Can drag-and-drop .wma files, but they won't play.

I use Windows XP. Just bought Fuze 4G. It shows up in Explorer. I can drag-and-drop music files to the Fuze and internal SD Micro card. The songs show up on the Fuze. When I try to play them, the play screen pops up but the slider won’t advance and there’s no music. It’s 0:00 and stuck on pause.

It sounds like your files are protected. Protected WMA files need to be transferred using Windows Media Player or some other media player that transfers the licenses. You also need to use MTP mode on the the player for the licenses to transfer. Without the liongs won’t play.

It could be that these files are WMA Lossless, which is an unsupported format (meaning they won’t play in your player). They use the same .wma extension as regular files, so at 1st glance it’s hard to tell whether they are the Lossless format or not.

Did you rip these from CD’s yourself? If so (and you used WMP), check your rip settings.

Yes, I ripped songs off CDs to .wma lossless files. All my Christmas CDs, something I don’t want to do over again, on an older off-line computer using WMP 9.

Put the lossless files on a USB drive, inserted it in a computer running WMP 11 and through trial-and-error process I didn’t document and don’t fully understand used WMP to resolve files to “highest quality” yet much-smaller .wma and place them on the Fuze internal memory. Works now.

Fuze won’t work with .wma lossless. Good to know.

All song files were ripped off CDs in personal collection, to .wma lossless. Have them on a USB drive and play them through two different computers using WMP (9 and 11).

@edparham wrote:

All song files were ripped off CDs in personal collection, to .wma lossless. Have them on a USB drive and play them through two different computers using WMP (9 and 11).

You would have to rip them again to either wma (not lossless) or mp3.

If you really want lossless files, Fuze long ago had a firmware update so it can play FLAC.

Whether anyone can actually hear the difference between lossless and high-bitrate lossy files, when played back through the Fuze in some portable situation, is contentious enough to start long flame wars.

If it were me, I’d convert the wma lossless files (or original CDs) to .mp3 at 256 kbps (or 320 kbps if you want). You can set Windows Media Player to do that under Rip.

Someday you or a friend may get a player that doesn’t play .wma, whereas everything plays .mp3s. 

":If it were me, I’d convert the wma lossless files (or original CDs) to .mp3 at 256 kbps (or 320 kbps if you want). You can set Windows Media Player to do that under Rip. "

Some will suggest using mp3 vbr averaging 192 kbps saying that it sounds as good as 256 kbps cbr but saves space. Some devices such as some digital recorders or some car stereos may not work properly with vbr files.

@jk98 wrote:

":If it were me, I’d convert the wma lossless files (or original CDs) to .mp3 at 256 kbps (or 320 kbps if you want). You can set Windows Media Player to do that under Rip. "

 

Some will suggest using mp3 vbr averaging 192 kbps saying that it sounds as good as 256 kbps cbr but saves space. Some devices such as some digital recorders or some car stereos may not work properly with vbr files.

I have audio files about 2 hrs long vbr, it locks up my sansa after about 1hr playback. Converting them to cbr seems to fixed that problem :smiley:

@jamieson wrote:

 


@jk98 wrote:

":If it were me, I’d convert the wma lossless files (or original CDs) to .mp3 at 256 kbps (or 320 kbps if you want). You can set Windows Media Player to do that under Rip. "

 

Some will suggest using mp3 vbr averaging 192 kbps saying that it sounds as good as 256 kbps cbr but saves space. Some devices such as some digital recorders or some car stereos may not work properly with vbr files.


I have audio files about 2 hrs long vbr, it locks up my sansa after about 1hr playback. Converting them to cbr seems to fixed that problem :smiley:

 

I’ve never had any problem with VBR files, on any of the seven Sansa players that I have owned. CBR is so 20th century:stuck_out_tongue:

2 hour long files are probably voice or audio books, and for those CBR is usually as good as anything else.  Its high quality rips where VBR shines.

Edit:  Also I wouldn’t use WMA Lossless.  Not much supports it.  

yeah I know:smiley:. I dont know why audio files more than an hour with vbr locks up my clip. They are set to ID3v2.3 ISO 8859-1.

@jamieson wrote:

yeah I know:smiley:. I dont know why audio files more than an hour with vbr locks up my clip. They are set to ID3v2.3 ISO 8859-1.

 

I don’t think the ID3 tag format has anything to do with it. But I have also heard others who have had problems with VBR-ripped files, whether they be music, podcasts or audio books.

Granted, this was some time ago and on older machines (e200 series), but I started with CBR way back when and still use it today. Maybe it’s me, but I’d prefer not the mix the two on the same machine.

Call me cautious, stubborn or just plain stupid but I’d rather not tempt fate. With the new larger memory cards, smaller file size just isn’t enough of an incentive to get me to re-rip and change my whole library now.

I have CBR and VBR files, on all of my four current Sansas, and they are fine. And yes, they even work fine together in the Sansa firmware.:stuck_out_tongue:

No problem with VBR files here either. But none of them are two hours long.

@jamieson wrote:

yeah I know:smiley:. I dont know why audio files more than an hour with vbr locks up my clip. They are set to ID3v2.3 ISO 8859-1.

 

If you have foobar 2000, you might try checking those files with foobar’s integrity verifier. Sometimes VBR files get slightly discombobulated in the decoding process… the verifier might say something to the effect of “inaccurate length reported”. If that happens, there is another option called “fix VBR mp3 header” which solves the problem.:wink:

@marvin_martian wrote:

 


@jamieson wrote:

yeah I know:smiley:. I dont know why audio files more than an hour with vbr locks up my clip. They are set to ID3v2.3 ISO 8859-1.

 


If you have foobar 2000, you might try checking those files with foobar’s integrity verifier. Sometimes VBR files get slightly discombobulated in the decoding process… the verifier might say something to the effect of “inaccurate length reported”. If that happens, there is another option called “fix VBR mp3 header” which solves the problem.:wink:

 

Just downloaded MP3 Validator and currently scanning all my audio files in my PC. About 60% of the files says they have a problem. :smileyvery-happy:

@jamieson wrote:

 


@marvin_martian wrote:

 


@jamieson wrote:

yeah I know:smiley:. I dont know why audio files more than an hour with vbr locks up my clip. They are set to ID3v2.3 ISO 8859-1.

 


If you have foobar 2000, you might try checking those files with foobar’s integrity verifier. Sometimes VBR files get slightly discombobulated in the decoding process… the verifier might say something to the effect of “inaccurate length reported”. If that happens, there is another option called “fix VBR mp3 header” which solves the problem.:wink:

 


Just downloaded MP3 Validator and currently scanning all my audio files in my PC. About 60% of the files says they have a problem. :smileyvery-happy:

 

 

:dizzy_face: Well, I hope you can get them fixed!:smiley: