How Do You Download Audio Books Onto the Sansa Fuze MP3 Player

Track order is governed by  ID3 tags, electronic labels built into the files. They include Title, Album, Artist, Track Number, Genre, etc.

And the Fuze is a little stupid about Track Number–it alwasy goes by the first digit. So if the Track Number tags are 1, 2, 3,…10, 11, 12… It will play 1, 10, 11, 12, etc. That’s probably how the tracks are getting scrambled.

You can fix them pretty easily. There’s a free program called mp3tag. http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

When you install it, have it add itself to context menus. (checkbox during install)

Change the  default under Tools/Options/Tags/Mpeg to  Write ID2v2.3 ISO-8859-1 . Those are the Fuze’s favorite tags.

Right-click on the folder with the book chapters, and choose mp3tag to open it. Make sure the chapters are listed in order, top to bottom. (You might have to click on the Track Number column in mp3tag.) Now, under Tools  use the Auto-Numbering Wizard to Add leading zeros.  Leading zeros will give you 01, 02, 03.

You can also fix anything else on the album all at once by highlighting everything and using the fields on the left. So you could use mp3tag to change Genre to Audiobook all at once, too.

Thank you Black Rectangle. That worked out swell. !   :slight_smile:

I’m very new to this…and very frustrated.  I have downloaded MP3 audiobooks from the library OverDrive program —placed them in windows media player, made a playlist to sync to my sansa fuze, but cannot get it placed in the audiobook folder of the fuze.

HELP—please step by step…Thank you…

Dropping and dragging —I tried…it shows on the computer, but not on the player after I unplug it from the computer ----please give step by step instructions… Where do you open up the player to drop and drag? 

Once you download them through the Overdrive program, transfer them to the Fuze through the Overdrive program, not WMP. If you have WMA books, you need Overdrive to copy the license information to your player.

In Overdrive, highlight your book and hit the “Transfer” button,

Select your device to transfer to,

Enter “\audiobooks” where it allows you to browse for location, so it transfers to that folder on your Fuze (I usually do \audiobooks{bookname} to keep things neat),

Go.

On the Fuze, look under Music->Audiobooks and it should be there.

It may be necessary to do this:  

On the Fuze go to Settings->System->USB Mode & change to MTP (this matters for some people)

@daisyrose wrote:

I’m very new to this…and very frustrated.  I have downloaded MP3 audiobooks from the library OverDrive program —placed them in windows media player, made a playlist to sync to my sansa fuze, but cannot get it placed in the audiobook folder of the fuze.

HELP—please step by step…Thank you…

You have to use the Overdrive Console to transfer your media to the player. There should be a link to download it (with instructions) on your library’s website.

@daisyrose wrote:

I’m very new to this…and very frustrated.  I have downloaded MP3 audiobooks from the library OverDrive program —placed them in windows media player, made a playlist to sync to my sansa fuze, but cannot get it placed in the audiobook folder of the fuze.

HELP—please step by step…Thank you…

You have to use the Overdrive Console to transfer your media to the player. There should be a link to download it (with instructions) on your library’s website.

Thank you VERY MUCH!!   It worked-----I have been working on this for over a week… So glad you could help and that I finally found this forum!!

Thank you VERY MUCH!!   It worked-----

Now I just have to get the tracks to download in the right order… any suggestions?

@daisyrose wrote:

Now I just have to get the tracks to download in the right order… any suggestions?

One word . . . ID3 tags (well, maybe that’s 2 words). Do a search.

thanks again

I haven’t had a problem with bad tags from Overdrive, except with incomplete downloads & redownloading fixed the tags.  I’m sure it could happen, though. 

OverDrive Library audiobooks load perfectly onto the Fuze if you do a slight modification when loading from the OverDrive Media Console app:

In OverDrive: “Transfer” –> “Next” –> “Advanced Options”.
Edit the pathname to change “Music” to “Audiobooks”.

E.g., change from

   \Music\John Grisham\The Appeal

to

   \Audiobooks\John Grisham\The Appeal.

You’ll only get the nice resume in the Fuze or Clip/Clip+ if the audiobook parts are either a) each tagged as “Audiobook”, or b) located in the player’s folder “Audiobooks” (plural)–that’s what’s shown above.  Most OverDrive library patrons with a Fuze or Clip do technique “b”, simply because it’s easier (no extra tagging app to run).

@jj2me wrote:

In OverDrive: “Transfer” –> “Next” –> “Advanced Options”.
Edit the pathname to change “Music” to “Audiobooks”.

 

Thanks for the clarification - when I wrote my original reply, I didn’t remember the exact steps.  But, yes, that’s how you put it in the \audiobooks folder!

@kmk_01kmk wrote:

 


when I wrote my original reply,…

 

Oops, I should have read the entire thread.  I see that you already gave the full instructions, including other important details.  I think “Auto” USB mode works for most, but as you say, for some, they may have to force it to “MTP”.

Hello,

If you are using Overdrive Media books, then you should use the  Overdrive Media Program to transfer your books, not Windows meida! This is esepcially true of they are .wma books.

I have been listening to Audiobboks (one of the 1st  Audible.com customers) for many years.The best download method is dependent on the file ltype and the download source.

I assume that these are library books. Try downloading the Overdrive Media Console from the library website or from Overdrive.com

Good Luck!

I am having the same problem with my Sansa Fuze and after following these rules and also tryng to add a 0 to each disk listing, I still get 1, 10, 11, 12, 2, 3, 4

I  am sooooooo frustrated. My husband has even offered to buy me a new mp3 player. I liked the Sansa Fuze but it is hard to listen to an audio book when the chapters are not in order.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks

@mabeldin wrote:

I am having the same problem with my Sansa Fuze and after following these rules and also tryng to add a 0 to each disk listing, I still get 1, 10, 11, 12, 2, 3, 4

Are you changing the file name or the ID3 tag? While the Fuze sorts by tag, it wouldn’t hurt to change both.

Changing disc number may not help. You need to change the TRACK numbers to start with zeros.

The easiest way to do this is with mp3tag, free software.

http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

During installation, allow it to add itself to context menus.

Go to the folder for the book. Right-click on it and choose mp3tag  to open it.

Look at the files and make sure they are in correct playing order from top to bottom. If not, click on the Track heading to put them in order.

Highlight them all and go to Tools/Auto-Numbering Wizard and check Leading Zeroes. They should be numbered, 01, 02, etc. up to 10.