Backup Has Never Been Easier
Delicious Library is an amazing way to catalog your book, movies, music, and video games -- but once you've assembled your collection and loaned out items to friends, the last thing you want to worry about is dropping your laptop, having your computer stolen, or losing everything because of hard drive issues.
Luckily, combatting data loss is easy! By backing up your data monthly, weekly or even daily, you can ensure that no matter what the circumstance, your library won't skip a beat. Backup is the #1 best way to protect yourself from whatever curve-ball technology may throw - yet still surprisingly few people back up regularly. Like flossing or cleaning the dryer lint tray, backup is a routine maintenance task that most people dismiss with an "I'll get to it it later" attitude... and sadly eventually lose data.
Today is the day to take a stand and protect yourself from tomorrow. And the great news is that, just today, Apple introduced the brand-new Backup 3 software as part of the new .Mac, which makes it easier than ever to enter data-saving nirvana. With only a few clicks, you can schedule automatic backups of your iTunes music, your photos, and all your documents. It's free for anyone with a .Mac account or someone who creates a free .Mac trial account. (For more details, see Apple's tour video of the new Backup software in action.)
So where does Delicious Library fit in all of this? One of the excellent new features of Backup 3 is "QuickPicks" - an easy way to grab documents and settings to back up without having to worry about individually locating or finding files on your hard drive - and Delicious Monster is happy to announce the immediate availability of our very own "QuickPick" that makes it easy to back up all your Delicious Library data with just one checkbox.
Download (requires Backup 3):
Delicious Library Backup "QuickPick" Plugin
Using Backup to keep your Delicious Library data safe is easy:
- Join .Mac or sign up for a free .Mac trial account.
- Download the new Backup 3.
- Download and install the Delicious Library Backup "QuickPick" Plugin.
- Install and launch Backup 3 and press "Continue" to get to the main Backup window.
- Press the + button to create a new backup plan and choose "Custom."
- Under "Backup Items," press the + button to add an item.
- In the "QuickPicks" tab, choose "Delicious Library" and press "Done."
- Set up a destination and schedule and you're done!
Of course, you don't need Backup 3 to keep a copy of your Delicious Library database, although it does make the process easy and automated. If you'd prefer to back up your database by hand the old-fashioned way or you use another backup tool like SuperDuper, just make sure that you're backing up from the following two paths, both located inside your home folder:
~/Library/Application Support/Delicious Library/
~/Library/Preferences/com.delicious-monster.library.plist
No matter how you choose to back up, just make sure to back up early and back up often. It's absolutely the best way to protect yourself from the unexpected.
posted by Drew Hamlin at 4:00 AM
29 Comments:
Is the .quickpick format documented anywhere? I'd like to make my own for personal use.
Anonymous, this is Drew from Delicious Monster. It's not documented anywhere that I know of, but it's really not all that difficult to figure out. They're stored in /Library/Application Support/Backup/QuickPicks/. Just control-click one and Show as Package Contents, navigate down through the folders until you get to the files and just start looking around. It's pretty straightforward and easy to make your own as well if you have moderately-advanced computer experience.
Of course remember - partial backups are good, entire backups are great. Backing up ALL your data at once is always the best thing you can do. But backing up your most valuable data is the next best thing.
you guys are the best, today I read an article on TUAW.com about your new backup plugin. Heck I didn't even know Backup 3.0 was released. Now I'm back to getting everything burned to DVD on and an external drive on a daily basis.
You're helping out without even knowing it....
Dave
FYI, The installer works only if you are logged in as administrator (which I usually am not).
Well, not only do you have to be an admin and logged as such to install the package but the permissions for the files in the package are all wrong.
Any chance we might some day see delicious monster play nice with isync? I would love my desktop and laptop to both know my current movie collection :)
This is Drew from Delicious Monster. Thanks to comments from users here, I have uploaded a refined version of the installer for our QuickPick. This new version includes correct ownership and privileges, as well as properly prompting for administrator authorization if necessary.
It also includes a Dutch localized version of the QuickPick, which we also received from a user by email.
I bought DL about one week ago and was immediately smitten by its GUI and feature content. It makes it a pleasure to log/scan etc our home DVDs, Books, CDs etc.
I'm an Apple Backup 3 beta tester so having the DL Quickpic on board allows me to QA it as well as all the other things in the BU3 toolkit.
I d/l the DL Quickpic and it installed without problems. I then setup a BU3 Plan just for DL and ran it straight away without seeing any problems at all.
Great stuff IMO.
BTW - Why can't I open the file /Users/MY-ACCOUNT-NAME/Library/Application Support/Delicious Library/Library Media Data.xml using the Property List Editor ? It is owned by my account. This file is normally locked but it makes no difference if I unlock it. I assume this file contains my License code which I should have access to, right ?
me again asking about the /Users/MY-ACCOUNT-NAME/Library/Application Support/Delicious Library/Library Media Data.xml file.
Seems I was wrong and the License code is located in /Users/MY-ACCOUNT/Library/Preferences/com.delicious-monster.library.plist file. Using the Property List Editor I can obtain my License code. See, I answered my own question - kind off. :)
Anonymous, this is Drew from Delicious Monster.
You're right, the license code is in the preference file. You can also see it from within Delicious Library by choosing "Delicious Licensor" from the "Library" menu.
The reason you can't open the Library Media Data.xml in Property List Editor is because, well, it's not a property list. :) It's just a feature of that app that it only works with plist files. You can open our XML file in a text editor like TextEdit though and it will work great.
me again asking about the /Users/MY-ACCOUNT-NAME/Library/Application Support/Delicious Library/Library Media Data.xml file.
THANKS Drew. :)
Can DL team please post a list of new features they are working on ?
I'd like to see a feature that sums up the totals for Retail and Current values for my CDs, DVDs, Books, etc. This would be an excellent feature for Insurance purposes.
I'd like to see a feature that allows me to import an image of a Book's front cover. I have books that Amazon doesn't have - they're really old books without ISBNs or Bar codes. Some are School text books from my University days.
My stuff is scattered about my house. Would be nice to have feature that reports/displays all things that are say located in my Attic.
Thanks.
This is Drew from Delicious Monster.
First Anonymous, I answered your question right above your latest request for followup.
Second Anonymous, we appreciate your feedback and feature requests. To formally file suggestions like these, please use the "Send Bugs & Feedback" feature in the Help menu of Delicious Library to make sure your voice is heard. We track all feature suggestions closely by popularity.
For clear reasons, we don't discuss details when it comes to what we're working on. I would only say that I am very happy with the success of Delicious Library to date and that it has a very bright long-term future ahead.
Drew wrote "For clear reasons, we don't discuss details when it comes to what we're working on. I would only say that I am very happy with the success of Delicious Library to date and that it has a very bright long-term future ahead."
I don't find the reasons clear at all. This is kinda like Apple in many ways and is really being discourtious to customers. I've worked in the IT profession for over 40 years and to my knowledge not one vendor has refused to provide my company with a product road map which would contain software features as well.
How is a customer supposed to have any faith in a software vendor that isn't prepared to state what their planned future road map is. This kind of information allows a customer to make an informed decision on buying into the vendor's road map on the basis of knowing that there's likely to be enhancements that are desirable.
I know that revealing future road maps can cause a business to lose competively but there has to be a way around this as the customer is not being served in this process.
Please find a way to reveal some kind of road map to your customers.
Anonymous said:
I've worked in the IT profession for over 40 years and to my knowledge not one vendor has refused to provide my company with a product road map which would contain software features as well.
Well, interesting, but we're not in the IT business. We don't charge thousands of dollars for our software, we don't sell you hundreds of licenses, and we don't make you pay a yearly support fee to use our stuff.
We're in the home software business. I'm not sure why this is so foreign to you. You own a Mac. Did you call Apple and ask them what features will be in 10.5? Did you ask them what'll be in iTunes 7? Did you ask Microsoft about the next version of Office? Did you ask Adobe about the next Photoshop?
I cannot think of ONE home software company that announces their feature list ahead of time. Least of all, because it would be grounds for you to sue us if we ended up not delivering the features.
-W
Drew, Thanks for great directions for backup and the quickpick. Worked like a charm.
Iam backing up to an ext. Hard Drive
How about some tips on restore. It seems that I can restore the backup but how do I restore mt Delicious Library data?
If I backup to iDisk can I sync the Delicious Library data to my Desktop computer and my PowerBook G4?
Anonymous, this is Drew from Delicious Monster.
It's really easy to restore from Backup: Backup Help: Restoring backed-up files.
To restore your Delicious Library files, just choose a backup plan and press "Restore." Check the "Delicious Library" package, press "Restore Selection," and you're done.
Wil Shipley said...
I cannot think of ONE home software company that announces their feature list ahead of time. Least of all, because it would be grounds for you to sue us if we ended up not delivering the features.
Many do - especially the shareware folks. They always tell you what they're working on in their next release.
Geeesh - sue you - you got to be joking!!!!!!!!!!
I like DL very much but not knowing what new features you're likely to be working on for release over say next 12 months kind of leaves me high and dry.
Wil Shipley said...
We're in the home software business. I'm not sure why this is so foreign to you. You own a Mac. Did you call Apple and ask them what features will be in 10.5? Did you ask them what'll be in iTunes 7? Did you ask Microsoft about the next version of Office? Did you ask Adobe about the next Photoshop?
Just because these companies hold their future road maps close to their chests does not make it right. I personally find it infuriating that they adopt this air of secrecy. It's a complete disservice to the Mac community IMO.
enuff said on the subject.
Pls don't be offended if you don't agree with my position and there's no need to respond further. Thanks.
Just keep working on those secret DL enhancements.
I've started to to add a shelf for my LEGO collection, which is reasonable.
any chance you can add a search link for
say: http://www.brickset.com/default.aspx or the like
which has lots of details about each set, including photos.
so far I have added photos and details manually.
chow
Do you have information regarding DL in spanish?
Re: secrets.
The reason public and private software companies that sell software products do not reveal detailed product road maps is because of competition. It is the same reason that Apple sued the rumour sites. By announcing plans months in advance, you afford the competition the opportunity to launch in advance of you a feature that they otherwise may not have considered.
If you support Delicious Monster and want them to continue to develop an innovative product, you would be wise to quit badgering them about their next great features. Coming out with a wow feature in a few months is what will keep them in business and innovating. If they reveal everything and their competitors adopt these ideas before them, they will stop innovating and do what the competitors are doing - wait for a good idea and steal it. That means less innovation, and less consumer choice; not more.
Hmmm, the website doesn't indicate whether you can export records or only back up in Delicious Library format.
Anonymous, this is Drew from Delicious Monster. I'm not positive if this answers your question, but you can also export your Delicious Library information into a tab-delimited file.
To do this, from the "File" menu, choose "Export."
For more information about sharing your library across computers, you might find this Support article helpful, too: "How do I share my library across computers?"
Let me know if you have additional questions. You can also contact us by email (we might be faster or more informative by email as well) at delicious@delicious-monster.com
i have a question about restoring a backup. my hard drive was failing, so i made sure i had a complete backup of everything. sent my computer to apple, and a couple days later it was back, good as new.
i did a complete restore of the files and it was as if my computer never left my hands - except for one thing: when i started up delicious library, it acted as if i was using it for the first time.
i just checked the backup, and all the files seem to be there. and they all are there on my hard drive. so how can i get the library to acknowledge the files and keep me from having to scan 300+ pieces of media again?
thanks,
bryan
(new mac user here) ... am i correct in stating that if i simply drag and drop my 10.4.5 (intel) home folder to my external firewire drive that will be sufficent to backup email, photos, music and of course DL? i don't know if i want to shell out the $$$ for the backup 3 program from apple that is part of a .mac account. thanks.
In response to Bryan, I've got the same problem, backed up to external HD and now when I replace the files w/ the backed up ones, i get a nice big blank library. All the pictures etc. are there in the folders but the xml back up only shows 4kb and it acts like i've never had anything in there. 800+ titles missing.
Apple replaced my hard drive. I had everything backed up. Cannot get my library back. I used the Backup3 quickpick. Do I need to reinstall the quickpick for the restore to work. Very frustrating.
Brian
Why is it that sometimes I add information, for instance in the "Artist" field, but when I later go back to the item the information I previously added is all gone. This is happening to me over and over again. Thanks.
Congratulations for your Mac spirit : anticipating the most foolish expectations of the consumer...
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