain in iTunes, just with no title (until I retype them)

any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
BTW, we're using a Maxtor external HD.

hmm...

paramErr (-50): error in user parameter list


i wonder if one of your mp3 files has a wonky name.

How big does the Finder say that your ~/Music/iTunes Music directory is? (Use Get Info)

I had errors when copying my itunes files from the mac to the pc. The name of the song might be ackward and causing the error. Is there name limitations when burning to a cd or dvd ? I believe there is is iso format but in apple's hfs you wouldnt think there would be.

I havent tried it so I dont know for sure.

I read in MacWorld another way to backup your stuff is to pop a dvd-r in and go into burn options and make an mp3 disc rather than audio. This will force it to copy them as mp3's....

Next time apple should just have a backup option, especially important if you buy music from their site. If you blow your hard drive without a backup I dont think they'll let you download them again for free.

Mac->PC transfer errors
 

For those of you getting errors transferring your files from a Mac to a PC, even though you have already checked that the files don't have any illegal characters in their filenames, and that they all have file extensions-do the folders you are transferring have custom icons?

This turned out to be the problem for me, Windows was choking on an invisible (on the mac) icon file that was in each folder that had a customized icon.

I can transfer files no problem now.

Hope that helps someone.

Rob

re: paramErr (-50)
is that the same thing as "unexpected error occured (Error code -50)"?

if my music files (.m4a) have a "wonky name", how would I find that?

I was mistaken before. My iTunes Music folder is 20.55 GB, so that's why the whole folder could not fit on my external HD (19 GB). However, when I drag a single artist folder [Al Green], the folder and only one song (out of 28) copies, and then I get the error code message.

Just tried copying a folder of 9 other files to double-check. This is what got copied before the error code popped up:
*the folder itself
*2 out of 2 WAFF docs
*1 out of 2 HTML docs
*1 out of 1 Word doc
*2 out of 3 PDF docs
*1 out of 1 TEXT doc

Again, I am trying to copy stuff to a Maxtor external HD. Is this a problem with my ext. HD?

If it helps, we've owned a Quadra, iMac and now this eMac. We've never seen this kind of problem before this eMac.

If this is not the forum for these kind of questions, please redirect me. Thank you!

Have you tried running any Disk Utils on the Maxtor?

Don't suppose by any chance that the files/sub-folders that did copy have filenames alphabetically before the letter "i"? (and those that didn't start with "j-z"?)

Rob.

is this train of thought that "Icon^M" is tripping the copy?

Haven't done a Disk Utilities yet, will try that.

re: Don't suppose by any chance that the files/sub-folders that did copy have filenames alphabetically before the letter "i"? (and those that didn't start with "j-z"?)

Don't think so. All my song titles begin with a track number and there doesn't seem to be a pattern:

These copied:
*Folders
AC/DC>Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap>[no songs]

*Individual songs dragged one at a time:
02 Love At First Feel.m4a
03 Big Balls.m4a
04 Rocker.m4a
05 Problem Child.m4a
08 Ride On.m4a
09 Squealer.m4a

These did not copy when dragged one at a time:
01 Dirty Deeds.m4a
06 There's Gonna Be.m4a
07 Ain't No Fun.m4a

When all 9 songs were selected as a group, they would not copy [error code -50]

Will look for a Disk Utility for Maxtor and check back.

You guys rock.

I take it the songs you mentioned that would not copy still play ok in iTunes?, and that you can make playable (check in Finder, column view), duplicates of these files on your internal disk?

If you can copy these same files locally AND copy them to a different media (zip, usbflashdrive etc), then it's a dead cert that the problem lies with the external drive.

dD

Exactly, most of my iTunes files went across OK, as it turned because the file names were numbered.
But sometimes album folders that contained subfolders or artwork files would cause errors during the transfer, however not in all cases. This really had me stumped.

It wasn't until my brother replaced his WinME box with an XP Home box that the error messages mentioned something to do with an icon file. But it was when I tried to pull the files from the PC end that the culprit became apparent. The destination folders on the PC would have no files below the (now visible) icon file following an incomplete transfer. Can't believe I didn't realise sooner.

But unfortunately, it doesn't look like this is the problem in this case.

I'm surprised that having a folder (if I'm reading this right) with a "/" in its filename didn't cause a problem though.

Sorry I wasn't more help.

Rob.

P.S. mervTormel, do you reckon its worth submtting the icon thing as a hint at the main site? I know it doesn't solve the issue in this case, but it could be causing others headaches.

P.P.S Just occured to me, do you reckon thats the reason Apple doesn't let you customize your top level home folder icons (without 3rd party hacks)? Hmmmm...

i reckon it's hintable if it's reproducible.

can't speculate what this Icon^M file does or if it's blocked for any reason at the root dir.

I believe that the Icon^M file is used when you make a custom icon for the folder in question.

oh, right, thanx. coulda sworn that was left behind in OSX. i don't mess much with icons; too much trouble :D...

yarg! suppose the carriage return makes it unique.