Differential Copying

M

marcusgee

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Howdy, all! I've been looking for an efficient way to back up my iTunes library to an external hard disk. I know that iTunes provides this functionality for backing up to CD or DVD--but as I've got a lot of music files, I'd prefer to do it to hard disk.

Rather than copying the entire folder each time, is there a way to perform a manual differential copy of my iTunes folder to my external hard disk? This sure would save a lot of time and trouble. Thanks!
 
If you just copy the music files, iTunes will not see them. All the music is recorded in a catalogue called "iTunes Library", or similar. However, you can merge the music easily, as OS X has a built-in tool called rsync, which will sync the libraries, and not copy songs twice. You will need to re-import the library to be able to see the new music in iTunes. Here's the guide:

http://www.digital501.com/20061019156/merge-itunes-libraries-rsync/
 
I use ChronoSync. I think it's well worth the price. I have mine set to sync copies of my home folder and other folders to specific places on a FireWire drive. It only copies what's new and/or modified, so that enables me to keep a working, accessible copy of whatever I need on hand -- and I don't have to go digging through incremental or compressed archives to retrieve my files.
 
Code: 
rsync -av /User/Joe/iTunes/ /Volumes/ExternalDrive/Backup/iTunes

You can add things like --delete to it and what not, but best to start with just that command until your comfortable. The trailing slash is important detail you should understand on rsync.
 
Thanks, guys! I'll give rsync a try. I appreciate all the help, especially since I'm just learning my way around Terminal.
 
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