I just got my Fuze and the sync with rhapsody is unbelievably slow compared to my former device on the same computer with the same rhapsody service. It takes more than 20 minutes just to read the number of tracks on the fuze !! I have about 1400 songs and a few podcasts. Is this normal ?
Did you by chance have an e200 R series previously? Rhapsody tracks are DRM encrypted files. The encryption process slows transfers quite a bit. If you rip a CD, and transfer an identical track to your Fuze as an mp3, then as a wma file with copy protection enabled (DRM), you’ll see why a Rhapsody track transfer can be about 30 seconds for a track.
Rhapsody is still scanning my e280v2 at the moment: it has reached 960 tracks so far, and I’ve been plugged in for over a half hour. Hopefully, this will give you an idea of the timeframe for comparison.
With the Fuze or e280, synchronizing from the PC is very fast. A one hour podcast loads in a few seconds. It’s the WMDRM component that slows the works immensely.
As for the long wait while your Fuze says “Writing”…ah! She says “connected” at last. You’re not the only one waiting, and I empathize. I think of it as time to catch up with the forum or listen to a bit of music. This arduous scanning process, comparing the device to the library, can’t be done in a panic. It’s best done with the idea that the battery is charging anyway. I’d love to be able to plug in, load that album I have an urgent need to listen to today, and jet out the door, but I’ll just have to wait a wee bit.
Computers are excellent at repeated operations, and comparing data. I would have configured the program to load the mtable.sys file into a buffer for a rapid comparison by the Rhapsody client. There’s an album data file for comparison too, but either of these convenient shortcuts are missing the real reason why your Rhapsody client crawls along at 15 track steps: It’s amending the license data entwined into each track to the current date.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
Thanks neutron_bob. Is there any reason then, that this same process with the identical pc/library combo would take a fraction of the time on my Creative Zen ?
I hope the Fuze/Rhapsody connection can improve some, but I understand your reasoning.
You can GREATLY speed up the process by simply “unseating” your MicroSD card prior to connecting the player to Rhapsody. I don’t use the SD Card for any subscription content.
So it churns and churns just to see my .mp3’s. It’s easier for me to unseat the card (if I am in a hurry) and bypass the scanning external card step.
This won’t work if you use the card for subscription tracks, but it’s a workaround for me and may help you as well.
Message Edited by p_opus on 08-01-2008 06:10 PM
I am having the same slow scanning in Rhapsody with an 8 gb Fuze. Bob’s explanation does not make sense to me, because Rhapsody scans my Creative Zen M’s roughly 1300 Rhapsody subscription tracks in under 2 minutes. It scans about 800 Fuze tracks in 10 minutes. Sandisk staff, please, any explanation? Any fix? Is a fix being worked on? Thanks.
Message Edited by bnsfr on 09-14-2008 05:32 PM
The Fuze is a wee bit faster at synchronization than the e200v2, based upon dead reckoning and regular sessions. I just ran a test with two devices, R4 build 4.0.4.311.
For giggles, I mounted a 2GB µSD card in the v2, filled with 32MB remaing. The race begins!
Fuze- 255 songs (2GB device), 5 minutes. Looks like about 50 tracks/minute.
Doing some reverse tweakage on the time, this matches the v2, at 21 minutes for over 1000 songs.
Allowing the Rhapsody 4 client to have a go at the music data…the track licenses are all updated, without triggering a transfer.
I’ve adapted to the crawling nature of the client. I would love to see it fly through the process, especially if I only want to add a few tracks before popping out the door.
Bob 
My Sansa m250 is scanned at a rate that is about 4x faster than the Fuze. My Creative Zen M is scannd at a rate tha is about 7x faster. This isn’t making any sense to me, and its a drag, literally. Is there anyone at Sandisk reading this? Can you please explain? Is there a fix to this, now or in the works? Thanks.
Message Edited by bnsfr on 09-15-2008 09:42 AM
Please, could someone at Sandisk reply to this message and help me understand why the scanning process in Rhapsody takes so long and if this will be fixed? Thank you.
Yea, that’s an issue that I’ve noticed. I’ve taken to connecting my player to Rhapsody, then walking away from my computer for an hour. Even with the uSD card ejected, it’s seriously slooooow.
I replaced my E200 with a 4 GB Fuze back in June. I immediately noticed the same thing. Takes about 5 - 10 mins to load before I can do any adding, deleting, etc. Was hoping to find an answer here. Lets hope someone from Sandisk is reading these forums.
How about a curveball then?
I have had Rhapsody freeze up a few times recently (haven’t troubleshooted yet), so I’ve simply halted the program. Reopening the client, after it had frozen at about 700 tracks, the R4 client runs through the device tracks at atomic fast speed.
Quite obviously, there’s a queue still active somewhere, as Rhapsody doesn’t simply start crawling along from scratch…
Food for thought.
I’ll need to use the secret handshake to get in touch with RealNetworks (US level). Once I do, my hair will be white, and my face will be sunburned, like Charlton Heston (Moses). I’ll pass on any findings.
Bob
It appears to me, since the Fuze says “Writing” soon after I connect it to Rhapsody, that Rhapsody is writing something to the device, and not just reading it, which is what I would expect from a “scan.” What could it be “Writing”? Its not relicensing, because the licensing date is not updated on the device. It does not appear to automatically update the Channels, and one would expect that to occur after a scan anyway.
Sansa staff, don’t you review these forums? Please, if you do, could you please help us out here?
Rhapsody is writing to the DRM license store during scanning, refreshing the licenses automatically.
We will review the performance vs other players. As the Fuze supports the Rhapsody optimizations there is additional content being delivered to the player as well (Artist text, ratings sync, Channel refresh. etc).
We feel your pain, and will investigate for ways to speed this up.
Thanks for the response sansafix. I can assure you, whatever the benefits, they do not outweigh the burden of a 20+ minute wait for every interface with Rhapsody. I really don’t have this kind of time many mornings before work, for example. Could you please provide an update to this thread after looking into it? I would really appreciate some way of speeding this up, or at least having some options to do so when time is tight if there are benefits that can be cut out on the user side of the interface in order to speed things up. I can assure you, from real time experience, that the Sansa m250, the Sansa Connect, and the Creative Zen M all scan MUCH faster than the Fuze in Rhapsody.
As it is, this is pretty dysfunctional. Could there be some review and fix in the next few weeks?
Look forward to your reply, I will check back regularly on this thread. Thanks again.
Message Edited by bnsfr on 09-18-2008 07:47 PM
Message Edited by bnsfr on 09-18-2008 07:50 PM
Message Edited by bnsfr on 09-18-2008 07:53 PM
Any possibility your Fuze was formatted by Windows under MSC mode? If so then the wrong cluster size is used By windows format (4K) and it slows everything down. We recommend using the devices Format command to set the allocation unit properly (32K).
For external cards, you need to use a DOS Format command prompt as:
Format (drive letter:) / FS:FAT32 /A:32K (assuming > 2 GB cards) If the card is 2 GB or less use FAT filesystem.
In the meantime we will investigate and update.
Thanks sansafix, but no, I have not formatted the player in windows. I have formatted the player using Rhapsody, AND reformatted the player using the player’s reformatting. I have interfaced with Rhapsody in MTP mode. I have called your technical support, and reset the factory settings at their suggestions. I am also communicating with Rhapsody in an online chat right now, and have been told to delete the radfile.rcf and try again. Nothing works. It still in ALL instances, loads very slowly, 20+ minutes for 1400 tracks or so. And again, though I don’t mean to belabor the point, my Creative Zen M loads in less than 2 minutes.
Please help. I like the Fuze, love Rhapsody Channels, want to be a big fan, but I’m sorry to say, this is pretty dysfunctional right now.
Message Edited by bnsfr on 09-18-2008 08:21 PM
OK we will investigate this and update soon.
Thanks, I’ll let you know if I learn anything from Rhapsody.
@neutron_bob wrote:
How about a curveball then?
I have had Rhapsody freeze up a few times recently (haven’t troubleshooted yet), so I’ve simply halted the program. Reopening the client, after it had frozen at about 700 tracks, the R4 client runs through the device tracks at atomic fast speed.
Quite obviously, there’s a queue still active somewhere, as Rhapsody doesn’t simply start crawling along from scratch…
Food for thought.
I’ll need to use the secret handshake to get in touch with RealNetworks (US level). Once I do, my hair will be white, and my face will be sunburned, like Charlton Heston (Moses). I’ll pass on any findings.
Bob
I’m having this problem too. I’ve reported it repeatedly and it’s starting to make me mad. it seems to crash after a given amout of songs and I fixed it once by reducing the number of songs on my player to below the number it was crashing at, but it didnt fix it the second time I did this (I currently have 1034 tracks) And it’s agonizing to try to pick tracks to delete 
Coming back to report that Rhapsody’s suggestions have not changed the slow scanning of the Fuze. As I write this, Rhapsody has taken almost 20 minutes and has scanned only 1,000 songs, a task that is done in less than two minutes when I connect my Creative Zen M. Crazy!
By the way, the slow scan occurs only when the Fuze is first connected to the computer. If I keep the Fuze connected, but close and then reopen Rhapsody, the scan occurs very fast, in less than five minutes. What is going on?
I really hope to find a solution. Look forward to hearing back from sansafix. Thanks again.
