Well, I’ve had the Fuze+ since Christmas, it worked fine for about a month or so, then got the “DRM license is not available” message. Long story short, I got the new firmware, and am hoping that it works this time. Anyway, now that the Fuze is working fine, I’ve got another problem. Whenever I go into Rhapsody and try to put a track onto the Fuze, it will say “Transferring 1 of 1 tracks to Fuze+ Approximately 25 secs remaining”. So I’ll wait 25 seconds, then a minute, and still nothing happens. It once took over 3 minutes to put a 42 second song on the Fuze. I’ve tried right clicking on the track and then clicking download track, but that can take as long as 3 minutes, and I really don’t have that much time for 1 track. Please help, I’d really like to find a faster way to put songs on the Fuze.
Try rebuilding the database of Rhapsody. Hold down CTRL+shift and click on tools then select “Back up and rebuild database”. If that doesnt wokr, format the Sansa.
Well, when I go into Rhapsody and click on tools while holding down ctrl and shift, I don’t get the option to 'Back up and rebuild database"
The tool he’s referring to is available under a different heading with the latest Rhapsody 4 client.
The tool is “Backup and Reset Application Data Directory”. The new Fuze+ is atomic fast with the latest Rhapsody client build. Somebody got things right this time around. My song transfers are in seconds, and that was benchmarked with a 4G wireless connection throttled to 1.5Mb/s.
Click on Help > Check For Updates and update your Rhapsody client first. They have changed a lot in the latest build, much more stable. If you are still having s-l-o-w transfers (watch the device to see when reading / writing stops- the status bar in blue at the bottom of the screen ■■■■■, and always has. It lags horribly, especially if it has pending messages. Oh well, they can have one glitch, I guess.
If the Fuze+ remains a toad when loading, it’s best to format the device (you can do this from Rhapsody, but I prefer using the device itself: Settings > Format > Yes. This will erase all media from the device, and you will have to reload your music.
Then, connect your Fuze+, open Rhapsody, authorize the device, and reload a few tracks to see how quick she goes!
Bob 
Thanks, I’ve found it. Now, if I click it, that means that all of the Rhapsody tracks in the library will be gone, right? The library has over 8,000 songs in it (A lot of which are probably unneccesary) and i’m guessing it’ll take a while to get all of them back. Also, there’s 2 other Sansas besides mine that use Rhapsody too. So if the library gets wiped out, would that cause problems for them too? Sorry if these are stupid questions, I’m just a little leary of completely messing something up.
The Rhapsody tools are pretty powerful. What I would do is isolate the problem first, whether the device may have an issue with the client.
It’s been a few years since I have had to rebuild everything from scratch for the Rhapsody client. In those days, it was the DRM cache that was giving me issues, and not the library. I have three daughters, so you can guess what size the library on one account looks like.
FIRST keep things simple. Check for a client Update, and install that if one is available. This will retain your existing library, but the update itself is going to do much more for you in terms of speed and simplicity.
Be right back…coffee brewing time. Don’t use the tool just yet. Rhapsody has updated the user tools by integrating them into the client rather than hiding them in the Rhapsody folder on the PC. Normally, these tools should be used under direction from Rhapsody Support; the Tier 2 support staff are available during the week for more involved issues.
Try updating, then your next step is to clean the Fuze+ and reload. Again, take it one step at a time. I have even seen Rhapsody chug along slowly, only to have it literally fly when transferring, a few hours later. The servers can get backed up occasionally.
Oh, almost forgot. By your post title, I thought you were going to mention the quirky “Christmas music in July” issue. Occasionally, in the Channels, they pick seasonal (Christmas) works by favorite artists. When you hear one out of season, it’s pretty funny.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
@neutron_bob wrote:
The new Fuze+ is atomic fast with the latest Rhapsody client build. Somebody got things right this time around. My song transfers are in seconds, and that was benchmarked with a 4G wireless connection throttled to 1.5Mb/s.
You are right about that Neutron_bob.
Currently I am overcoming the slow UI issue by loading everything on my SD card (still have about 5GB free). This leaves a lot of space that is currently being unused. If I donwload an album from Rhapsody to internal memory, then the UI slugishness returns…BUT…If I download channels, since they are not included in the database, I still get sharp UI.
I currently have 12 channels on my Fuze+ memory and I would have NEVER tried 12 channels using the original Fuze. I’d still be updating this morning.
Quite frankly, that is the only thing that is making me keep this thing. Just when I get ready to say screw it, this bad boy will be my secondary player, I fire up Rhapsody and BING!!! Much is forgiven.
Fix the sluggish UI and long boot cycle and I’d have no complaints.
Remember the Rhapsody e200 Sansa as set up when new? It had a large collection of Channels preloaded. You have a cool idea there, reserving the internal memory for recordings and channels, and using the external memory for everything else, one could have a very nice assortment of new music to browse.
The Channels tracks are managed differently than other music, as a unique playlist that is automatically updated using the Rhapsody client.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
Well, first off, I’m positive I have the latest version of Rhapsody. It got installed when I got the Fuze+.
Second, it really seems to be a sort of hit and miss problem. Just now I got on and tried putting a few tracks on the Fuze. At first it was doing okay, though no matter what, it always says “27 Secs remaining”. It started off taking about a minute, but after only 6 tracks, the last one took almost 2 minutes. And they are all average length songs. So it’s pretty much wipe out the library or wipe out the Fuze, right?
Oh, and just one last thing I thought I’d throw out there. Before, when the Sansa would get hung up, I’d try restarting the computer, and that usually worked for a little while, but now that doesn’t seem to work either.
There is an option in the Rhapsody client to load files as streams, or to cache a copy on the hard drive for transfer later, this option takes up some drive space but allows you to transfer an entire album or list for quick loading later.
As you’ve seen, it’s hard to rely on that crawling status bar at the bottom. It’s been a Rhapsody quirk for several years, so have a look at your Fuze+ to see if writing has been completed. If you have to grab the device and run, click on the disconnect button in the upper right.
I wouldn’t redo the library, if yours is like mine, it’s big. I did rebuild it a few times over the years, including importing the library after updating Rhapsody, and it went without incident. I would, at the most, simply reload the Fuze+. You’ll see that some tracks seem to load slower than others, I think this is on the server side, and not your device.
If you look under preferences, you can try downloading a track that was slow, to the computer, without the device plugged in- this way you can get a feel for the speed differences.
Bob
Okay, thanks for your help. After I made that last post, I tried putting some more tracks on the Fuze+, and got about 50 on the device. It seems to be working a little bit faster, though it’s still taking over a minute to put a single track on the Fuze. Though it helps if I’m doing something else on the computer to pass the time.
Though it’s still kinda messed up. For some reason, I put a bunch of tracks off 1 album on the Fuze, probably about 6, but it only recognized 3. It must not like Thin Lizzy.
Anyway, I guess I’ll try reloading the Fuze again. 5th times a charm, right. At least i didn’t get the 800 songs on it this time…
Can you use Rhapsody as just a music management software for the Fuze+?
Or is it just a subscription music service?
It has been a long time since I trusted the Rhapsody client for any information. It still gives wrong information on how the progress bar is updated and how much space my channels take up during an update.
I know it sounds extreme, but I pull up Task Manager (or better, Resource Monitor) and monitor my network traffic. If the Rhapsody process is busy receiving network traffic, then I know that I’m downloading from Rhapsody. If it’s receive bytes per second is really low (less than 1000) then I know the client is sitting doing nothing.
Sometimes I even browse the MTP folder structure and look in the Service/Rhapsody/Music/<Artist> folder and check that the files have downloaded.
I wish that Rhapsody was more stable and reliable in it’s status updates, but since Rhapsody is barely making any money I accept the software as it is…bugs and all.
I agree with p_opus. The progress bar has never been that accurate for me.
Agreed. For a while, I fretted over the progress bar, until I realized that it’s brain damaged. At least the music transfer process has improved notably with the new Fuze and the latest Rhapsody 4 client.
I gladly put up with the quirks, since I haven’t lost sight of how miserable it could get a few years ago. Sometimes, you will note that the client will appear to freeze up. Resist the temptation to restart, just give it a moment to wake up.
Bob 
(Alright, just one last quick question) Well, I just re-formatted the Fuze+. (I thought I’d wait a while, just to see if it got any better) Anyway, I was just wondering, do you think it would be better to put songs onto playlists, and then put them on the Fuze, or just drag them straight from Rhapsody? With my old Fuze, (No +) I always dragged songs onto the device from playlists, but with my Fuze+, since day 1, I’ve never had much luck with playlists. Or does it matter?
Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter now. I reformatted, and got a grand total of 3 songs! on the Fuze. 2 of them had been downloaded before hand. I guess I’ll try later on and see if it works any faster. Boy, this is sure annoying.
Compared against earlier Sansas, the Clip+ and Fuze+ are very fast with the Rhapsody service. My old and trusty workhorse, the e200 , has a special relationship with the Rhapsody client.
The client plays possum while the e200 mind melds with it for a little while. Completely refreshing the Rhapsody Channels and updating is a task best done while I do something constructive and diverting, like a chapter of War and Peace, installing a cylinder head, or troubleshooting a dead server perhaps. In contrast, I can plug in the Fuze while brewing a pot of coffee, it seems.
I’ll open Rhapsody…let’s do this while I pen this post…
Okay, I have Rhapsody 4 build 5.337 on this machine. Go to Help > About and see what your build version might be. Mine may indeed be a different version, as this particular one is related to the previous Best Buy build, but I reinstalled over the top of that when RealNetworks went through its “split” from BB a while back, then went to the latest as they found more mobile customers. Rhapsody is a renewed animal as of late.
Regarding playlists, we run into a separate issue, with the Fuze+. Playlists have been shown to slow the device a bit, in particular,if you have a big GoList built. Since you’ve formatted yours, this shouldn’t be a major issue.
With several playlists loaded on my testbed here, the Fuze+ is sailing on just fine. Try loading, say, three complete albums, by dragging them over to the device, and see how the load goes. Sometimes, folks will try loading a big group, totaling hundreds if tracks; this can cause issues at times.
Let me know how a transfer of a few albums goes.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
Can you use Rhapsody as just a music management software for the Fuze+?
Or is it just a subscription music service?
Yes, the Rhapsody 4 client can be used to manage your music, rip CDs, just like Windows Media Player. You don’thave to log in or subscribe to use the program. It’s handy for playlists too.
Bob
