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Once you've installed MediaRover, launch it from the Applications folder. 
On this initial screen, you will be prompted for the account email address and access code that was displayed on the MediaRover download page. If you don't remember this information, you can return to the MediaRover download page in your account to retrieve it. Enter in your information, then click the Next button. 
On the next screen, you’ll be prompted for your first name or initials. This will get automatically added in brackets to the end of a synced shared playlist to distinguish who the playlist belongs to--for example, "Workout [Dad]". Furthermore, you can also specify a computer name and view its MAC address.
Click next when you're done. 
The next screen lets you choose between two syncing options: Default Sync and Manually Configure.
We suggest going with the Default options, but if you like tinkering around, choose the manual configuration option.
If you choose to manually configure MediaRover, you can select which syncing options you want to keep. When you're finished, click finish. 
Next, you will be presented with a screen that lets you select where on your network the MediaRover files will be stored. It will automatically try to detect the NAS, but it won’t find the one connected to AirPort, so select Manual Configuration to manually setup the disk.
In the resulting window, you’ll want to specify the path to the NAS on your network. This is composed of your router’s IP Address, followed by a forward slash, then the name of the hard drive you have connected. AirPort routers will most commonly have three IP addresses: 10.0.1.1, 192.168.1.1, or 172.16.1.1. In our case, the IP address was 192.168.1.1, so we typed in to the path field the following:
smb://192.168.1.1/SCRATCH
In our case, “SCRATCH” was the name of the drive we had connected to the AirPort Extreme. If that IP address did not work for you, try the other two.
In the username field, type in the name of the user you created in the AirPort Utility, and then type in the password for that account. When you're finished filling in the path and account information, select the Next button to have MediaRover verify the NAS. 
After a few seconds, MediaRover will find and test the disk for use. When the test passes, you’ll get a confirmation. Click Next.
That’s it. You have successfully set up MediaRover. Now on to syncing your library.
After completing the MediaRover Setup Wizard, MediaRover will pop up on the screen. The application automatically connects to the NAS drive on your network and will sync your iTunes library over to it. When it's done, each song will have a nifty little icon next to it: a green slanted arrow means that the song will automatically sync and there is a copy on both your local iTunes library and on the NAS drive; a red “X” means that either the file is a movie and cannot be copied, or it's protected by DRM; and a small spinning wheel next to an item means that it is currently being copied to or from the NAS drive. 
You can see the current syncing status at the top of the MediaRover window. Each song will take a few minutes to copy to or from the NAS drive, so be patient as this process is completed.
By clicking on MediaRover > Preferences, you will be able to tweak different settings that you may have forgotten to check in the setup wizard, including the various sync settings. You are also able to test the network and speed using the button in the Storage tab of the preferences.
You can set up to eight computers to sync with one MediaRover account and NAS drive on your network. To do this, simply follow steps 2, 5, and 6 again on the other computers. You will be able to specify a new person name and machine name when running the setup on each machine, and you can use this naming convention to remember which computers the music was synced from.
Just remember that when you want to sync your iTunes library with the one stored on the NAS drive, you will have to launch MediaRover manually.
Although MediaRover allows you to keep all of your iTunes libraries in sync, there are a few caveats that you should know about. For starters, you will only be able to sync DRM-free music. If you still have iTunes-purchased songs with FairPlay DRM, you’re not going to be able to sync them, or your videos. However, you can sync podcasts by going to MediaRover > Preferences > Advanced and checking the box labeled Include Podcasts when syncing new music.
Despite some shortcomings, MediaRover is still a great tool for getting music to and from your various computers; our only wish is that MediaRover would start up as a menu bar application instead of taking up space in the Dock. There's still room for improvement, but given the fact that MediaRover is completely free, we are willing to live with its few shortcomings.
Follow this article's author, Cory Bohon on Twitter.
magicdude
February 17, 2011 at 3:40pm
I guess I'm a bit confused as to the "big deal" with media rover. Apparently it keeps a library on your local computer(s) as well as a library on your NAS drive. Is that true? But what do you do when you have 100 GB of music on your NAS drive and not on the local computer? How do you get Media Rover to recognize those files? I don't really see the big advantage over iTunes other than perhaps the libraries on multiple computers staying sync'd.
Let me see if I understand this: If my wife rips a cd to her iTunes library, iTunes will save it to her local drive (iMac). Media rover will see this and copy it to the NAS drive, then update my library by copying it to my local drive and adding it to my iTunes library. All automatically.
This is all fine and dandy, but what if my wife and I are using the same iMac, but with separate user accounts. Will it duplicate the music when saving to the local drive? Subsequently bloating my computer with duplicated tracks?
Conversely, (minus Media Rover) I can tell my iTunes to access the iTunes library on the NAS drive rather than my local drive. iTunes will save newly ripped cd's to that folder (NAS drive) and will access that folder to play music. My wife can do exactly the same. While our separate iTunes libraries won't stay automatically sync'd, its not a big deal to manually add the new tracks.
Am I missing something? There doesn't seem to be a big advantage over the built in control from iTunes.
shawnmoss
January 31, 2011 at 6:14pm
Hi All,
What if I didn't want to sync all my libraries together, I just wanted to sync all my libraries in my home to one computer, which I would use as an iTunes media server for my Apple TV's to stream off of. I cannot use iTunes homesharing because I have more than 5 computers with media content in my home. Could I use a syncing service such as SpiderOak? Or is there something much simpler than that?
Kmeyer6051
January 30, 2011 at 1:25pm
I am new to this idea of iTunes sharing. I now know what a NAS drive is. I am all Mac at my house with several computers and thus, several different iTunes libraries. I know iTunes has a function of sharing music across the different computers, but that only works if the specific computers are turned on and running iTunes if want to listen to a specific song. (if there is another way, please help). Having said that, I am considering purchasing a Apple Time Capsule for the purpose of back-ups on all the computers as good measure anyway. I understand the Time Capsule will also share files via NAS. Do I still need to run Media Rover to access them? Or, will a static IP address (via cable company) be sufficient? Am I going in the right direction??
timbreese
January 10, 2011 at 1:25pm
After setting up my AirPort Extreme the only way I could get MediaRover to connect was by connecting to Shared Disks with AirPort Extreme password and Allowing Guest Access. I would prefer to do it your way if I could figure out the problem.
Mac Man Jim
December 13, 2010 at 2:15pm
Is there an app similar to this that allows syncing movies? I'd like to store all my movies on a drive and have access to them from my iOS devices and my MacBook pro when I'm not home.
stepheneasley
November 16, 2010 at 5:01pm
I've got computers in Austin and DC - any way to use this to keep my Austin Computer "synced" to my DC computers?
aztripp
November 13, 2010 at 4:40pm
Are the records of individuals libraries used for marketing purposes to support the Media Rover ? How can this service be "free"?
corybohon
November 13, 2010 at 8:09pm
The MediaRover privacy policy (found here) mentions the following:
We collect personally identifiable information, like names, postal addresses, email addresses, etc., when voluntarily submitted by our visitors. The information you provide is used to fulfill you specific requests. This information is only used to fulfill your specific request, unless you give us permission to use it in another manner, for example to add you to one of our mailing lists.
MacAddict4Life
November 12, 2010 at 7:37pm
Thanks. :) As I recall, the ratings are not stored in the metadata, but in the iTunes library file. Thus no other sync solution handles them. It's pretty frustrating.
corybohon
November 13, 2010 at 8:05pm
It seems that you may be right about that. I just tested and it doesn't appear that MediaRover syncs ratings.
MacAddict4Life
November 08, 2010 at 2:36pm
Does it sync ratings? No solution I've ever found, including those that keep the metadata in files in sync, syncs ratings. This is why I have never found a sync solution that works for me!
corybohon
November 09, 2010 at 4:05pm
In my testing, I didn't notice if ratings were synced along with the meta data. I know that Media Rover does seem to sync and keep in check all metadata associated with songs.
I will hook my MediaRover server back up and will check for you, however. Stay tuned and I will let you know if ratings sync via MediaRover.
