Complete XP-using Newbie's Easy Guide to Getting the Most out of the Fuze!

With the most current firmware update, the Fuze does indeed support folders. It did not originally. It’s at the bottom of the Music menu.

You may have very old firmware that does not support Folders. But scroll down through your Music list, past the first screen, to see Folders as the last item. That allows you to navigate by folders as you do on the computer.

If it’s not there, go to the firmware update post.

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Fuze/Sansa-Fuze-Firmware-Update-01-02-31-amp-02-03-33/td-p/139175

Look in Settings/System Settings/Info to see whether your Version number starts with 1.x or 2.x. Download the All Regions link for version 1 or 2 (which is your hardware version–not an update from 1 to 2). Unzip the zipfile and drag FuzeA.bin onto your Fuze driveletter. Unplug and it will update.

Tags, unfortunately, are not standard, and the underpaid people working at labels do them all sorts of ways. Check the answer to your other post.

Thank you, Black Rectangle…

Yes, I am getting there…folders are there (a long way down)!!!  I did update the firmware recently. My Version is 1.1 (it says on the add or delete on computer).

I imagine that is it.

The last bit ‘Unzip the zipfile and drag FuzeA.bin onto your Fuze driveletter.’ is a foreign language to me!

But I guess if folders are there, it has done it. And content seems to be in folders too. Except for the first piece I ever loaded and which escaped complete reformatting! But that appears under some other heading. What a mystery it all is. At least pictures are easy!

You wouldn’t believe I actually made myself a Wordpress website would you!  Thank God for kind people on Forums without whom I would have achieved nothing! 

THANK YOU!

Your firmware version should be in Settings/System Settings/Info on the Fuze.

What I mean by the zip file is that when you go to this post:

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Fuze/Sansa-Fuze-Firmware-Update-01-02-31-amp-02-03-33/td-p/139175

and download a file, it arrives as a .zip file, which is a file made to be sent online as a complete package–in this case, a folder with the firmware update inside. When you get it, you right-click on it and your computer asks if you want to Extract (or unzip) the files. SanDisk doesn’t tell people that the actual firmware update is FuzeA.bin, and some people on this forum have tried to just put the zipped file onto the Fuze, which doesn’t know what to do with it.

Thanks again…have stored all various bit of information in one place. I have a folder for Sansa bits and pieces and ‘firmware updates’ is one of the items. I assume using it is effectively the same update as the one I would achieve by ‘zipping’ etc?

And does that alter the version I have  from 1.1 to something else?

It takes a long time sorting all this out but I think if this Fuze packed up I would get another so it is worth it. I am very pleased that I have got the hang of installing music.

If your Fuze is working now and you’re happy with it, there’s no need to update.

However, just for information:

There is a Firmware Updater that you don’t need. That’s a program that starts with your computer–slowing down your startup–and when you connect the Fuze, it goes online and checks for a new update. But it’s useless now since the Fuze is not going to be updated beyond its current version. So if you have downloaded or installed that, get rid of it.

Instead, download the All Regions link–which is the firmware itself–for your unit, which is apparently Version 1. Then unzip it and install it.

I don’t think you have firmware 1.1… There is probably a version 1.01.xx, but the highest version is 1.02.31–this is, the numbering never reached 1.1.

How odd, I don’t know where I got the 1.1 from…it isn’t where I thought (on the add and subtract programs)…just checked. Only the updater is there.  Is that what I should get rid of? Easy enough for a change.The item I have says 'Firmware installer and when you click on it it says ‘run’ which I assume was exactly what I did fairly recently…I seem to remember there was also a ‘firmware update’ pop up which muddled me somewhat and I probably clicked that too …nothing ventured etc! In fact that was probably the one that mattered. Oh, I am waking up!

So to recap…There won’t be anymore updates so get rid of the updater. Correct?

So why do I need the All Regions link if there won’t be any more updates? Please confirm that I should do that.

Ah…have found where I got 1.1 from…it says it on the Installation disk …maybe it just refers to the Installation manual?

Clearly says Version 1.1 on the left hand side of disk. Right side says Content PDF Version of the user manual.

Confusing. How would I know where to look for what version I have?  i have had it about 18 months I would think.

I hope all my confusion will help some other bewildered souls reading the Newbie’s guide!

Thanks again!

Sorry …it says Sansa Updater Install…(NOT ‘firmware Installer’ ) that seemed to have been downloaded with the program. At anyrate if is in a folder with anything else relevant on my desktop (where I put it).  

@matcham wrote:

 

So to recap…There won’t be anymore updates so get rid of the updater. Correct?

 

Correct.

 

So why do I need the All Regions link if there won’t be any more updates? Please confirm that I should do that.

 

This is the link to the firmware zip file. This is what you download, extract and then copy to the root directory of your player to apply/update the firmware manually.

 

Ah…have found where I got 1.1 from…it says it on the Installation disk …maybe it just refers to the Installation manual?

 

Get rid of this too. There’s no need for it. Unless you want to use it as a coaster or micro-frisbee. :stuck_out_tongue:

 

Confusing. How would I know where to look for what version I have?  i have had it about 18 months I would think.

 

Go into  Settings > System Settings > Info on your player. The top line is the firmware version that is currently on the player.

 

Brilliant!  VO 1.02.3 IP AND I have adjusted the backlight timing  which is annoying me turning off so quickly.

But I still don’t understand why I need the firmware zipfile etc if there wont be any more updates anyway?

How do I copy to the root directory (whatever that may be!) of my player or will that become self-evident? Sorry to be so thick but hopefully I am not alone in my ignorance! Cheers…time for a drink!  Can you immagine how weird ‘update the firmware manually’ seems to someone not understanding the doubtless symbolic meaning of those words. Manually! Thank you very much for explaining so much stuff to me.

This is the link to the firmware zip file. This is what you download, extract and then copy to the root directory of your player to apply/update the firmware manually. 

If it’s 1.02.31 you’re done.No need to update.

That firmware update thread, which is ancient, still tells people to download the Updater, but that’s pointless now.

You might want to save your own copy of the firmware anyway (the All Regions link) in case the Internet crashes, SanDisk goes out of business and your Fuze gets a glitch.Then reinstalling the firmware might fix it.

The root directory is the driveletter that says Sansa Fuze in Computer (or My Computer). It could be D:, E:, F:, whatever. The root directory of your computer itself is (most probably) C:. Root directory is geek talk for a driveletter that won’t be the same for everyone.

I can see that thanks to your help I have arrived… and as a finale which I won’t blame you for not answering WHAT is ‘driveletter’?

And what is the little card that I can see is in the card slot (presumably an external memory card which I didn’t put in!) …

On settings> info it says:

Memory 7806

Free 6277  (this makes sense to me as I have loaded a fair amount.

SD card 3878    but what is this?!!!

Free 3225

I can’t find any mention of this SD card anywhere, except that you can add extra memory in that slot…but I haven’t.

And another question:  is there some way to hold a page when you want to, eg Info didn’t give me time to write it down, I had to keep going back to it.

All the best.

matcham wrote:

 

WHAT is ‘driveletter’?

 

"The root directory is the driveletter that says Sansa Fuze in Computer (or My Computer). It could be D:, E:, F:, whatever. The root directory of your computer itself is (most probably) C:.

matcham wrote:

And what is the little card that I can see is in the card slot (presumably an external memory card which I didn’t put in!) …

 

Sounds like you got a bonus. Apparently the seller you bought it from on sBay neglected to take the memory card out beofre sending it to you, or maybe it was included in the offering and you didn’t notice or don’t remember.

 

On settings> info it says:

Memory 7806

Free 6277  (this makes sense to me as I have loaded a fair amount.

SD card 3878     but what is this?!!!

Free 3225 

 

The memory info displayed is in mb (mega-bytes). The SD card measurement (3878) is the total size of the card. In this case, it’s a 4GB card.

 

The FREE measurement is how much space that has not been used, or taken up on the card. You still have a little over 3GB space left on this card.

 

On your internal memory the 7806mb figure indicates an 8GB size. You have used less than 1GB of space so far and have approx. 7GB free.

matcham wrote:

 

WHAT is ‘driveletter’?

 

"The root directory is the driveletter that says Sansa Fuze in Computer (or My Computer). It could be D:, E:, F:, whatever. The root directory of your computer itself is (most probably) C:.

matcham wrote:

And what is the little card that I can see is in the card slot (presumably an external memory card which I didn’t put in!) …

 

Well, it had to get in there somehow. Sounds like you got a bonus. Did you receive a used unit where the previous owner forgot to remove the card, or included it in a package deal? 

 

On settings> info it says:

Memory 7806

Free 6277  (this makes sense to me as I have loaded a fair amount.

SD card 3878     but what is this?!!!

Free 3225 

 

That is your external memory card. The memory info displayed is in mb (mega-bytes). The SD card measurement (3878) is the total size of the card. In this case, it’s a 4GB card.

 

The FREE measurement is how much space that has not been used, or taken up on the card. You still have a little over 3GB space left on this card.

 

On your internal memory the 7806mb figure indicates an 8GB size. You have used less than 1GB of space so far and have approx. 7GB free.

  matcham wrote:

And what is the little card that I can see is in the card slot (presumably an external memory card which I didn’t put in!) …

 

On settings> info it says:

Memory 7806

Free 6277  (this makes sense to me as I have loaded a fair amount.

SD card 3878     but what is this?!!!

Free 3225 

 


 

If your player is set to MSC mode and  you open My Computer and look under “Devices with Removable Storage”, you will see the Sansa Fuze listed with parentheses surrounding a letter and a colon.  As mentioned before that’s the drive letter.  Directly below that you will see something like “Removable disk” with a drive letter.  Double-click on that to open it or just right-click on it and select “open”.   A window will pop up showing you what’s inside that drive or the external card in this case.  It looks to me like there is already something stored on the card.  If it’s music, you just got another unexpected bonus.  hehe

If your player is set to MTP mode, then in My Computer you will see the fuze listed under “Other”.  To see what’s stored on the external card, double-click on “Sansa Fuze 8gb” and windows explorer will open and show you two drive icons – one for external and one for internal.  Then just open the one for the external.

Thank you very much!

I bought the item new in a Sale at Curry’s…think it was just under £50. Maybe unknown to me it was second hand…it certainly had an enormous amount of what I think is rubbish music on it (although I didn’t try it) which is why I was so desperate for a way to remove it from cluttering up anything I added and  which was resolved on this forum by being told to reformat it. I assumed the music was, as it were, a gift from the makers of the Fuze…now, still don’t know now what to think…not that it matters.

Well that solves that mystery …sort of. It is a 4gb card which can’t be bad!

Can’t help laughing …I bought it for use as a delightfully light-weight radio …I didn’t know it was an ‘MP3’ (although I had heard of MP3s)…I knew it would store photos (like my cellphone) but I had no idea of its full potential. All this catching up being very recent!

I think that is it…

Thanks to all of you for your time!  I am keeping a copy of everything that has been explained to me for future reference!

Oh dear…Did as you said expecting enlightenment re the external disc …I have in My Computer apart from DVD (H) & CD RW (I) drives there are 'removable  D/ F /E/G ’ drives which when you click on them tell me to insert disk …then there is K which seems to have most if not all of what I have recorded in the way of music…music only and some empty folders for podcasts, stories.

Sansa Fuze J (the main one) seems to have in it the same stuff re music  plus a lot of visual stuff I added.

I have checked the setting and it is MSC set as you said … WHAT does it mean? I am almost sure that has been set that way  from the begining, as I have only recently looked at the settings at all. But maybe I did something accidentally. I supect from what I see that I have been recording music to the external card…but I don’t know why.

So what is MSC

And what is MTP ?  

And what about Autoselect? What exactly!?

And which should I be using?

I can’t give up now. I DO like to know what I am doing. As far as I can, that is! 

Sorry to be back! Thanks. I can’t believe I am asking more questions. It MUST be helpful to others at least I hope so.

MSC makes the Fuze look like any other disc drive to your computer. Two of them: the memory in the unit (J:  is the driveletter in your case)  and the memory in the card (K: ).To put music on the Fuze from your computer, you just drag and drop files from your computer onto the Fuze or onto the memory card. 

MTP lets Windows Media player control the Fuze, similar to the way iTunes works with an iPod. They wanted it to be ■■■■■-proof, so if Auto Detect is chosen for the USB Mode, the Fuze looks on your computer for Windows Media Player (version 10 or newer)  and goes to MTP mode if it finds it.

It sounds like you have been using MSC. GOOD. MTP is more trouble than it’s worth, if you ask me. Don’t bother with it. Leave the unit set on MSC.

How are you “recording” music? From the radio?  Because you can get higher-quality recordings from a site called http://dar.fm/  that records radio programs–though I suspect it is just US radio.

I don’t know why you have so many empty removable drives listed in your computer. That seems pretty strange.

By the way, here’s a link to the Fuze user manual.

http://www.sansacommunity.com/download/11062/Sansa-Fuze-User-Manual/

Since you do have a CD drive in your computer, you can rip your own CDs–convert the music to mp3 files–and put them on your Fuze. You can use Windows Media Player to do that, putting the mp3 albums in a folder on your computer. Then open that folder, connect the Fuze and  drag-and-drop the music onto the Fuze. 

@matcham wrote:

 

I have in My Computer apart from DVD (H) & CD RW (I) drives there are 'removable  D/ F /E/G ’ drives which when you click on them tell me to insert disk …then there is K which seems to have most if not all of what I have recorded in the way of music…music only and some empty folders for podcasts, stories.

Sansa Fuze J (the main one) seems to have in it the same stuff re music  plus a lot of visual stuff I added.

I have checked the setting and it is MSC set as you said …

One thing that I like to do so that I can see immediately in My Computer which drive is the external card, is that I rename the drive name from “Removeable Disk”.  To do this, right-click on that drive and select “Properties”.   In the window that pops up, you should see near the top a drive icon and an empty text box next to it.  The text box is where you can enter a name for the drive.  It can only hold up to 11 characters.  For my card’s drive, I named it “4GB Card” since I have several cards of different sizes and I swap them.  After you click "OK’, you should see that name, with the same drive letter as before, appear in My Computer.

One thing to keep in mind.  When you format the card, the name will always go back to the default one that windows gives it.  And you can always just rename it again.

What have I been doing?

Nothing as adventurous as recording from the radio (point noted though) I have been ‘ripping’ my own CDs to the computer via WMP and then when they appear in My Music (miracle) I open My Computer click on Sansa Fuze (the main one J) to open it, click on Music and drag and drop the item and let it do its thing downloading and then move it into the appropriate music sub -folder   …so I can’t see why any music seems to be landing in removable disk K (the one I didn’t know I had!).

I had thought it had to be connected with the obscure initials MTP & MSC but apparantly not! 

I printed off the Sansa Fuze overview when I first got the little creature but maybe there is a more explicit recent version. I have read it again recently but it is easy to miss things.

I’ll have another look tomorrow…meanwhile if any of you you have a brainwave…do let me know. In the end, it works, but I do like to understand things. Goodnight from London.