MediaWidget Review: A Program to Copy iPod to iTunes

MediaWidget, one of the many programs that copies the contents of an iPod or other iOS device to a desktop iTunes library, stands out from the pack by virtue of one unfortunate feature: it's by far the slowest such program that I've tested to date. Combine that with a sparer feature set than that offered by other programs and I can't recommend it.

Developer
Bootstrap Development

Version
6.0.64

Works With
All iPods
All iPhones
iPad

The Basics, Slow As They Are

MediaWidget provides the basic features of a program that transfers the content of an iPod to a desktop computer. With one touch, it can import the iPod (or iPhone or iPad) to iTunes, create a non-iTunes backup of the iPod, or sync desktop content to the iPod. In doing so, it's able to move music, album art, playcounts, ratings, and videos.

It does so in largely the way similar products do--one click to transfer all contents, or select individual or groups of tracks to move--but it does it much more slowly. Transferring my standard test set of files, 590 songs totaling 2.41 GB, took 48 minutes, more than 10 minutes slower than the next-fastest program I've tested and nearly 40 minutes slower than the speediest. While a 10-minute difference isn't a major one on its own, transferring 5,000 songs instead of 500, adds up to an 90-minute difference.

That lag might be acceptable if all other aspects of the program were stellar, but unfortunately they're not. For instance, despite transferring 590 songs (the entire contents of the iPod touch that I use to test these programs), MediaWidget reported transferring 593 songs--three more than were present.

And Not Much More

Like some other programs, MediaWidget offers access to some aspects of the iPod's filesystem, meaning that you can browse its contents and, in theory, back them up. In practice, though, these features don't work as well as they might.

In my testing, MediaWidget couldn't recognize photos or videos taken by the iPod touch or iPhone, couldn't access the address book or other data, and was unaware of iBooks files. When there are so many competing programs that offer these features, MediaWidget needs to offer them, too.

Conclusions

For all its faults, MediaWidget performs its basic tasks--transferring music and movies from an iPod to a desktop iTunes library--well enough and avoids some of the larger bugs that plague other programs. But, its slowness and light feature set mean you should look elsewhere.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.