I just purchased my SanDisk Sansa Fuze 4gb on Sunday, July 13. I was very excited that I could use it on my mac and my pc, because I have itunes on both and different music on both. I used the drag and drop feature [after converting the music from AAC to MP3, of course] to add the music to my Fuze’s music folder. I have added about 200-250 songs, maybe. When I turned it on this morning it said “Not enough space for music DB. Please free 90 mb” But… isn’t this supposed to hold about 1,000 songs? Can I still return it if I’ve used it? What do I do? PLEASE HELP! You can email me at littleluck09@yahoo.com if you want. Thanks!
It should hold around a 1000 songs of relatively low bit rate mp3. You didn’t specify what sort of mp3s you have. If they are high bit rate CBR, then 250 might be reasonable.
Also, if you are adding files from both your PC and your Mac, then the issue could be MTP versus MSC. If you left Fuze’s USB mode at the default setting of Auto, then it’s probably using MTP mode when connected to your PC. The Mac will use MSC mode. Files added under a given mode are only visible when connected under that mode. In other words, files added from your PC will not be visible to the Mac and vice-versa. I would suggest formating the Fuze, setting the USB mode to MSC, and then readding your files. As long as you are always in MSC mode, your PC and Mac will both be able to see the same files on the Fuze.
Thanks. but how can I tell if it’s a high rate CBR? I just used the convert to mp3 thing on itunes. I have only gotten music from my Mac so far, though.
Somteime if the Devices FAT is corrupted you will get this message. Please connect to your computer and format the device. Then transfer the content again.
Um… wtly does formatting do? Just wondering.
**what exactly does formatting the sansa fuze do? Lol. sorry, my typing skills are not so good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_formatting
basically formatting rebuilds the file allocation table and erases all the data on the drive.
@mcarter wrote:
When I turned it on this morning it said " Not enough space for music DB. Please free 90 mb" But… isn’t this supposed to hold about 1,000 songs?
Look at #3 under General FAQ’s here. I believe what you are describing is the same problem even though the “numbers” may be different.
By the way, when they say “holds 1,000 songs” what they mean is “you might get 1,000 songs on it if all the of songs are ripped at a max of 128kbps (very low) and none of the songs are over 3 minutes in length!” It’s kinda like the posted gas mileage on new cars. That’s what they could squeeze out of them on the dynomometer, but on real roads, in real traffic, sitting at real 5 minute stoplights, “Your mileage may vary!”
Thanks again. I fixed it by reformatting it. and btw: I know it won’t actually always fit exactly 1000 songs, but I would like to add that 200 is no where near 1000.
Thanks,
Mcarter
Ah, yes, 200 songs is nowhere near 1,000 songs. But try not to get stuck on “how many” songs. Look at actual file size. Depending on bit rate and file compression, it is very easy to have a 2 minute song file of high bit rate that is much larger than a 7 minute song file of a lower bit rate. Remember, you are storing files, not songs…
It is a sort of marketing faux pas for these companies to quote how many files any storage medium can hold, as most users either do not understand or simply do not read the added disclaimers explaining specific file and storage conditions.
How exactly did you format it?
I have exactly the same problem, but I’m a stupid teenager who isn’t good with electronics. So there’s probably a good reason that I got the “free 90 MB” message.
There is a simple, user-friendly on-board FORMAT command in the SETTINGS menu. Be advised though, that this will erase all your music, photos, videos from the player’s memory. 
I’m pretty sure the recent firmware supports OGG Vorbis. OGG can generate a very small filesize without having the same watery artefact as mp3, it’ll be noticable but not unpleasant at low bitrates. If you want, you could store well over 1,000 songs by converting them to OGG and keeping most at a low bit-rate. OGG is an amazing file format. Even at high quality bit rates(which is 92-160kpbs for OGG, as opposed to 192+ for mp3).
I have a mac and I had successfully put music on the player, and then switched them to my card. however when I deleted the music from the player on my computer it did not clear the space, so now I have 1.5 kbs available and need 90 mb’s just to turn it on. so I can not reformat it. the msd card does not affect it at all. What can I do?
I got over 1000 songs on my Sansa C250 2GB. I convert all my mp3’s to 64kbps, but using a program I downloaded for free called “Switch”. It works fine for me and is fairly user friendly.
@stevengoodboy wrote:
I have a mac and I had successfully put music on the player, and then switched them to my card. however when I deleted the music from the player on my computer it did not clear the space, so now I have 1.5 kbs available and need 90 mb’s just to turn it on. so I can not reformat it. the msd card does not affect it at all. What can I do?
Have you tried emptying the trash bin while the Fuze is connected? I don’t know whether the Mac creates a trash bin on the device when you delete files but, if it does, that could be the problem.
"By the way, when they say “holds 1,000 songs” what they mean is “you might get 1,000 songs on it if all the of songs are ripped at a max of 128kbps (very low) and none of the songs are over 3 minutes in length”
The standard for stating song numbers seems to now be 128 kbps and songs averaging 4 minutes in length.
For the sake of round numbers, they use 250 songs per gig as the standard. I use 18 hours as the approximation of how much music will fit in a GB at 128 kbps. At a 4 minute per song average, this would yield 270 songs per gig.
i love how standards of measurements have little to do with real life. I am an extreme example but I have the song “Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence” By Dream Theater on my Fuze. This song is 42 minutes (Released Split into 8 tracks, I cut them into 1) and is ripped at 320kbps. Im thinkin its 500 mb on its own (I dont remember the exact numbers) But Forget trying to average my player out to figure how many songs it can hold.
