Have you ever suffered through an iTunes malfunction? I have it--and it was not pretty. Somehow, someway, my iTunes library became corrupted and my iTunes installation would not work. If only I'd had Movavi iCopy installed: It would have saved me a lot of time and the tears my daughter shed when she learned I might not be able to recover our recently-purchased copy of Toy Story 2.

Movavi's $40 iCopy serves multiple purposes. It backs up your iTunes library to another location on your PC or Mac; copies music and video files from your iPod, iPad, or iPhone to iTunes; copies files from your iPod, iPad, or iPhone to your computer (not just your iTunes library); and lets you move media content between multiple devices and PCs.

When you launch Movavi iCopy, it finds all of the audio and video files in your iTunes library (but does not locate any apps you may have). Files are neatly organized; you can sort by title, artist, album, genre, or duration. You won't see any artwork, though, as iCopy's interface is largely text-heavy. You can select titles and then hit the "Download" button, which saves them to another location on your PC. You can specify a location, or you can use the folder Movavi creates specifically for this purpose. (Note that batch downloads are not permitted in the free trial/demo version of iCopy. It only allows you to download one file at a time.)

If you connect an iPhone, iPod, or iPad to your computer, iCopy will recognize that device and will list the audio and video files that it contains, as well as any playlists. You can then choose to backup these files to your iTunes library, which is handy if you're connecting the device to a computer with which it is not normally synced.

Movavi iCopy is easy to use and has the potential to save you time and energy if you encounter iTunes problems--or if you lose your iPod, iPhone, or iPad. At $40, it's a relatively pricey insurance policy, though.

--Liane Cassavoy