I have an 8gb Fuze, marked on the back with B10908BMTK-8GB, running 2.03.33 firmware. Have had it about 2 years and love it for the most part, just having an issue I hope someone can help with. Most of my songs are saved in .wma format, and when I connect the Fuze to the computer, you can see songs on an album that will not show up when you disconnect the Fuze and try to access via Artist, Song, Album, etc. However, songs from the same album WILL show up if they are part of a playlist that I have sync’d through Windows Media Player. I use an external 16gb Sansa class 4 microSDHC card on which I store all of my music, to keep internal memory free for playlists, but this same issue was present when I had an 8gb card and had music scattered on both internal and external memory, so it doesn’t appear to be related to where I store the music. The files are from CDs that I own, so there should be no issues regarding music rights, etc from downloaded stuff.
Tapeworm, thank you - while not computer-illiterate, I’m not sure how to edit ID3 tags, and the description in Wikipedia was not real descriptive. I have looked in Windows Explorer to look at the file properties, but did not see any ID3-related verbiage. Can you provide any additional detail or where I could find a how-to on editing? And just to confirm, this would mean some songs from the same album would not show up on the Fuze except if they are part of a playlist?
There are tons of discussions, tips, instructions, etc. on editing ID3 tags and the preferred dedicated (and free) tag editor program already here on the forum.
And yes, theorectically you could have a song identified correctly if included in a playlist, but not be able to find it in the normal listings.
When you install it, let it add itself to context menus. Open mp3tag and set Tools/Options/Tags/Mpeg to Write ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1. Save that so it becomes the default.
Go to the folder of the album.
Right-click and use mp3tag (in the menu since you allowed it) to open it.
Highlight all the files. Make sure they’re in the order you want them to play. Under Tools/Autonumbering Track Wizard choose the Leading Zeroes option. Run the wizard. That gives you good track numbers and ID2v2.3 ISO-8859-1 tags the Fuze likes.
Most media/audio management programs, such as Windows Media Player, iTunes, ect. will have a built-in editor.
I believe I should clarify and say that, technically, wma files don’t use ID3, but instead use their own metadata system. In fact, I believe ID3 is only used with MP3, while most other formats use some completely separate system. For example ogg files use “VorbisComment” instead of ID3. It’s not quite the same as ID3 (in fact I have no idea what the difference is, but you probably need to be a software developer to figure that out), but has the same function.
I tried the MP3tag download and unfortunately it did not work. In looking further on my Fuze files and what does and does not show up on the player, I discovered that my problems start with (looking alphabetically on the player under Artists) with The Allman Brothers, and up from there through Z. The only songs showing for these artists are ones that are part of a playlist (I have 3 playlists sync’d to the Fuze). Any ideas / suggestions would be appreciated!
I tried the MP3tag download and unfortunately it did not work. In looking further on my Fuze files and what does and does not show up on the player, I discovered that my problems start with (looking alphabetically on the player under Artists) with The Allman Brothers, and up from there through Z. The only songs showing for these artists are ones that are part of a playlist (I have 3 playlists sync’d to the Fuze). Any ideas / suggestions would be appreciated!
Perhaps you chould try downloading a program called Media Info. Open one of your problematic files with it, and copy/paste everything it says here. Perhaps something it says might help.
Were you unable to download mp3tag? That is very strange.Do you have some kind of intense antivirus software? You can disable it for a second and download mp3tag, just turn it on again afterward. mp3tag is definitely not a virus.
You can edit tags individually in Windows Media Player, Winamp, etc. The great thing about mp3tag is that you can edit a whole album at once, and be sure that you are getting the right format, ID3v.2.3 ISO-8859-1.
I should have provided more details. I tried this on one album (Beatles 62-66) where only 4 songs would show up on the Fuze - these were part of playlists. I successfully downloaded MP3Tag, tried to convert the files to the leading zeros option, then copied the converted song files over to the Fuze to see if the (missing) songs would show up, and they did not - not in Artist view, or Album view.
The track numbers affect the play order. You need to set mp3 tag to write the tags as ID3v2.3 ISO 8859-1, and to remove all other tags. Make sure the artist and album tags are filled in properly. To get rid of the other tags you need to use the remove tag option. Don’t forget to choose save tag after making changes to tags.
I tried mp3tag again on one album that would only show certain songs on the Fuze, and tried removing the tags, and then saved the files. While it said the tags were removed, it still showed “WMA” in the tag column of the program (which is what it showed before as well). I set it to write the tags as shown in the note, and also tools / options to “leading zeros” method, then took the saved files and copied to the Fuze, but unfortunately the songs still didn’t show up. I’m really confused as to why this only seems to be happening on artists that start in the "T"s, but not for anything up to that point? And I still have plenty of storage left, so it should not be anything related to storage on the Fuze (or the external 16gb card). Thanks for all suggestions to this point, and any additional ideas any of you may have!
How many songs do you have? Typically the song limit on the player is around 8,000 if you have one of the later firmware versions, however if you have embeddded album art, or long filenames or long tags, you might hit the song limit at much less than 8,000 songs.
I’m wondering if you have hit on something. When I look on the computer and right-click for properties on the file where I store my songs, it shows 9,567 files; my Fuze shows 5,686 songs, with the difference maybe being those that started to get cut out from “T” and above. And i do have embedded album art, so while the 16gb card still shows ~3gb left, maybe i’ve reached a song limit?
Your files must be WMA, not mp3, so they have a different tag format–ID3 is for mp3.
There is a limit on how much the Fuze database–which lists the songs under Album, Artist, etc.–can hold. Apparently you have reached it.
You might be able to squeeze some more on by un-embedding some art. You only need one folder.jpg per album to display the cover. Mp3tag can extract album art under Extended View–you’ll see a floppy-disc icon which will extract a folder.jpg image, and then an X to get rid of the embedded art. You could try doing that on some of the albums while they are on the Fuze and see if it helps at all.
Downside is that mp3tag doesn’t always extract an image–depends on what is embedded–but you could always go back to the copies on your computer.
If you connect to the computer in MSC mode, you will only be able to see the music you added in MSC mode, in MTP mode you can only see the music added in MTP mode. If you connect in each mode in turn, (change on the fuze in Settings>System Settings>USBMode), all your music should be visible
