Fuze+ Feedback and Feature Request Thread

I posted my suggestions here before, but here’s an update after having the player for a longer time.  The first three are basic functionality, and I really need these to be fixed so I don’t feel quite so ripped off:

  1. FIX SLUGGISH UI, START UP, AND OVERALL RESPONSIVENESS!!! My library is not even full, and without the MicroSD card in, I face 30+ second start up and 3-5 second lag between menus.

  2. The “Back” button should never take me back to the wannabe-coverflow top menu unless I press it while in the Artist, Album, Song, Genre, or Playlist menus.  " Back" should always mean back to the previous menu.

I have never had a device that defaulted back to the main menu, I have always been able to press the back button and go back the way I came.     The back button on your browser, your phone, and every other music player that’s worth a darn functions by taking you back to the previous menu.  Esp. given the lag time, it is SO frustrating to be taken to the top menu from song playback.  For example, if I have selected the artist I’m listening to by a specific genre, there’s a good chance I may want to change to another artist from that genre.  I should be able to back up to that menu easily.  I should not have to press “Back”, then select “Music”, then side over through “Artist” “Album” “Songs” and finally “Genre” and then scroll down and select the genre I was listening to.  This should not be effected by locking/unlocking, idle screen shut off, or even turning the player on and off–" Back" should always mean back to the previous menu.  Maybe “Back to Main Menu” could be listed under “Music Options” for quick access to the main menu.

  1. Lock function.  I voted in the poll, and it’s in almost every feature request.  Let’s get with it.

  2. As I suggested before, scrolling alphabetically would be nice.  I have a Samsung Sunburst touch screen phone, and the way I scroll through contacts by alphabet is by dragging a little scroll bar down slowly and letting go when I get to the letter I want.  The Fuze+ can do the same thing, using a slow drag down the center line.  Swiping on my phone is better too, when I swipe, it scrolls quickly, but when I get to the place I want, I tap once to stop without selecting anything.  Maybe this is already a feature and I just can’t tell because of the lag, but I should be able to stop immediately from a swipe when I reach the file I want, and that doesn’t happen for me now.

  3. Bookmarks for audiobooks.  Why even have an Audiobook menu if it plays exactly like a song?

I say it every time–I really want to like this player.  It has great features that you can’t even find all together on more expensive players.  The severity of the issues I have with menu navigation, scrolling, and even the poorly designed lock feature would be greatly decreased by improving overall responsiveness of the UI.  Please, please, please release a firmware update that addresses at least some of these basic functionality issues!

It’s not a good Xmas gift without folder navigation…

plase add this option.

A real list of suggestions forthcoming, but for now, just a complaint that you can’t do anything about til the next hardware version:

I really wish there were some sort of tactile nub or something so i know where my fingers are in relation to the touch points without having to look at the fuze+.  For instance, place tiny raised dots on the left and right edges, directly to the left of the left touch point and to the right of the right touch point.  Doing that, if you want to skip to the next song, you hold the fuze in your hand, slide your thumb down the right side till you feel the bump, then you know the “Skip” touch point is right next to that spot.  If you want to Play/Pause, you know that touch point is just up and to the left a bit.  That would help out a lot when trying to navigate it while driving, allowing us to keep our eyes on the road.

Thanks,

i’d have to agree with a change on how the device goes in & out of locked mode would be nice.

i have had it come unlocked on me, in pocket and when trying to just handle the device, like when holding it walking around…

if the devs arn’t sure they wanna change how it works ? Then please consider leaving everything as is and simply

adding a different optional locking system in and making the old way the default and if people want? make them go into

the options screen and select an alternate method of locking… does that make sense ?

Now that I’m an old man, a lot of the music I download or import from CDs have many similar names for the albums like “Greatest Hits” or “Ultimate Collection.”  When I select under the “Album” menu option I get all the songs from the album I want plus 6 others from other albums of the same name.

Here’s an example:  I recently bought the Michael McDonald “Ultimate Collection” CD.  I have two songs from Jeffrey Osborne’s “Ultimate Collection” CD and three from Eurythmic’s “Ultimate Collection” CD that I downloaded.  When I select the “Ultimate Collection” album I get ALL of them in one list.

It’s especially irritating because on the Michael McDonald CD, there are several songs that are duets so the artist is listed as “Michael McDonald and Anita Baker” and some are listed “The Doobie Brothers” for his Doobie Brothers songs.  As a result I can’t just go to “Artist” of Michael McDonald and select that album because I’ll only get two-thirds of the tracks.

So the ONLY way to listen to this CD from beginning to end without any other songs is to create a separate playlist.  I’d REALLY like an MP3 player smart enough to know what’s on each album for albums with common names.

@morrismpls wrote:

Now that I’m an old man, a lot of the music I download or import from CDs have many similar names for the albums like “Greatest Hits” or “Ultimate Collection.”  When I select under the “Album” menu option I get all the songs from the album I want plus 6 others from other albums of the same name.

 

Here’s an example:  I recently bought the Michael McDonald “Ultimate Collection” CD.  I have two songs from Jeffrey Osborne’s “Ultimate Collection” CD and three from Eurythmic’s “Ultimate Collection” CD that I downloaded.  When I select the “Ultimate Collection” album I get ALL of them in one list.

 

It’s especially irritating because on the Michael McDonald CD, there are several songs that are duets so the artist is listed as “Michael McDonald and Anita Baker” and some are listed “The Doobie Brothers” for his Doobie Brothers songs.  As a result I can’t just go to “Artist” of Michael McDonald and select that album because I’ll only get two-thirds of the tracks.

 

So the ONLY way to listen to this CD from beginning to end without any other songs is to create a separate playlist.  I’d REALLY like an MP3 player smart enough to know what’s on each album for albums with common names.

 

 


I have also run into this problem.  What you’ll have to do to keep the songs with the same album name (but from different artists/groups)  from being thrown together is to get a tag editor like MP3Tag.  It’s a good, easy-to-use free program and it’ll allow you to change the names of the albums so that each album’s songs will stay separate from other album’s songs.  You can also change the title, genre, and other info to whatever it is that you choose.  Don’t have a link to the program’s download site right now.

Using MP3Tag, what I did was to add the artist’s or group’s name to the album name, like, “Michael McDonald Ultimate Collection”.    You can also make changes in the artist name field, such as, changing what’s in the artist’s name field from “Michael McDonald and Anita Baker” to just “Michael McDonald” for all the songs in that album.

MP3Tag will let you make any changes to the various fields, or tags, at once, for an entire album.

By the way,  “Age is just a state of mind.”  Our bodies may get older, but our minds don’t have to.

edit – you can download MP3Tag here.

I’d like it if there was a way to completely disable album art in both menus and Now Playing, especially as the stock designs replacing this art looks awful; preferably as an option in Settings.

That, and the ability to go from the beginning to the end of a playlist by scrolling up, and the ability to go from the end of a playlist to the beginning of a playlist by scrolling down (don’t know what this is called; looping playlists, perhaps?)

I just need folder viewing

I HATE that the top off button can shut the thing off if held down for 15 seconds, even while it’s “locked”.  The headphone jack is on the bottom and thus it sits upside down in my pocket right on the on/off button.  Thus, it turns itself OFF all the time.  If i flip it the other way, then the thing mashes the headphone wire/plug.  These headphones are cheap enough already and will break.

I don’t like that the volume buttons work while locked.  Nothing should work while it’s locked.

Speaking of the lock, it unlocks itself all the time in my pocket too.  Must pick up on the up-down movement against my leg while walking or something.  make this thing unlock the same way it locks, by holding the play button for 4 seconds.

IMPORTANT! –> PLEASE add the “Folder” feature like the orignal Fuze had added during a firmware upgrade.  I HATE that this thing currently sorts by folder, artist, song, etc…all of which I have no interest in.  It’s just a mess in each list that doesnt’ represent how i added music to the device at all.  All I care about is MY FOLDERS.  that’s it.

FOLDERS

FOLDERS

FOLDERS.

Please.

Touch sensor is SO frustrating.  I miss my old Fuze.  It was absolutely perfect.  Even the headphones were the best.  Sigh.

In case you missed my point, I’d like to be able to play the songs that are on my device simply by going into each of the:

FOLDERS
FOLDERS
FOLDERS
FOLDERS

FOLDERS

I too would like the folder option, I think that’s the only thing I’m really missing.  I do however like the fact that I can adjust the volume while locked, so I can have it locked in my pocket but lower the volume easily when I’m ordering my Starbucks :slight_smile:

As an addendum to my previous post, I’d like for the Fuze+ to be able to read album art on FLACs.

I spent hours putting a cover.jpg into the folder of each album, and the Fuze+ wouldn’t read them.  Then I embedded said album art into the file itself using MP3Tag, and it still wouldn’t read.

I have no idea why this would be so, as the Fuze had no trouble with either.

How about some accessories!  e200 series had a great docking station with remote to play through a stereo system (and also recharged the device).

@synrgii wrote:

 All I care about is MY FOLDERS.  that’s it.

 

FOLDERS

FOLDERS

FOLDERS.

 

Please.

 

Touch sensor is SO frustrating.  I miss my old Fuze.  It was absolutely perfect.  Even the headphones were the best.  Sigh.

 

The original Fuze did not have Folder navigation when it came out either. It was added much later in a firmware update.

@synrgii wrote:

Touch sensor is SO frustrating.  I miss my old Fuze.  It was absolutely perfect.  Even the headphones were the best.  Sigh.

 

Mmmmm.  Interesting.  Kinda reminds me of this album…:smileyvery-happy:  :

When playing an audiobook in the old fuse player, you could not restart a file from the beginning with one touch if the screen.  It would take a small amount of intention to backup a few seconds.  With the fuse+ one touch of the screen can restart a file.  This would not be bad for playing music.  But if you are playing a 1-hour podcast or a 30-minute audiobook file this is a disaster.    Left and right arrow should work a fast forward and fast reveres.   A link to the book menu or podcast of the same type should be added to the option page (a tap a the center).  In short make the new player respond just like the old player.  

In a 9 or 21 hour book the times I would want to start at the beginning file is once.  Even if I do not play an audiobook for two weeks I need to start at the same place I was when I stop.

It would also be nice if you could opt out of the last 10 files played option for the music, podcast, and audiobooks via setup.  If I was playing an album, and go play a podcast, and return, I would rather resume the album, not the last 10 songs I have ever played. 

I purchased 4 fuse+ for Christmas.  Two of my daughters think these things are perfect.  They only play music or the radio.  I am happy they are happy.

Please sort Audiobook files by File name and not title, or make it an option under setup.  Being able to sort by file # would sometimes come in handy but many books do not have this info.   I would still display the file title or also make it optional to display Name or title.

This issue was raised in another request.

In Playlist sort order force Music go List to be at the top despite other playlist names.

I’ve used the Fuze+ for about a month now, using it exclusively with Rhapsody To Go and here is my feedback:

Pros

  •  Gapless playback

  •  Great sound (I use it with Klipsch s4 earbuds)

  •  Multiple disk albums are correctly displayed in artist view (unlike Fuze)

Cons

  •  Device unlocks itself in my pocket very often

  •  Album artwork is displayed with a large white border around it.  This is intermittent, a very few albums are OK for every song, most are not (have the white border on all of the songs or some of the songs)

  •  After I deleted a Rhapsody channel, and multiple albums, I needed to do a power button reset of the unit about half the time I turned it on, as it would just go to a blank screen and was unresponsive.  It seems to have fixed itself after a couple of weeks.

Overall impression is that I’m disappointed in the device compared to the Fuze.  It feels like there was very little testing done on the device, as the problems I’m experiencing seem really obvious, and I think I’m a relatively typical user.  I’m hopeful that Sandisk will be prompt with some firmware updates that will address these seemingly basic problems.  If that happens, then I’ll be very happy with the device.

I bought the fuze+ 8gb a few months ago, and I’m very very very frustrated with the device.

* The tagging reading is flawed, I retag music and sometimes the fuze reads ok, sometimes just “unkown artist”.

* The touchpad is terrible! Sometimes works fine, and other ones doesn´t response at all, or too slow.

Honestly, I doesn´t use the fuze+, it’s stored in a box, I’m tired of fighting with music tags, unresponsive touchpad, slow performance, erratic behavior, etc.

Regards.