I think everyone who has used iTunes seriously for the organization and control of a major music collection including for the creation of playlist mixes has had that dilemma of what to do when iTunes crashes and data is lost. It's happened to me a few times over the years and even recently.
I've always been very wary of Apple products and have avoided them over the decades if I could. I dumped my last Apple computer back in the early 1980's and avoided the mac like a plague. However, I did get an iPod and iTunes in the early 2000's which crashed after a couple of years. I gave it another shot in the mid 2000's with an 80 GB iPod but I learned my lesson with iTunes. I then separated my mp3 music files far away from any iTunes directory and loaded them into iTunes from their own drive. I also regularly backed up that drive to a different portable drive. I never used iTunes to download any music files. I never bought any music from Apple in my life.
Over the years I made sure my files were located in a different directories from iTunes but the software was able to locate my files in their alternate universe. I also learned the hard way to keep copies of my playlist which I did physically on a different drive but also copied XML text files of playlist using the Library/Export function and then stored them on my backup drive. On a couple of occasions I needed those text files to instantly recreate my lost playlists which was a real time saver. I also make backups of my backups.
I have been using the MediaMonkey program as a backup to iTunes but have not kept up with it since I've been able to make iTunes work for me but if need be I could take my backups
My obsession with backups is based on a long career working in computer technology, databases and libraries where I was often responsible for maintaining and preserving data files and scanned archival documents.
I started collecting music around 1966 and was doing it seriously and systematically in 1968. By the time I retired at the end of 2016 I had accumulated nearly 15,000 albums and many hundreds of self created mixes. All the vinyl, CDs and downloads had been scanned and stored on my various drives.
Part of the conversation below was about Spotify. I started subscribing and listening to Spotify after I retired and have used it to keep up with new music releases. I've also posted numerous playlists there using an app that makes it quick and easy.
The dialogue from the FB music group.
Hi guys … need your opinions please.
Due to a succession of stupid home IT decisions, poor
back-up disciplines and other idiotic user-errors on my part I find myself at a
cross-roads.
Long story short, I managed to reset the clock on my PC
& then wiped all my cloud back-ups in error. I’ve managed to restore all but the last 6
months of music & downloads but have lost the last 8 years (!!) of iTunes
back-ups (I wiped them in error).
Question now is do I rebuild iTunes & the hundreds of
playlists? Or, is there a better
alternative out there now? I still
can’t quite throw myself wholeheartedly at Spotify.
What’s everyone else doing please? Thanks in advance (feeling stupid 🙄🤷♂️🤫).
I'd love to see what the answer is, because I've been
waiting for an iTunes alternative (one that recognizes .wav files with full
coding and that allows me to curate my collection/transfer and create
playlists) for at least five years, and am literally two operating systems
behind on my 2019 MacBookPro (that I use for life) and my 2012 MacBookPro (that
I use for music, despite the fact that several keys no longer work and the
whole thing runs like it could very possibly shut down for good at any time) in
order to preserve access to those curated properties. I loathe Spotify, Apple
Music, and amazon music.
I have found MediaMonkey to be extremely robust, easy to
use, and rock solid. Pay the like $10 for the Gold edition and you'll be set!
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