Cannot sync my music to fuze properly, please help

[mp3hunter]

Hi everyone,

Finally settled on the fuze for my replacement player, only thing is I can't seem to get my music synced to it!

I copied my music files from my 8gb ipod to my computer's 'my music' folder and imported them in WMP. When I synced the player, after about 40 mins it was done syncing but upon looking through my albums I discovered there were quite a few missing.

Read a few posts and people seemed to have general problems with WMP and the library deleting randomly so I downloaded Jukebox 14 and transferred music files to there but same thing happens. Granted the library stays put but albums still missing. They are present in library but not on player as far as I can see.

I have approx 1400 music files. Is there perhaps a limit to how many can be synced at once? I hit ctrl + A and just drag the whole lot over, it even says 14** selected on the mouse pointer.

Is the problem that I copied the files directly from ipod to computer? Like I said they all show up in library as far as I can tell.

My sansa fuze is an 8gb one, already updated to the latest firmware. My ipod is also an 8gb and I get no error msgs whatsoever and everything should fit if they are the same capacity right?

I am running windows 7 32bit.

Apologizes if this has been answered before but I'm tired and just can't find anything.

Appreciate any help given. Thanks

[CrowdAds]

[dgb52]

Have you just tried dragging and dropping directly to the Fuze ?

[lestatar]

^ Yes, that...But make sure your Fuze is set to MSC mode first and keep it that way.

Then you will not need WMP at all [which is a very good thing as WMP is..ahem...quite bad IMO]

[FreeZ5]

mp3hunter:

I'm one of those who doesn't use WMP, but two questions...

1. Are you using MTP, MSC, or Autodetect?

2. What extension is on the filenames of the missing files? IE, I'm pretty sure that Sansas ignore .m4a files.

Steve

[mp3hunter]

Hi,

dgb52 - Yes I tried it, whatever way I sync if I press play all there is only 178 on player, despite sansa music folder having 1411 files.

Lestatar and FreeZ5 - I have it set to MSC.

FreeZ5 - not sure how to tell now as they all have the jukebox logo but they were all imported into that programme successfully.

[meetooman]

I you experience the same problem with 2 different managers you can wonder if your files are not the source of the issue. I would check if their music file formats are all compatible with the Fuze as FreeZ5 already told you. The Fuze does not support AAC which is the iPod's favorite format.

[mp3hunter]

How do I view and change the file formats? Is there a free programme that does it?

[mp3hunter]

file type is .mp4

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by mp3hunter

file type is .mp4

.mp4 doesn't work on the Fuze. That is the AAC referred to in the earlier post.

[mp3hunter]

Thanks Marvin, now I know the problem. Anyone got an idea how I rectify it?

[Marvin the Martian]

Since you have an iPod, you must have iTunes on your computer, right? If so, I think you can use iTunes to convert them to mp3, which will play on your Fuze. They'll probably lose a bit of quality in the conversion process, but most people won't hear the difference, unless they have good earphones.

[nodirectionhome]

yes, if you don't have CDs to rip, that is probably the only way to get all your music - converting the aac files to mp3.

[mp3hunter]

Thanks Marvin and nodirectionhome.

Can you give me step by step instructions please? I have actually deleted itunes once I copied my music but it's easy enough to reinstall.

Also is there a better file format than mp3 that works with the fuze that I could convert to, I know they work with quite a few as I am planning on buying decent headphones and I hate tinny sound.

[Marvin the Martian]

I can't help you with detailed instructions.....I don't have iTunes on my computer so I'm not sure how to do it.

[mp3hunter]

Oh well it was worth asking, thanks for the info though. If you think of any formats that are better quality and ways of conversion please let me know as me and itunes have had a falling out and I really don't want it taking up hard disk space.

Thanks again Marvin

[skip252]

If the files were created by ripping them from discs it would be best to re-rip them. If you transcode them there is an unavoidable loss in quality. Whether or not you hear that loss would be the important part. I have been in the position were I didn't have the source discs available and the only way to use the files was to transcode them. Most often I didn't hear the loss in quality be in a few rare instances I did. It won't matter which format you use, the loss is unavoidable. The files as they are now is the best they'll ever be.

There's no need to re-install iTunes. There's a number of free transcoders/rippers available. The one of the better ones is fre:ac. It has the encoders you need included with the download. The interface is simple and intuitive IMO. Configure the LAME encoder to a bitrate/quality level lower than what your current files are and let it go.

You want to use a bitrate lower than the one they are now. A higher one will just net you a larger file that doesn't sound any better.

One question, is the Jukebox 14 you mentioned earlier J. River Media Jukebox? If so check your Device settings. It's been a while since I've had it installed but I seem to remember that it had the capability to transcode on the fly as it synced files on to a device. Sometimes that's only included in the paid version of media managers but it's worth looking into.

[mp3hunter]

Thanks skip,

can't work out how to do it in itunes so I'll try your way.

Side issue - do micro sd cards stick out of the fuze a bit. Brought one and it slides in easy enough but sticks out slightly. I would've thought pushing card in would make it flush like with phones?

[skip252]

Once the card clicks and locks into place it sticks out a hair. I've never had an issue with that. It's been my experience that it takes a push with something thin directly into the card slot to make it travel far enough to release.

Which have you decided to do? Re-rip or transcode?

[mp3hunter]

Transcode I just have way too many files, would take days! Does the programme you mentioned allow me to drag and drop to convert or someway of selecting a whole music library, cos if I have to do them one at a time I may as well re-rip everything?

[skip252]

Drag and drop it is. Single files, albums or entire folders.

Be sure to set a bitrate at or below the one the files are at now. In the options menu also set it to only write ID3v2 tags. The additional ID3v1 tags it writes otherwise aren't needed and will just slow the Fuze's database refresh. I think once you try a few albums it should be very simple. On my mid grade PC transcoding the average album takes a bit more than two minutes.

I know you want to get up and going now and transcoding will do that. However since you do have the discs I would strongly advise you investigate using a quality ripper and creating a lossless archive. Using EAC or a similar secure ripper to rip to FLAC would be a good way to go IMO. Done properly you shouldn't have to ever rip your CDs again. You''ll be able to produce lossy copies in any format you want without the quality losses of transcoding lossy to lossy.