Connected to Mac, now wont work!

I have used my Sansa Fuze, without issue  until i tried to hook it up to my Macbook(usually I use my Windows PC. I had to download Overdrive onto my Mac, but was having problems getting the Mac to recognize the Fuze, so I unplugged it without going through the steps to “safely remove hardware”. After that, I get an error message which says, “Not enough space for Music DB. Please free 90 MB.” Then it turns off. It wont reset. It appears empty when i look at the files on my computer, but full according to the Fuze. Please HELP!

That error message actually means something got corrupted. Format it, then reload all your content. Or plug it back into a Windows machine and run ChkDsk on it; you might be able to repair the corruption without formatting and reloading.

Seconded that you should hook up to Windows and use chkdsk. Or (actually the same function)  hook up to WIndows, right-click on the drive and go to the Properties tab. Tools/Error-Checking/Check Now.  That should fix the 90MB error.

But you are going to still have problems switching from Windows to Apple. With Overdrive you were using Windows digital rights functions by way of  built-in parts of Windows Media Player.  If you look at Settings/System Settings/USB Mode it was probably in Auto, which would send it to MTP Mode, controlled by Windows Media Player (which was found by Auto on your Windows computer).

But, obviously, there’s no Windows Media Player in Apple. When you connect to the Apple, Auto sends you to MSC mode instead–the basic, universal USB connection, not going through Windows Media Player.

Here’s the twist. MTP mode (via WMP) and MSC mode are two separate pipelines into the Sansa. Once the files are there, the Sansa sees them all. BUT your computer can only see the files sent by its own pipeline/USB Mode. The files sent by MTP are invisible to the Apple because they went over via MTP.

So to really get going with the Apple, assuming you have copies of your files, you should format the unit (Settings/System Settings/Format)–which deletes anything you put on. Then set Settings/System Settings/USB Mode to MSC and put your files back on where the Apple can see them. .

The two modes are confusing. But they are on there to give the Sansa more flexibility. MSC, incidentally, works with everything–even Windows–so it’s the better mode for most people. It seems there is a version of Overdrive for Mac, so maybe that will work via MSC mode. You could probably find more info from the Overdrive site or your library.

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