Maximum GB for SD cards

I’ve been converting a lot of my music from mp3 to FLAC since I discovered my Fuze could play FLAC and I got decent headphones. I want to get a microSD card to expand the space but I want to know if there’s a limit to how many GB the SD card can have. Would any microSD (even 32gb capacity) work? 

Also will the player show “refreshing your data” every time you turn the fuze on with the card inside? Is playing music on the card going to lag?

Sansa Fuze support up to 32GB microsdhc:  http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/200/

@sketchycat wrote:

 

Would any microSD (even 32gb capacity) work? 

 

Also will the player show “refreshing your data” every time you turn the fuze on with the card inside? Is playing music on the card going to lag?

Yes, any SD or SDHC card will work up to the maximum 32GB. Note that the Fuze does have an 8,000 (+/-) database track limit though. So depending on your file format and bit-rate you could conceivably exceed this limit. The excess files will still transfer OK and reside on the card, but the Fuze will not ‘see’ them.

The database refresh only occurs if you have connected the player to the coputer and have added or removed any files. It will not do this just powering it on, regardless of whether there’s a card inserted.

There is no lag in reading from the card. And the Fuze (during the database refresh) will populate the lists (Artist, Album, Track, Genre, etc.) and play from both memory sources seamlessly. Meaning that for instance if you have Shuffle on, it will play from both the internal memory and external card alternately (depending on the shuffle algorthym). No input is needed from you. You will notice however, that when looking through the Track (or Song) list that the tracks that are stored on the card will have a small square icon next to them.

It refreshes when you put something new on the card. If not, no.

> I’ve been converting a lot of my music from mp3 to FLAC

You should NOT do this. You will NOT get improved audio quality, but you WILL get (considerably) extra file size.

Once files are in a lossy format, best not to convert them anymore, unless you have to. Your Fuze will play mp3 just fine.

In addition, those FLAC files will eat up alot of battery power.  It’ll be a waste of battery life since you wouldn’t be getting any better audio quality than from the original mp3s that you’ve been converting.

@millitaryman69 wrote:

> I’ve been converting a lot of my music from mp3 to FLAC

 

You should NOT do this. You will NOT get improved audio quality, but you WILL get (considerably) extra file size.

 

Once files are in a lossy format, best not to convert them anymore, unless you have to. Your Fuze will play mp3 just fine.

Did he mean “converting” literally?   I took it to mean that he’s “replacing” his old mp3’s with new FLAC files.

Anyway, if you’re buying a big microSD card like a 32GB model, make sure you don’t get suckered into buying a phony smaller card.  Those big cards are expensive and relatively rare, so if it’s underpriced and on some small-time operator’s website, it’s almost certainly a fake.  Stick to big reputable sites like Newegg and Amazon.

I actually meant replacing, not converting. Literally converting MP3 to FLAC would do nothing to the audio quality and just increase file size. Thanks for the help everyone!

I have another question just out of curiosity…is it possible to have the fuze play videos/photos from the SD card? And how would you accomplish that?

@sketchycat wrote:

 

…is it possible to have the fuze play videos/photos from the SD card? And how would you accomplish that?

 

Yep.

Video4Fuze


@sketchycat wrote:

 

…is it possible to have the fuze play videos /photos from the SD card? And how would you accomplish that?

 


A number of people have reported that Kingston brand cards can get glitchy when it comes to playing video on the fuze.  I haven’t heard of what causes this issue.

Does this apply also to the Sansa View I own? The 8k tracklist, and for that matter the 32gb limit on micro-sdhc?

@ehummvee wrote:

Does this apply also to the Sansa View I own? The 8k tracklist, and for that matter the 32gb limit on micro-sdhc?

According to the Sandisk Knowledge Base, the View will only support up to 16gb max capacity for a card.

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/200/kw/view%20maximum%20card%20size

As for the song limit, I’m guessing that since the original Fuze started with a 4,000 song limit, if I recall correctly, the View will most likely have that upper limit.

I read that the player has aprox a 8000 song limit.   I am syncing up with media player 11 , at a bit rate of 64kbs.  My card has aprox 12000 songs in a wma format.   however no matter what I do, it will only read between 5200 and 5300 songs.   any thoughts on how to resolve this?   My initial response from Sandisk tech support is that the fuze doesn’t have a track # limit.  

I recently purchased a 32GB Micro SDHC card for my Fuze. I tested it with H2TESTW and it tested out fine with no errors reported. Only problem, the Fuze did not recognize the card when using Rockbox. I had a similar problem when I bought the 16GB card. Is there a reason why the Fuze my recognize some SD cards and not others? Thanks.

I have the following Fuze compatability problems with a 32gb card I purchased:

  • I copied about 50 mp3 albums to the route of the 32gb card and any folder I rename causes any mp3’s in the folder to disappear (the file size of the folder goes to 0kb).

  • Only about 1/3rd of the albums are visible on the Fuze player (when it’s searching for the songs/albums or when you go to Folders - “External uSD card”.

I saw on your site that it says it’s compatible with 32gb cards? Is this correct as I’ve seen on another site it says only 16gb cards are compatible!

I have tried formatting the card in Windows and also right clicking and doing a bad sector search. I then recopied the songs across, and the same problems were present still. The Fuze reports the size of the card correctly as 32gb and the amount of space available as 26gb so it ‘seems’ to be seeing the card correctly.

It was purchased in Sep 2011, Sansa Fuze 4gb BH1104CBNK-4GB. Version:- V02.03.33a

I’m running Windows XP Service pack 3.

@markyates wrote:

I have the following Fuze compatability problems with a 32gb card I purchased:

  • I copied about 50 mp3 albums to the route of the 32gb card and any folder I rename causes any mp3’s in the folder to disappear (the file size of the folder goes to 0kb).
  • Only about 1/3rd of the albums are visible on the Fuze player (when it’s searching for the songs/albums or when you go to Folders - “External uSD card”.

 

 

Do you mean the “root” directory?  If I may ask, why are you placing it in the root and not in the default Music folder that’s on the card?  When a card is inserted into the Fuze for the first time, it’ll create a Music folder with subfolders in it.

 

Are the missing albums placed on the internal memory, the card or both?

 

 

I saw on your site that it says it’s compatible with 32gb cards? Is this correct as I’ve seen on another site it says only 16gb cards are compatible!

I have tried formatting the card in Windows and also right clicking and doing a bad sector search. I then recopied the songs across, and the same problems were present still. The Fuze reports the size of the card correctly as 32gb and the amount of space available as 26gb so it ‘seems’ to be seeing the card correctly.

 

Yes, it’s compatible with 32gb cards.  I have used one in my Fuze and it works fine.  If I recall correctly, you should have 29gb of available memory listed on the player for the card, not 26gb.   A good free app to use to check your card for any defects is H2testw.  It’ll take a long time to test a 32gb card.

Is your firmware up-to-date?

First of all, are you doing all this moving around in MSC mode? Settings/System Settings/USB Mode/MSC.  That’s basic drag and drop. MTP does other, something unpredictable things, and if your unit is on AUTO it may be using MTP. If you’ve been using MTP, the best thing to do is format the card and start over in MSC.

If you format the card from WIndows, it should be FAT32.

The 16GB limit was named in some instructions because those were the biggest cards at the time. 32GB is fine.

Definitely update or reinstall the firmware. Go to Settings/System Settings/Info to see whether your version is 1.x or 2.x.  (Those are different versions for different hardware, not an upgrade. Use 1.x if yours is a 1.x.)

From this link

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Fuze/Sansa-Fuze-Firmware-Update-01-02-31-amp-02-03-33/td-p/139175

Download the All Regions firmware for your version. Unzip it and drag FuzeA.bin onto the root directory of the internal memory. When you disconnect, the firmware will reinstall. This will not disturb any files you have put on the unit.

You should be able to put albums anywhere on the card, in or out of Music. 

I’m leaning toward the explanation that it’s a defective card as well. But also check the format of your music files. They have to be .mp3, .wma, .flac or .ogg. Not m4a, .aac or any other Apple format, which the Fuze will ignore. 

Thanks for the quick replies.

It’s in MTC mode - the player wasn’t accessing (before I had the card) in the MTP mode.
The version I did say before is V02.03.33A so that seems to be the latest for mine from your link:
memory 3750mb
free 16mb
sd card 31984mb
free 26799mb
987 songs

I just connected it to my PC and it seems 2/3rds of the folders are empty again even though when i checked them on my home PC last night they seemed full (all mp3 files)  So maybe it is a card problem? Though it does seem odd as its size is ok.  It was a £22 one purchased off ebay. But the company seemed reputable with 10,000+ sales and a 99.8 rating.

Unless it is a problem with a card in this player? It is the only device I have that takes a micro SD card (of this size my old phone can only read upto 4gb cards) - so it seems i have no way of testing the card.

But I will try your card test link.
I’ve ordered a 16gb Kingston card (£12 on ebay) to see if i have more luck and will contact the card seller about the 32gb one. I believe it’s either corrupt or fraudulent (4gb or something made to look like a 32gb) with the FAT somehow tricked into thinking it’s a 32gb card hence why 2/3rds or so of the files copied to it fail.

If you’re buying SD cards from Ebay, you are begging to get screwed.  And those prices you listed look suspiciously low, so it wouldn’t surprise me if that card was a fake.

There’s no such thing as discounts on 32GB microSD cards.  They are too expensive to make due to low yields and the supply is way too low due to low demand.

I don’t know what’s available in England (since you mentioned £’s, I’m assuming you’re in England) but you should only buy SD cards from big well-known sellers, like Amazon or NewEgg, never from Ebay.

@knifethemac wrote:

There’s no such thing as discounts on 32GB microSD cards.  They are too expensive to make due to low yields and the supply is way too low due to low demand.

 

That was true once, but 32GB card prices have dropped dramatically in the past few months. Genuine 32GB cards have been offered through a number of vendors for $35-$40 recently.