Review: TuneRanger simplifies juggling of multiple iTunes libraries

Posted by Don Foy Oct 27, 2008 at 2:05pm

Dadadump dadadump dadadumpdumpdump. As a kid, one of my favorite shows was the Lone Ranger. So I was intrigued when I noticed TuneRanger’s masked CD icon. Was it really all about truth, justice and the American Way? Wait, that was Superman, wasn’t it.

Anyway I’ve been looking for a way to sync iTunes libraries across my home network for some time. I’ve been known to run iTunes on a server and share that library across the home network. Right now I’m using a NetGear ReadyNAS to house the library and access it from the network. With a wife and two daughters, one a teenager, the diversity it our library is interesting — from the Jonas Brothers to the Doobie Brothers, and everything in between.

The size of the library has grown to around 20GB. That’s not a big deal unless you try to manually sync all those libraries (three computers) and then copy it to all of those computers. Did I mention that at least one of the computers is wireless only (the built-in ethernet port stopped working a few years ago). Takes a while. And your ratings are all gone. And you have to set up new playlists. And then one daughter decides she doesn’t like Keith Urban so much anymore.

Enter TuneRanger. TuneRanger allows you to sync your libraries between as many as four individual machines, Mac or PC, with one $30 license. Yes, you can sync your PC iTunes library to your Mac iTunes library across your network. Not that you would have a PC or anything, but in case you want to switch from your PC to your Mac and take your music with you, TuneRanger can take care of you.

TuneRanger is available from Smith Micro.

But that’s not all TuneRanger does. It an help you identify and delete duplicate files. It can rid you of orphan files (One of my pet peaves about iTunes is that if you’re not paying close-enough attention, you can delete a song from your library, but leave the file on your hard drive. TuneRanger will take care of that).

You can also do a filtered sync. Suppose you want to sync only your Christmas music to the computer in the living room. With TuneRanger you can do that.

But probably the most useful feature is the ability to sync your iPod to your computer. Not the computer to the iPod (well, it can do that, but iTunes does that). iTunes will not let you copy music from the iPod to your hard drive. TuneRanger will let you sync your iPod music with your iTunes library, making them identical in one easy step. Yes, I know there are free utilities out there that will copy your iPod back to your Mac and add the files to iTunes, but TuneRanger copies stuff both ways in one step.

The Good

TuneRanger does what it says it will do. You can do simple syncs or get as complicated as you want to. It does its job pretty fast. I tried a sync across a wireless g network and it worked fast enough. Your mileage will vary as do all networks. And I love the icon.

The Bad

I hate to sound like a shill for the developer, but I couldn’t really find anything wrong with the program. If I wanted to get really picky, I could say that the software wasn’t as intuitive as they claimed, but it didn’t take very long to figure it out.

The Ugly

Move on along, nothing to see here.

The Bottom Line

Yeah, I know, you can find programs that do what TuneRanger does. But TuneRanger does pretty much everything you would need, all in one package and most tasks are simple. If you have a bunch of Macs, a bunch of family members and a bunch of iTunes libraries, and would like to get them all together, TuneRanger is up to the task.

Macsimum Rating 8 out of 10.

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