iTunes Duplication ?

[mac_shinobi]

Hi

 

Currently using snow leopard aka OS X 10.6.X ( 10.6.6 )

 

Whenever I have gone to backup all my data ( in this case the iTunes folder which contains all my itunes music / xml play list library etc etc ) to another hard drive ( formatted as HFS+ )

 

Format the main hdd ( Macintosh HD in this case ) and then fresh install OS X --> disk permissions check before and after updates until I am back at 10.6.6

 

Then I copy all my data back into the relevant places obviously iTunes music folder under the music section in my profile and then launch iTunes it has duplicated my iTunes so I end up with gigabytes worth of duplicated songs

 

I know there are apple scripts, apps / utils etc

 

But

 

1. why does it insist on doing this when all I have literally done is copy the whole itunes folder

2. It is pointing to the correct xml library playlist file

3. What causes it to do this and is there a better method of backing up / re instating the iTunes library ?

[timzim]

Don't copy the folder back to iTunes, just stick it somewhere else. Go to Preferences - Advanced and tick 'Copy files to iTunes media folder..". Then go to File - Add Folder to Library and point iTunes to you old iTunes library. It should make a copy of every folder/song in the new iTunes library. You should then be able to delete the old folder.

[mac_shinobi]

Don't copy the folder back to iTunes, just stick it somewhere else. Go to Preferences - Advanced and tick 'Copy files to iTunes media folder..". Then go to File - Add Folder to Library and point iTunes to you old iTunes library. It should make a copy of every folder/song in the new iTunes library. You should then be able to delete the old folder.

 

Will have to sort it out and re do a backup but thanks for the info

[srochford]

1. why does it insist on doing this when all I have literally done is copy the whole itunes folder

2. It is pointing to the correct xml library playlist file

3. What causes it to do this and is there a better method of backing up / re instating the iTunes library ?

 

Can't help with questions 2 and 3 but the answer to question 1 is "because iTunes is a pile of ... "

 

One of the reasons I could never buy an iPhone or iPod is because you really need iTunes to use it and I detest that software with a vengeance :-)