Back up iTunes' ratings?

monkeyastronautmonkeyastronaut
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
If I reinstall Mac OS X but back up my iTunes folder (my music library) and import it again in iTunes after the OS installation, will it keep the ratings I've put on the songs in my library?



If not, where is that rating information stored so I can back it up and not lose all those ratings when I'm done reinstalling OS X?



Any help would be appreciated.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    Should work if you store the iTunes music library file and xml file. But make sure all music goes into the same relative directory it was in before, or iTunes may not find files.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by monkeyastronaut

    If I reinstall Mac OS X but back up my iTunes folder (my music library) and import it again in iTunes after the OS installation, will it keep the ratings I've put on the songs in my library?



    I copy my entire iTunes folder from my desktop to my laptop often, and everything is preserved that way, down to the too-big-for-my-laptop-display size that my iTunes main window was last left at on my desktop's display.



    The only things that won't get copied this way are some of your preference settings, which are saving in your ~/Library/Preferences folder. Ratings, play counts -- all of that will get copied.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    groveratgroverat Posts: 10,872member
    Apple needs to find a way to embed this into the file. I had thousands of songs rated, moved to a different HD, all gone.



    Absolutely maddening.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    monkeyastronautmonkeyastronaut Posts: 1,343member
    Thank you! I'll try that.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    groverat that is an EXCELLENT idea. All this metadata should be in the file. I'm always changing my library, and duplicates are a problem for a number of reasons and the size of my Library means every way of getting rid of dupes, even with iTunes and Dupe Catcher, takes waaaay too long. This would solve that. We need metadata! Perhaps with 10.5. Snow Leopard!
Sign In or Register to comment.