Can't edit MP3's on my Sansa through Windows Media Player?!

Alright, so I’m currently using an 8GB Fuze with a 16GB memory card, and when I add music to my Fuze via Windows Media Player, I’m not able to edit any info about the MP3’s or even play them on my computer through Windows Media Player.

For instance, I’ll sync some songs to my Fuze through WMP, and I’ll then go into the part of WMP that shows the files on my Fuze, I’ll right click on a song that I want to change the title of, but “edit” will be grayed out. I’ll attempt to double click it to play it, but nope…can’t do that either!

Does anyone know why this happens? I’m getting really pissed when I have to result to deleting a whole album just so I can add some art-work to it or change the name of the album title.

Any help would be great.

Windows Media Player may be making those files write-only when it sends them over. You’d have to look through its settings to see what’s going on. Look in Rip, Sync, Import and see if there’s an obvious setting that’s messing with your files.

If you’re ripping your own albums, WMP may be adding copy-protection. Go into Rip and Settings and make sure the Add Copy Protection box is unchecked (t’s checked by default), or just switch the format from …wma to .mp3.

But you don’t really need WMP to send music over. You can put the Fuze in MSC mode (Settings/System Settings/USB Mode) and just drag-and-drop albums over. WMP Is only necessary for music from subscription services–Napster, etc., because it can send over the hidden unlock codes.


For tag editing,  you can get the free, excellent, MP3tag and have a real tag editor instead of the annoying WMP.

When you install mp3tag allow it to add itself to context menus, so you can just right-click an album folder and have mp3tag open it.

Run mp3tag when you install and go to Tools/Options/Tags/Mpeg and change Write to ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1. Save that change. It makes tags the Fuze likes to read. Under View, Extended View lets you play with the album art.

If you use MTP mode to connect the player, then you can’t change the file name or tags of files on the player. Instead you need to change the copy that is stored on the pc, delete the copy on the player, then copy the file to the player again. Even in MSC mode though, sometimes changing the filename or tags of files on the player can cause problems. The best idea is to make changes to the copy on the pc, delete the copy on the player, then copy the file to the player again.

How do I make it do MSC mode?

Settings/System Settings/USB Mode.

I tried going into MSC mode, but the “edit” option was still grayed out.

Get a real tag editor: mp3tag.

When you install mp3tag, during install you’ll have an option to add to context menus. Allow that–it means you can click on a folder of mp3s and have mp3tag open it. After it’s installed,  fix the tag format:  Under Tools/Options/Tags/Mpeg make the Write option ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1. Fuzes think those are ultra-tasty.

Find the music in Windows Explorer (Computer or My Computer), right-click on the folder, use the mp3tag option to open it. If that won’t edit the files, somehow you have made them Read Only (right-click, look in Properties) and you may have to rip them again. Rip them to mp3, not the Windows Media Player default of .wma.

Second this. Get a real tag editor. WMPlayer still uses the ineffective sync method.