Sansa Fuze sometimes renames a directory - why?

Hi - the Fuze is a terrific little device.

But there are some mysterious aspects to it.

Such as - sometimes it renames a directory containing music files.  Usually, it does not.  But sometimes it does.  Why?

What do you mean?

I’m not sure I understand what the problem is.  Can you be more specific?  It’s renaming folders that contain music?  I’ve never seen mine do that. 

Yes, that’s right.  It renames the folder.  Only sometimes.  But it’s very consistent.  If I delete a renamed folder and re-upload the original folder (named exactly after the album) the Fuze will rename it again.  It adds some text like “AF3300021KJU_” to the front of the name of the folder.  Mysterious!

Well that’s very odd.

Never heard of this issue.  I just double checked my Fuze and all my folders are named correctly, it didn’t rename any of them.

You have the latest firmware?  And are your songs all tagged correctly?  Do you transfer files in MTP or MSC mode (USB Mode)?   

Hi again.

Latest Firmware - yes.

Correct tags - I think so.  I get them from EAC, Media Player, Rhapsody or Amazon and then inspect them using mp3tag to make any needed corrections or changes.  From the “front end” of Sansa Fuze everything looks normal - correct artists, albums, song titles, genres and track order.  The directory name changes can only be seen from my computer when connected to the Sansa over USB.

USB Mode?  I don’t know what these are, so I have it set to “auto-detect”, which seems to work fine.

I’ve seen this, but for me it only does this on the External uSD Card slot folders. aka the MicroSD cards folder.  this happens to me all the time on my Fuse and My C250 player. right now I am looking at my External  usd slot folder and it lists “26110000_The Best of the Doors [1985]” it does this to any folder that is named too long so it can index the music when you play it. I am guessing. but it only does it to my Microsd card not my internal memory.

Yes, the headers are added to the µSD files to speed up the database refresh time, I believe.  Are you loading in MSC mode?  I like MTP, naturally.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

I have USB mode set to “auto-select”. 

However, I find the notion of “Subscription Tracks” appalling, so MSC mode is fine for my needs.

Thanks everyone for your answers!

I had the same problem too, and it only happened in MTP mode (which auto-detect seemed to choose) on directories that I had entered manually (as opposed to copied from my PC).  When I copied the full artist directory (with all album subdirectories), no problem.  But if I didn’t want all albums, I was creating a directory manually for the artist, and then only copying the albums I wanted.  In this case the folder names would become all mixed up (sometimes renamed to “New Folder” as well).  This must be a bug in their MTP handling.  So now I switched to MSC mode and all seems well.

Ah, MSC mode.  To use the Secure Digital system involves a lot of wee things in the background.  SanDisk has opted for this to make your experience faster, as many would freak out at that prolonged “refresh database” screen.

On the player, as it catalogs your music based upon the ID3 tags, this will not display.

In MSC mode, you are the pilot in command, and with full control can come requisite headaches.

I’d venture that this is one of the many tasks involved in fully implementing Folder View.  As these devices have exploded in capacity, many little issues have to be addressed.  I could list some here, but I don’t want any injuries from happy Sansa users thumping their heads onto the keyboards.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

Hi,

I had this problem both on my microSD card and in my internal memory, and I think only with manually entered folders, just as you describe.  After finding this thread and reading your post, I switched to MSC mode, but the folders remain the same — what else do I have to do? Just rename them, or create new folders?

Thanks!

Happens to me also … with my Sansa Clip. With both my internal memory and microSD card.  I’ve hooked up to the computer and tried renaming them several times … but they get converted away from what I set.

Based on the info in this thread and some experimentation, the renaming appears to occur when the directory name is longer than 26 characters.  SanDisk’s method of resolving the problem of a long reindex time seems flawed to me and it is certainly a nuisance.

Apparently you are synching with Windows Media Player, which does indeed mess with the directory names.

If you want full control, make sure you have other copies of your music and other content and go to Settings/System Settings/Format. That will wipe everything you added off the Fuze. 

Then go to Settings/System Settings/USB Mode and switch to MSC (it was either on Auto Detect or MTP). MSC makes the Fuze act like any other flash drive, plain old storage.  Send your folders over manually.  For playlists, synching, etc., use Winamp or Media Monkey, which work in MSC mode, instead of WMP.

Your computer can only see one mode (MSC or MTP) at a time. The Fuze can see everything, but for your own sanity you’re better off using just one mode.

MTP is only absolutely necessary if you are using DRM (digital rights muck) files, because WMP can send over the hidden codes via MTP. If you aren’t dealing with digital rights–like subscription services, library audiobooks, etc.–you don’t really need WMP.

The Fuze offers both MTP and MSC modes. Some players don’t.