Fuze Shuffle

MP3 players Sansa Fuze
1

This is for an 8GB v1 Fuze.

I have a couple of questions on the shuffle algorithm on the Fuze.  I have a daily podcast that I download to the player.  Of course, every time I have to connect the Fuze to the PC to transfer the podcast, the Fuze refreshes its database on disconnect.  Then, during the day I listen to the podcast and when it’s over I switch over to music, which I have set as Play All/Shuffle.  I end up hearing the same songs every day.  I just skip the ones I don’t want, but obviously the shuffle order is getting reset at some point.  My first question is, in what circumstances, exactly, does the Fuze reset the shuffle list and is there anything I can do about it?  I think I may have a double issue because I suspect that it resets both on a database refresh AND when I switch listening “modes” (i.e. from music to podcast and back again).  I’ve thought about just putting the podcast into the Music folder because then I could just navigate to the right folder, listen to the podcast, and then continue listening to the other music, but with the database refresh I don’t think that will help my issue.  It would certainly help if the Fuze firmware was smart enough to know when nothing in the Music folder had been changed.

My follow-up question is, if anyone is using the Rockbox software with the Fuze, could you tell me if it would solve this problem or if it also resets the shuffle order in the same cases that the Fuze does.  In looking through the Rockbox FAQs and manuals it appears that it has the option to manually only refresh the database when you add something.  However, I’ve never used it so I thought I’d ask somebody with actual experience.  :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks all!

Message Edited by bbexperience on 02-04-2010 10:10 AM

2

The first question: the shuffle remains the same if you power on/off and skip tracks.  If you go back to the list and pick something to play it will reset.  It will reset on a refresh.  There’s no real way around it.

With rockbox you could save the dynamic playlist and return to it when you’ve finished listening to whatever else you were listening to. Or you could add the podcast to the dynamic playlist as “play next” and then the music would just play in order after it finishes.  You can then remove the podcast from the list if you want.  There’s probably other ways to do it too…