Backing up your iTunes / iPhone / iPad universe on Windows 7

Although I've never owned a Mac, I'm about as deep into the iUniverse as one can get. My entire life is crammed into this iPhone and has been for nearing 4 years now. I'm not the only one in this situation. Losing the device isn't that big of a deal since you can go buy another one, plug it into iTunes and drop the last backup of your life on it without skipping a beat. But what happens when your computer goes up in flames? Or what if you switch computers? You want to be able to get iTunes back up and running exactly as you left it, complete with all the apps, iPhone & iPad backups, playlists, and music libraries. Unfortunately, Apple has chosen to make the back-end happenings quite complicated. The following is what I've figured out from snooping around my machine and from the intarwebs and how to automate the process of backing all of this up.

Before we get started, note that this post applies to Windows 7 and iTunes 10.1.1.4. Future versions of iTunes may not be organized the same way, and could ruin Christmas. Previous versions of iTunes and Windows may have the same difficulties. I'll try to keep up with changes to iTunes in future posts.

Couldn't care less about what these files are and just want the backup script? Fine, here it is. Your browser may interpret it as just a text file (Chrome did). Save it as such, then change the extension to .bat to make it executable. Replace 'Kevin' with your Windows 7 user name and 'Z:\iTunes_Backup' with a backup directory of your choice. I do recommended you read on though...

Backing up the iTunes folder in your user directory

There are two important files located here: C:\Users\UserName\Music\iTunes\

Apple explains what they do here, but I'll regurgitate it here as well. (Interesting note: That knowledge base page I linked to shows the files as 'iTunes Library' but mine are named 'iTunes Music Library'.)

iTunes Music Library.xml. - This file is pretty long (mine was 104,373 lines long!) and contains all sorts of information about the tracks, like where they live, play counts, etc. Other applications use this file, but it looks like only iLife-related ones care. This is more important on Mac OS.

iTunes Music Library.itl - This is the important one! It's a database that contains song-specific data like ratings and comments. Most importantly, it contains your playlists. Sadly, it's not something that's human readable. We want to hang on to this one.

If you've never changed your iTunes media folder, it lives here and is aptly named 'iTunes Media'. We'll discuss that folder later.

What else is in this folder? In my installation, it looks like the rest of the stuff here is a graveyard of old files and apps from iTunes-es of yesteryear. It's better to be safe than sorry, so I back up the entire business.

Backing up iTunes local application data

The next folder we want to hang on to is: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\iTunes

iPodDevices.xml looks like it keeps track of what devices iTunes has found in the past.

Not going to lie to you, I have no idea what the rest of these files are for. The only reason I recommend hanging on to them is because the timestamp is always recent on them, so iTunes is actively using them. 

Backing up iTunes roaming application data

Hang on to this guy: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes

There are several more files and folders in this directory, but again I'm not too sure what they're for. We'll keep them though. 

Also, this guy: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync

This is where your iPhone and iPad backups live. They're named incoherently, but these are the backups you choose from in iTunes when restoring from an old image of your device. There should be a few gigs of data here.

Let's also hang on to these other folders since they seem to also be related:

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\SyncServices

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\Preferences

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\Logs

Backing up Music, Video, Books, Apps, and everything else

Find your iTunes media folder location by opening up iTunes, then selecting 'Edit' - 'Preferences' - 'Advanced' (tab). iTunes defaults to C:\Users\UserName\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media

This is where iTunes keeps your apps, downloaded music, videos, podcasts, movies, TV shows, books, etc. That said, this is a pretty important directory. I don't recommend keeping it in the default location; instead I'd rather see it on a separate hard drive so it's not tied into your user account and with the rest of the OS. As a rule I always keep data separate from the operating system drive in case it goes down. Since we're backing this stuff up, it may be a moot point, but a good practice nonetheless. 

Backing up pictures and videos taken on your iPhone

Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to automate this part yet. When Windows finds your phone after you've plugged it in, it shows up in Windows Explorer and you can manually copy those files out of it.

Automating this process with a script

I use a script to back up my data, and you can download it here. Unless you happen to be me, you'll need to change it slightly.

1. Change all instances of 'Kevin' to whatever your Windows 7 user name is. If you're name is Kevin, you just saved yourself nearly 8 seconds of work.
2. Change all instances of 'Y:\iTunes_Backup' to the path where you want to back all this stuff up to. 
3. Change 'J:\iTunes' to your iTunes media directory. If you keep it in the default location, C:\Users\UserName\Music\iTunes\, you can comment this line out since it will be included in the first robocopy command. Add two colons '::' to the beginning of the line to comment it out.
4. Don't be alarmed when launching this script opens a command prompt; people get scared of DOS-looking things. Nothing shady is going on, with the exception of sending your bank account and credit card information to Wikileaks. 

Every time I sync my phone, download music, or do anything else iTunes related, I always launch the script after I close the application. It just takes a second to kick off, then you can walk away and let it do its thing. Just make sure you close iTunes before you run it. Putting an icon on your desktop helps too. 

Recovering from a disaster with your backup

Simply install the latest version of iTunes, copy your backup files to their original locations, and pray that this version of iTunes hasn't changed where it wants to see these things. Since we kept the folder structure the same in the backup as it is in your user directory, you can simply copy all of the backup data from its safe haven into your user directory once you get your computer fixed/installed/revived/etc. If you are able to maintain the same paths that you had before, when you open up iTunes after restoring all of these files, everything will be exactly as you left it. If the path to your iTunes media folder has changed, you'll have to create a new library and the associated playlists, comments, ratings, etc will be wiped out. Bummer aye? That's iTunes for ya. Hey, at least you've got your iPhone backups, right?

Hit up the comments below this post if you have any questions or corrections.

Verizon iPhone 4: Follow-up

Avid reader Ryan S. pointed out that although I listed out a series of scenarios for what people might want to do regarding Verizon's iPhone 4 in my last post, I never really explained my personal plan. To get right to the point, I will not be pre-ordering a Verizon iPhone 4 on February 3rd. Let's talk about why.

Way back in 2007, I had never even heard of an iPhone on the day Apple released it into the market, single handedly changing the entire direction of the mobile market. Actually, I wasn't even aware of the hype surrounding it. Being more interested in overclocking my PC to the point where it was about to catch on fire than on how pretty a bright white case looked, Apple wasn't even on my radar. Plus, $600 was (is?) an insane amount of money to pay for a phone back then, especially when we didn't know how dependent on these things we were going to be. That said, the moment I read this article I literally leaped out of my cube and bolted to the local AT&T store. I got there so quick they didn't even know the price had dropped, but quickly figured it out. I haven't missed an iPhone release day since. I am unsure how this story was relevant, but there you go.

In a post several months ago, I described the pain of having a pseudo-mountain in between my home and the closest AT&T tower. This problem was remedied in the summer of 2010 with the release of a $150 microcell... for the most part. It is very common for a call to immediately fail 2-3 times when placed and it occasionally drops active calls even when close by. The thing is buggy, that's for sure, but for all intents and purposes it gets the job done. Combine this buggy microcell with the fact that my shiny new white screen has a faulty proximity sensor (resulting in such comical mid-call-ear-dials as a three way call with a cab company in Lake Tahoe), you'd think I'd be jumping at a chance to replace the phone with a new one on a new carrier. Frankly, I really don't care. Of all the features I use this device for, the phone is one of the least used parts of it. It's really a car & work music playing, home audio controlling, web surfing, Comcast DVR programming, Twittering, run tracking, weather checking, and text messaging machine. I make frequent calls on it too, but all these other functions are used far more heavily and the experience is fantastic. And when I do make a phone call, aside from being up on a mountain somewhere or out in the boonies, I have no major problems with AT&T's service. I've been having dropped calls for seemingly forever; it's something I've learned to live with. I think most AT&T folks have learned to live with this too. So, I'm in no rush to jump ship.

Jumping to Verizon now would result in an early termination fee (ETF), likely in the hundreds of dollars as the two year contract I signed for the on-contract price for iPhone 4 ends in June of 2013. Normally I'll pay anything for the latest and greatest, but this is really just the same phone. It's on a better network, but that's not all that important to me. This might be a different story if they bumped up the maximum storage available to 64GB, as I've been running out since the 32GB 3GS. I've been removing things regularly to keep a reasonable buffer for something hefty, like navigation with off-line maps and 720p video capture. PLEASE DELIVER A 64GB IPHONE SOON, I'M CONCERNED I WON'T BE ABLE TO FIT LADY GAGA'S NEW ALBUM.

The next question is, when the fifth generation phone comes out, which carrier do I choose? If they forgo LTE in the next round and being locked to a carrier remains necessary, everything else being equal I will jump ship to Verizon. It's kind of a no-brainer, unless the ETF is hundreds of dollars. In that case, I don't mind hanging around another year on AT&T's network. Should this next model be LTE, I'll review where both networks stand regarding LTE deployment and pick whomever looks like they'll get to my area first. The carrier most likely to have their act together will be Verizon, but full deployment won't occur until 2012. Really the only thing keeping me from moving to Verizon is the ETF.

Either way, it looks like I'm about to get gouged on the next generation iPhone. I'll get the on-contract pricing with Verizon but I'll have to pay a hefty ETF to get out of my AT&T contract. To buy the AT&T device, I'll have to pay some special pseudo-off-contract price per this text message from AT&T below. Who knows how much that will be.

On a nearly unrelated note, AT&T's system for telling you your upgrade eligibility is hilariously awkward. Logging into your account, and clicking 'Check Upgrade Options' gives you the instructions below. 

You call this 3 digit number wrapped in special characters, the result of which is AT&T sending you a text message with the answer. Well, at least I thought it was entertaining.

That's all for now on the Verizon iPhone. If possible, I'm going to try to write about something non-iPhone related soon. To be honest, my next post is probably going to be about backing up iTunes data. Fail.

Verizon iPhone 4

Well folks, it finally happened. Today Apple dropped an iPhone on Verizon after years of speculation. They're about to sell millions of them to the unwashed masses, so should you AT&T non-believers run out and get one? First, some deets on Verizon's particular model:

• It's CDMA only, unlike the GSM only AT&T iPhone. For the non-mobile-standard-savvy, CDMA is one method for a phone to chat with cell towers. AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM, which is incompatible with CDMA, hence the iPhone being only available on AT&T until now. This is important for a few reasons, because CDMA and GSM are very different technologies (just ask Wikipedia). 
• CDMA doesn't support simultaneous voice and data. If you're yapping on the phone, you can't surf the web. If you're surfing the web, streaming video, having a naked Chat Roulette session, or doing some other internet activity, an incoming call will disrupt it. 
• It won't work in Europe. CDMA is not prevalent in Europe (it is in China, but you'll have to look to see where else), but GSM is. You can wander across the pond with an AT&T iPhone, pay reasonable international data and voice fees, and hop on their networks no problem.
• Verizon's CDMA network, at least in the pre-iPhone 4 world, is more prevalent and robust than AT&T's network. Everyone's always whining about their AT&T service, including myself, so it's great to see an alternative network. You have to trade this off with the disadvantages above.
• Since the frequencies the phone uses to communicate with the network are different, the antennas have been changed slightly. Ars Technica reports that the antenna issue of yesteryear may be gone, at least within their limited time playing with it. You may finally be able to hold your phone in any way of your choosing; a right that was once taken away from us. 
• The ability to use the phone as a wireless hotspot has been added, but there is no word on pricing yet. 
• The remainder of the hardware is the same, and she's just as purdy and snappy as ever. 

Before I get in to whether or not I think you should run out and get one, it's worth thinking about what the next generation iPhone is going to be and when it is going to come out. In the past, I did not believe that Apple would release an iPhone on Verizon's network in January simply because it would be out of sync with the June iPhone refresh that has been occurring every year. Releasing this device in February puts the Verizon iPhone 4 only four months away from the nearly certain launch of iPhone 5, or whatever they'll call it, for AT&T this summer. 

What has always made the most sense to me was for Apple to launch Verizon and AT&T devices simultaneously. Whelp, they were about 8 months late on iPhone 4 for Verizon. So the question is, do they sync up the releases with the next version? I can't imagine that either wireless behemoth would be particularly thrilled that the other carrier received the new hardware first, and at this point there is no reason for Apple to play favorites.

If Apple is going to synchronize iPhone releases, they could do it in June like they have been with AT&T. This would make for some seriously pissed off owners of 4 month old, freshly outdated iPhones on Verizon. Hopefully Apple learned their lesson after the consumer backlash of dropping the original iPhone price $200 not too long after it was released, resulting lots of free iTunes gift cards to angry full-price-payers. So maybe a June release doesn't make much sense either... 

What about skipping the AT&T refresh entirely and syncing up with Verizon in February 2012? That's a long wait for us AT&T folks, but one that might be worth it. Think about this: What's in store for iPhone 5 anyway? iPhone 4 already has a display so nice that you can't differentiate individual pixels. It has the long awaited front facing camera, a blazing fast processor, an 8MP camera, and plenty of RAM to handle the limited multitasking unveiled in iOS 4. It's not since the 3GS that we noticed any real speed improvement; this device can already handle everything we can throw at it. Looking at the Android and WP7 devices popping up at CES last week, you can see where phone hardware is headed: Multi-core processors, tons of RAM, high-megapixel shooters on par with regular point-and-shoot cameras, more on-board storage, 1080p video recording, and LTE connectivity. Every one of these features I mentioned are small potatoes compared to one: LTE. Without LTE, iPhone 5 will be a very incremental hardware refresh that, quite frankly, is boring. 

Don't get me wrong, doubling the on-board storage and slapping on one or more of those features is going to sell a lot of phones. I'll be in line with the rest of them, dropping elbows and trampling children in a mad dash for the latest and greatest on release day. But it's really LTE that matters, and neither of the big carriers are ready in any practical capacity across enough of the US. Widespread LTE won't be realized until early 2012, making the shift to a February iPhone hardware refresh sound much more reasonable. Apple could release a single phone that could work on both networks, which would incur them great cost savings in manufacturing. Of course, they could come out with an LTE iPhone earlier than that, heck even in June, but it is unlikely. Take the 3G iPhone as an example; Apple waited long after 3G handsets were prevalent before getting into the territory. I suspect they'll do the same for LTE. 

The bottom line is that I expect some sort of non-LTE phone released simultaneously on both carriers sometime after June or a multi-carrier LTE phone in February.  In the mean time,  should you get a Verizon iPhone 4? The answer  is very situation-dependent, and not entirely clear. Here are my thoughts:

• Current Verizon customers:
• If you are eligible for an upgrade by February 10th, then by all means pre-order this thing and have it for release day. If you don't and I am friends with you, our relationship will likely be terminated. There simply isn't a compelling enough Android or WP7 phone to justify any other device on this network. It is also not worth waiting for just the chance that an iPhone 5 could come in June, since they can't add anything all that compelling to the feature set. A June LTE phone might be worth it if you lived in an LTE area, but those are few and far between, and that release is highly unlikely.
• If you're not eligible for an upgrade, this device can get pretty expensive without being able to sign a 2 year agreement. You'll have to figure out if it's worth it to you when they announce off-contract pricing. 

• Current AT&T customers:
• Note that we still don't know how Verizon is going to handle having millions of iPhone's jump on its network in the next few months. Wait it out and see how it goes. Data sucking iPhones across the US nearly took down AT&T a few years ago; hopefully Verizon is better prepared. 
• If your contract already ran out, and you're in the market for a smartphone, I would still wait to see if Verizon goes down in flames, at least for a couple weeks after release. If they don't, and Verizon coverage is better in your area, feel free to jump ship. I have not found AT&T's network to be bad enough to run screaming to Verizon though, but it could turn out to be a substantial improvement. 

To wrap things up, iPhone 4 will likely have better coverage and possibly better data rates on Verizon, but you give up the ability to have simultaneous voice and data. This annoyance will likely be on par to AT&T's habit of dropping your calls. Remember that everything will change once iPhone goes LTE, and all of this will have to be re-thought. I don't believe that will happen for quite some time.

February should be interesting. Good luck out there.

More coverage:

Should you buy a Verizon iPhone? - Ars Technica

The Verizon iPhone - Engadget

Verizon iPhone Hands-on! - Engadget

American Express Comes Through on Broken iPhone 4!

I filed a claim with American Express' purchase protection program after my iPhone 4 shattered asit was still in the 90-days-from-purchase window. Lo and behold, about a month after the claim went in they came through and are crediting me with the full purchase price! I've included the PDF they emailed me below. This more than covers the ~$150 it cost to replace the screen, although I'm not quite sure it covers the emotional pain and suffering. 

I'll make sure to always, always, always use my Amex for all pocketable electronics purchases; couldn't be a happier customer right now.

iPhone 4 Screen Replacement First Look

Two tiny screw drivers, one iPod prying tool, 8 shot glasses and two hours of manual labor was all it took to swap out the heartbreakingly shattered screen for this sexy new white one. 

Shattered screen on the right, freshly renovated internets phone on the left. That piece in the bottom left corner of the picture should not be sitting next to the phone. It should be inside of it. Whoops.

I kept the home button black for dramatic effect. Completely my own original idea.
Full writeup to come after the weekend, enjoy these glamour shots for now. Here's to not breaking another screen. Salut.