Microsd card with Fuze...anyone care to share how they organize their media files?

Hello.  I am a new member here on the forums, and a Sansa Fuze owner for about 4 months.  I just purchased an 8 GB microsd card to expand my Fuze’s memory.  Before I start dumping files on it, I want to come up with a scheme for organizing files between the internal memory and the memory card (and any additional cards I may acquire later).  Does anyone have a recommendation for a “filing scheme” for their Sanza?  Currently on my internal memory, I have music files, podcasts, and a few short videos (not movie-length, but short clips of 5 minutes or less each like music videos and videos of my kids to show family, etc.).  Thanks for any input!

I have a 2GB player with 8GB external memory… I tend to run rockbox and sansa firmware side-by-side.

So Internal memory only has temporary files (ones I listen to then dump), by doing this I also have space for voice/fm recordings since they’re limited to internal memory only

External memory has folders for music, video etc. Under music there are genre’s  ie: Classic Rock, Comedy, Classical. Under each genre are artists under which are album folders with that albums MP3s. For example “music/Classic Rock/Beatles/White Album”.

I also save MP3s to an external hard drive in the same arrangement, so if I want to put an album or all albums by a specific artist I only drag/drop that folder.  If your think of your normal storage as your hard-drive and arrange them logically there then you can more easily handle moving then to the fuze. The folders arrangement works great with the new ‘folder’ option in the Sansa firmware (or rockbox).

Message Edited by timn on 09-27-2009 01:45 PM

Thanks for the post, timn.  Another question:  I notice that my internal drive has an “Albums” folder in addition to a “Music” folder.  If I want to move music from the internal drive to the card, do I have to move BOTH folders so that the “music” files will be linked to the “album” information? 

No, I dont think it matters. The fuze searches for the files and creates a database. I don’t believe the device treats entries in these folders differently. So if for example you have an album of MP3s you can place it literally anywhere on the device… in Music, Albums  or the base directory.

It’s sort of up to you on which makes the most sense.  If it’s on added memory card and you’re in MSC mode you can create the directories you want. In MTP mode the folders look different.

However if you use “Folder” navigation then you’ll have to remember where it is

Message Edited by timn on 09-27-2009 04:37 PM

timn,

Will the fuze organize songs between internal and card memory for playlists? 

I have 50 songs in internal memory, and another 50 on the external card.  From WMP 11 I create a playlist of 40 songs - 20 of which are in interal memory and 20 are on the card.  If I send the playlist to the internal memory, will it sync the 20 songs already on the extenral ard and put them in internal memory?

Thanks.

@kbutler6 wrote:

timn,

Will the fuze organize songs between internal and card memory for playlists? 

I have 50 songs in internal memory, and another 50 on the external card.  From WMP 11 I create a playlist of 40 songs - 20 of which are in interal memory and 20 are on the card.  If I send the playlist to the internal memory, will it sync the 20 songs already on the extenral ard and put them in internal memory?

Thanks.

It is possible to include files from internal and external memory in the same playlist by using SanDisks own pla playlists format. For a simple hand-crafted approach see here and here.

I keep all my mp3 files in folders on my hard drive called “Internal” and “External”.  Within those folders I have folders with the artist names.  Sometimes I make folders within the artist folders like Favorites, Year, etc.  Most of the time though I just dump all music by a particular artist into a folder carrying that artist’s name.  I never use Album Name cause I never purchase albums and therefore have no idea what music came on what album.  If I have only 1 or 2 files for a particular artist, then I put them into a group folder named in such a way that I can relate to.

If I want a Playlist then I open the folder/s using Winamp then make the playlist using Winamp and move the playlist file to the root of the “Internal” or “External” directories on the hard drive then copy them to the Fuze.

I keep my Fuze in MSC mode.  Occasionally I reformat the internal and external memory and do a mass copy from my hard drive to the Fuze.   Between reformat times, I copy files to my hard drive folders and then to the Fuze.

Doing it this way, my hard drive is my backup and current to what’s on the Fuze.

Same here; 8 gb card.

I keep all my normal music on the Fuze and photos on the Fuze.

I keep you tube and home movie clips on the card and non-typical music on the card.

(I have several large compilation folders:  Blues, funky Jazz, etc with around 100 tunes each).

It’s probably just important to have SOME strategy and stick to it.  Everyone’s going to do things differently.

Blackdog:

Well put!  Pick a scheme and stick to it…  I also suggest that whatever mass-storage you use for stuff you’ll copy on and off your fuze is organized the same for simplicity.  Also, always copy to fuze, not ‘move’ (keep backups).