Sansa Fuze+ Firmware 01.29.03

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1

Let me start off by saying that majority of people will be able to update his/her firmware through the Sansa Firmware Updater. There is even a how-to video that explains the process. If for any reason the aforementioned steps do not work for you, then please feel free to continue by trying the more “computer savy” steps, described below.

SanDisk has just released  firmware version 01.29.03 for the Sansa Fuze+. Download links and the release notes are available below.

Windows Users can Connect the device in any Mode and follow the instructions below.

Mac and Linux users can connect their Fuze in MSC or Auto Detect mode and follow the instructions below. 

MSC mode instructions:

  • Turn on the Fuze+
  • Navigate to “Settings” on the menu of the device itself 
  • Scroll down to and select USB Mode
  • Select MSC

 Sansa Fuze+ Firmware 01.29.03 download and installation instructions

Update using the Sansa Firmware updater

For Sansa Firmware Updater - Click here to download

Manual Firmware Update download and Instructions

Manual Firmware Update All Regions - Click here to download

All languages are now in one firmware version. After firmware update you will need to select your Language and Region preference.

• Remove any external card from the Fuze+ before performing Firmware update

• Ensure your battery is > 50% full. 

• Extract the .zip file into a folder on your computer. 

• Once extracted, drag the file to the root directory of your Sansa Fuze+. 

• Disconnect the Sansa Fuze and let it begin the firmware update. 

• Once it finally finishes doing its update, it will turn itself off. 

• Turn the Fuze+ on Select your language and region preference 

• Once its back to the main menu, head to “Settings” >  “Info”, and verify the “Version” is now 01.29.03"x".

  Sansa Fuze+ Firmware 01.29.03 Release Notes

This new firmware has various bug fixes, including key fixes listed below, as well as enhancements. Upon completion of the firmware upgrade, the device will turn off; power on the device to complete the upgrade process.  If the device does not initiate or complete, press & hold the Power switch for 15 seconds to reset the device and then press and hold power button again to restart. 

Enhancements

  • Added delete option to Music, Videos, Podcasts, Audiobooks, Photos, Voice Records, FM Records
  • Podcast genre support: .mp3 files with podcast genre will be shown under Podcast menu
  • My Top Rated is added under Playlist
  • Added Spanish to language list
  • Force device into MSC mode using key combination (Device OFF press & hold Volume down Button and connect device to PC)
  • Set Time and Date will be highlighted and in bold
  • Add “None” to the Background setting under Image
  • When Chapter mode is OFF, device displays only the total number of audibles on the device and when Chapter mode is ON, it will display the total chapters for that particular audible
  • Added Repeat One under Music Options

Bugs Fixed

  • Inconsistent song sorting when there is content on Internal and External memory
  • Unable to activate device in Audible Manager when device is in MSC mode
  • Device automatically restarts when user tries to navigate main menu after added video files
  • Device did not display the album art and correct artist’s name of FLAC files
  • Device reads and displays incorrect number of songs when more songs are added after a large number of songs had been added.
  • Title of audible didn’t refresh when browsing another audible while one was playing
  • Device changed into another USB mode after formatting
  • Incorrect resume behavior for audiobooks
  •  “Resume last” appears even though the audiobook hasn’t been played

Known Issues

  • Device sometimes disconnects and reconnects while connecting to PC
  • Device  does not record continuously
  • Podcast pauses when tapping on Back button to go into Now playing screen
  • RDS info sometimes does not display correctly on device
  • Device lowers volume while turning volume up when PreGain is ON
  • Resume not working when switching between Music and Podcast playback
2

I’m having a problem after the new update. For details I have a Sansa Fuze+ 16GB model and am not currently using an external card for storage, just the internal memory. I am using about 11GB of the 16GB provided, so it’s not full. I was not having this problem until after the update was applied. I also had no problem applying the update and it seemed to install just fine with the Sansa updater. I’ve tried both power cycling and doing the 15 second button hold reset and neither have resolved this issue.

The problem I am having is that the player is now unresponsive when in the music menus. The other menus all work fine, this seems to only effect the music menu. I’ll browse through the menus easily, but if I then tap the center to enter in to the music submenus the player locks up and is unresponsive for about 7 or 8 seconds before it finally brings up the artists submenu. I can then browse that menu fine and select songs in there without issue. However, if I finger swipe to go over to the albums submenu it’ll again lock up for about 7 or 8 seconds before it brings that menu up. It’ll then do this with any of the music submenues, even if I’m just going back to the listing I was just at. The only exception is the playlists menu which doesn’t seem to have a delay when going to it from the genre menu. Basically what it comes down to is that any time I try to access any of the music lists (artist, album, songs, genre) except for playlist there is a delay of 7 to 8 seconds before those lists appear. It’s also worth noting that when the lists are loading and the player is unresponsive whatever song I am playing at the time will still play just fine, the lock up appears to be present on the interface only.

Now before I installed the firmware this didn’t happen. I could swipe back and forth between those menus quickly before with no delay or lock up like I am getting now. Nothing new was added to the player when I did the update, I simply installed the update and charged it, no files were added or removed besides the firmware. While the player is still functional obviously, I have to say that these delays are quite an irritation when trying to browse my music, particularly if I scroll over on accident and then have to wait out not one delay, but a second one when trying to get back to the list I was trying to browse.

Also when deleting files through the interface when a song is playing I’ve found that it will occassionally cause the song playing to pause. This doesn’t happen all the time, in fact it only happened twice, but I did notice that when it happened it happened just as I selected to delete a file in both instances. The files I were deleting were pictures as well, so not even related to music. This isn’t really a big issue since I don’t delete often, but figured I’d bring it up.

I really like the player. I still prefer the wheel from the old player, but otherwise this player has worked quite well for me and I’ve been happy with it. This makes it difficult to use though, so it’d be great if it could be resolved and the player could be put back in working order again.

Update: So when I got home from work I tried basically completely resetting the player. I formatted the memory and then reset the player. When I went in to the music menus on the player when empty it was completely responsive and I had no problems at all. I then resynched it back up with my music and when I started the player back up after getting the music back on there it once again became sluggish in the same way when browsing through the music. Now again, these are the exact same music files I had on there before the firmware update, nothing new, and this sluggishness did not occur with that update. The player also still has 6GB remaining, so it’s not exactly full, and I am not using an SD card in it at this time either. The common thread here is that it worked fine before the firmware update, and has done this ever since. Also, I’d like to note that the boot time for the player has also increased and seems to vary a lot; it will sometimes boot up in 10 to 15 seconds, but a few times it took almost a minute of the Sansa logo sitting there before it loaded up.

Another Update: I decided the new features (while nice) are not worth the annoying delays in browsing my music, particularly since music is the main thing I use the player for. I reverted my firmware back to 01.27.02A and sure enough the delays when browsing my music lists are now gone. I can once again glide between the different lists without delay, and clicking in to the music lists from the main menu has maybe a 1 second delay at most, which is about what one would expect. One important key bit in all this was that when I had the new firmware and formated the internal memory the delay was gone when the music list was empty. It may be possible that something about how the new firmware handles the title listings isn’t responding well to higher file counts. I’ll stick with the last firmware for now, but I’ll keep an eye out for a new release in the hopes it fixes this issue since I did like the other changes in this latest firmware.

If it helps here is some information about what I’ve got on there:

Memory: 15130MB Total/6230 MB Free

Songs: 1219

Rest: 0

SD Card: None

3

I would actually like to confirm the problem described by the user above. This new firmware update has made scrolling through menus painfully slow, this was not the case with the previous firmware update. I am tempted to revert to the previous firmware until this is fixed because just changing the artist has become tediously slow.