Drag and Drop or Media Player sync?

MP3 players Sansa Fuze
1

As a brand new Fuze user with Media Player 11 where all my albums are stored in its library, would you recommend using Drag and Drop from Explorer, or, sync with Media Player in order to get the most correct download of my albums  into my Fuze?  Its also important to me for the album cover art as it appears in Media Player go be correctly stored in my new Fuze…

thanks for your advice on this one. 

2

Running WiMP11 with albums from the library works beautifully, including the album art.

As long as the album art displays in the WiMP interface, it will transfer to the Fuze.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

3

Thanks Bob… .That makes me feel better. When doing the initial transfer using Sync from media player 11 library, do you recall how it notifies you that its completed the transfer? Thats what got me into trouble with the one I just had to send back; It seemed to either freeze during the transfer, or, didnt give me any completion or status instrucitons so I assumed it was done, removed it, and it was dead.

Also, do your HAVE to use ‘playlists’ to organize your music prior to the transfer? or, can it just move over the albums stored in the libary during the sync? I presume its just copying files from your music directory anyway so it shouldnt matter, unless its an organizational thing or a folder mgmt thing it needs. In the Fuze usermanual it talks only about playlist transfers, not about library transfers, so I was wondering.

Thanks again!!

Message Edited by boostm3 on 06-19-2008 05:41 AM

Message Edited by boostm3 on 06-19-2008 05:41 AM

4

If your library is already organized via WiMP, keeping the Fuze “synchronized” with the PC’s library makes sense.

You have two choices, manual transfer of songs via dragging files to the “Sync List” at the lower right of the WiMP interface, or Automatic Synchronization.

Setting up Automatic is a little weird, but simple following the initial setup.  Click the Sync Tab at the top of the screen, then the Fuze will show in the upper right, with a progress bar showing the available and pending capacities.

When you click to make that important first synchronization, WiMP will sometimes go hog wild trying to port everything but the kitchen sink on to your device, and it will overflow the device capacity if left to its happy way.  Not to worry, just be ready on the lower right corner Stop Sync button.

You can set up the sync process by clicking the thin bar on the lower edge of the top-of-screen Sync button, then from the drop down menu, Sansa Fuze > Set up sync.  A menu of everything that WiMP wants to play with will pop up.

Now here’s a weird Microsoft style quirk: you will have to manually click each individual thing you DON’T want, from the list on the RIGHT, and delete the choices, like Old Newspaper Clippings, 5 Star Songs From yesterday, TV Shows I Hate, and the reason for this mayhem: All Music.  Microsoft just has the mindset of controlling everything.

From this point on, any albums you want to transfer can be added to the Sync pane on the right (as you add / delete them over time for space or changed current interest).

Now for the most important part of them all: I treat WiMP11 as my personal PC Poltergeist!  It will fart out on occasion, all on its own, and corrupt the synchronization database.  Fear not, simply redo the process here, or “end device partnership”, and build a new one just as initially.  Your library is still there, well, the appearance will freak you out:  the first time you allow WiMP to rebuild the database, it’s a sight to behold, as things will reorganize and reappear over the process of several minutes.  With the WiMP screen open, it’s fun to watch…as things rearrange after several minutes of apparent inactivity, repopulating the menu trees.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

Message Edited by neutron_bob on 06-19-2008 07:19 AM

5

Bob, I cant thank you enough. This is the info the usermanual should have… And, that quick start ‘joke’ of a manual thats included in the box? Well, no wonder most people would have issues the first time they downloaded. If the user needs to communicate with the ‘complete’ usermanual avaliable as pdf file on site, then there should be an indication that it even exists. Not everybody is going to go to the sandisk site before trying out their new toy… I know I didnt, and the result is, I have to get mine replaced cause it died during transfer… NOt sure whether I caused the damage, or it was defective… But my apple friends are telling me this is exactly the kind of stuff that most ipod users dont endure; its what makes apple apple I guess for them.

There, rant over… As for your download info, its excellent. Perfect amount of detail. When I got my first Fuze yesterday, I connected it right away to my pc’s usb port to refresh the battery. .At the same time I saw it could sync, so I let it do so. I didnt even create a sync list; I think it just started automatically downloading. Now, I have an 8gb fuze, and only 400 songs in my library. So, for it to report I needed to free up 90 mb was inexplicable…

  1. From what you wrote, is it possible it was trying to download pics from my picture directory and things like that? Is that why it thought I was full even though in reality, if it stuck to music, id be way less than half full?

  2. If true, I think next time I WILL create a sync list to Manually transfer… That is the only way, I gather, to stop the Fuze from trying to grab every playable file on my hard drive. If creating the sync list limits the fuze to grabbing ONLY those files on the created sync list, I think thats the answer Ive been looking for. Does this make sense to you?

  3. Also, with a brand new unit, do you think its important to immediately update the firmware, or, should it work ok with what its got since its coming right from the store as brand new, and I can update firmware later?

  4. Im a little confused about the ‘modes’. Now that you know I plan on syncing all my library albums from WiMP 11 using the manually created Sync List, which of these should I set my mode to: Auto Detect, MTP, or MSC? Will the album cover art as it appears in WiMP 11 transfer with the songs, or, do I need to hack something for that?

  5. The owners manual pdf states that transfer music is based on Playlists. . But, with dragging albums/songs to the Synclist, isnt it possible to sync the Fuze even if Ive created no WiMP playlists? Maybe Ill just create one General playlist into which Ive dragged All my music, and then just drag that General playlist to the sync list?

  6. Last, is there any special attention that need be paid to the Fuze folder structure? I dont want to fill up one folder and have Fuze think Ive maxed out the device if there are other storage folders/resources on the device available to use but missed by me because I misused the folder structure or something.

The fact that I have all these questions doesnt say much for the depth of info in the owners materials… thank goodness for this forum, and your help!!

Message Edited by boostm3 on 06-19-2008 09:30 AM