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MP3 on Macintosh

Do you have an iPod or MP3 player that you want to use with your Macintosh? This article tells you one way to accomplish that.

First, if you have an iPod, just plug it into the Mac, start iTunes, and you’re ready to synchronize songs or other audio files from your Mac to the iPod.  Apple products work together nicely.

However, if you have a MP3 player made by some other company, life becomes more challenging (but you can save money). The Apple-made iTunes works well with the Apple-made iPod but refuses totally to talk to a MP3 player made by any other company.

Problems with MP3 Players and the Macintosh

There are two problems you will encounter when trying to load songs into your MP3 player from the Macintosh.

To get a CD into the Macintosh, you will first be importing (often referred to elsewhere as ripping) the CD into iTunes. iTunes reads the audio signals from the CD and translates then into an encoded digital format. The problem is that, by default, iTunes uses the AAC (M4A) format that many MP3 players do not support. Fortunately, it’s easy to change the iTunes preferences to use the MP3 format instead.

When you connect your MP3 player to your Mac, you’ll see it on your desktop. You might think you could just drag music files to the player using the Finder, but doing that may make your MP3 player very unhappy, with strange songs with weird noises when played. This happens because of the way the OS X Finder stores files on a non-Macintosh file system such as on your MP3 player. Finder puts extra files on the MP3 player to hold Finder information. Because of the naming convention used, the MP3 player may try to interpret that information as music. This doesn’t work well. You’ll need to use another program to copy files from the Macintosh to your player.

You’ll need to make two changes to your Macintosh and then you’re ready to roll.

Initial Setup

First, see if your MP3 player supports AAC format music.  That should be noted in the specifications for your player.  Or you can visit http://www.anythingbutipod.com/compare/search, set the manufacturer name in the Brand section and select AAC as the only audio format in the Supported Formats section.  Press Search and all players of your brand that support AAC will be listed.  If your player does not support AAC, you will need to adjust iTunes so that it uses MP3 format instead of AAC/M4A format.

To get iTunes to import files in MP3 format instead of its default AAC format, start iTunes. From the menu, select Preferences and go to the Importing options (which may be a tab or require pressing another button depending on the version of iTunes). Set the “Import as…” option to “MP3 encoder” instead of “AAC”. That’s all you need to do; tracks from CDs you import after making this change will be in mp3 format and usable on your mp3 player.

Next, download the program KopyMac from http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10987. Open the downloaded file and place the program whereever you keep applications on your Mac.  Note that KopyMac requires OS X 10.4 or later.

Importing CDs

Insert a music or audio CD into your Mac and iTunes will probably ask you whether you want to import it. Tell iTunes to import the CD. (If it doesn’t ask, you probably have some preference setting turned off and you will need to initiate the import process using the menus.)

After the import has completed, iTunes will have created a new folder for the artist, a folder within that for the album, and files in the album folder named for the tracks on the CD. If the CD was a commercial CD, everything is probably fine. In that case, you’re finished with the import process.

However, if the CD is private, unusual, non-commercial, or very old, you’ll see “Unknown Artist,” “Unknown Album,” and the track files will be named TRACK01.mp3, TRACK02.mp3, etc. When this happens, you have some additional work to do.

First, it will be helpful to understand how the import program identifes artist names, album names, and track titles. The CD itself contains only the music–it contains no information about the artist, album, or track titles. What any import program does is to look at the audio CD and then construct a “magic number” based on the number of tracks, length of tracks, and a few other factors to create a “fingerprint” that indentifies the CD. The program then looks up that magic number on the web and downloads artist, album, track, and other identifying information. When it cannot find the magic number on the web, it sets everything to “Unknown.”

Second, it will help to understand how mp3 players index files. MP3 players were designed for music, so their view of the world is in terms of an album with a series of songs recorded as tracks. Everything you put on the mp3 player, including audio books, dharma talks, or any other audio must fit within that music-related structure. Each “song” on the album ends up in a separate file on disc after it is imported.

Every mp3 file, in addition to having music in compressed format, also contains additional identifying information, such as artist, album, etc. This information is stored in the same mp3 file as the music and is stored in what are called id3 tags. There are id3 tags for the album name, album artist, track name, track number, name of the artist for the track, date, and other values. After you copy new files to the mp3 player and disconnect the player from the computer, the player examines all the tracks in its memory and extracts values from these id3 tags to construct the menus that allow you to select genres, artists, albums, etc. and to play tracks in the correct order.

Most mp3 players completely ignore any folder structure you create on disc and rely solely on the id3 tags to organize music.

(Most mp3 players also support playlists, which I am ignoring in this discussion, primarily because I never use them.)

So, if iTunes is reporting artist and album as “unknown,” the id3 tags are likely to be blank. You must fill in some of the id3 tag information so that your player can organize the tracks for you.

In iTunes, select all the tracks you just imported, then select File/Get Info. Respond ‘yes’ to the question of editing multiple files. Type in the name of the primary artist in both the artist and album artist fields, the name of the album, and a genre. The other values on this panel need not be changed. If you want the track names to be correct, do a Get Info on each track and type the name of the track in the Name field at the top of the dialog. This takes care of the id3 tags.

Copying Files to MP3 Player

The steps are:

  • Plug your mp3 player into the computer USB port using the mp3 player’s cable. (Note, be sure to use the cable that came with the player. An iPod cable will fit a Sansa player but the pins are different and using an iPod cable with a Sansa player will destroy the player.)
  • Start the KopyMac program. (KopyMac may be fairly slow to start.)
  • Double click on the mp3 player icon to open it.
  • Drag the Music folder on the mp3 player to the “Destination (Drag)” box on the KopyMac program. Be sure to drag the Music folder from the mp3 player to this box. If there is no Music folder on the mp3 player, it is ok to create one.
  • Close iTunes. You don’t need it any more during this process and its presence might be confusing in the next step.
  • Open your Macintosh hard drive and locate your iTunes music folder. Go to the folder containing the tracks by selecting Macintosh HD -> USERS -> username -> Music ->iTunes -> iTunes Music.
  • Drag the Artist name folder (or the Album folder within the artist name folder if you want to copy only one album) to the “Copy these items (Drag)” box in the KopyMac program.
  • KopyMac immediately begins copying your folders and tracks. There is no progress bar in KopyMac so you will need to watch the progress indicator on your mp3 player to know when the copying is complete.
  • Eject the mp3 player and unplug it. The player will refresh its internal database of tracks using the id3 tags on the mp3 files you just copied.

You can copy only individual albums instead of entire artist folders. You can also copy individual tracks if you desire.

Never completely fill an mp3 player. I recommend leaving about 200GB free when unplugging. The player needs this space for its internal database of id3 tags.

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73 Comments »

73 Responses

  1. on December 18, 2008 at 11:04 am Guy

    This procedure has been tested and confirmed to work with a MacBook, MacBook Pro, and a brand new iMac, all running OS X 10.5 or later. Both Sansa m250 and Fuze players have been reported to work properly.


  2. on December 23, 2008 at 7:47 pm The Gaspar

    This is a wonderful resource. I purchased a Sansa Fuze and have to use a mac mini and itunes. This helped eliminate the duplicate ghost files I was getting when I copied over the files to the player.

    Thanks so much. Any tips on converting movies from google vieo or personal movies/DVDs using the mac for this mp3 player?

    Thanks again!!!


  3. on December 23, 2008 at 8:26 pm Guy

    I’m glad this helped.

    Sorry, I know nothing about converting movies, as I don’t use video on my Fuze at all.


  4. on December 23, 2008 at 9:40 pm Tom>

    Thanks for the great info. I did everything you mentioned, but when I go to play the itunes downloaded music on our fuze the music just plays in very short spurts through the song. The preloaded music plays fine. I think my son first tried to just drag and drop music first. Did this mess us up and is there a way to fix our unhappy fuze?

    Thanks for your help,

    Tom


    • on December 24, 2008 at 7:24 am Guy

      Tom, the problem with “short spurts” is almost certainly caused by the ._* files that the Finder creates when you drag and drop files on the player. Fortunately, there are several fixes, all easy!

      You can always reformat the player, removing everything on it, including preloaded music, video, recordings, and everything else. On the Fuze, System->System settings->format.

      The “Clean” button on KopyMac is supposed to clean up those undesired ._* files. I did not test this myself. I think the procedure would be to drag the player to the “Destination” box in KopyMac and then press the “Clean” button.

      Finally, you could attach the Fuze to a PC, find the ._* files, and delete them individually. You may need to set the Fuze to USB MSC mode first.


  5. on December 24, 2008 at 4:12 pm Kevin Peer

    Hello, Guy –

    Thanks very much for your generous sharing of such valuable information on your site. I was about ready to give up on trying to use my new Sansa Fuze with my iMac.

    I have been successful in loading mp3 files from my Mac to the Fuze, but I am also trying to load WAV files, and when I do the only song information that makes it over is the song title, not the artist or the album, which just show as ‘Unknown”. I need to transfer certain files as uncompressed WAV files so that no information is clipped from the tracks (these are actually brain entrainment-synchronization files).

    Do you happen to know how I can get these WAV files to transfer with the artist and album info intact?

    Many thanks and happy holidays to you,
    Kevin


  6. on December 24, 2008 at 5:08 pm Guy

    Kevin,

    Your question is entering areas that I am not familiar with, so my answer is based on comments I have seen on the web and not personal experience. Hopefully this will give you a place to start researching.

    I believe that, in general, WAV format does not support id3 tagging. What you see in iTunes is probably a representation of what is in iTunes’ database and not tags from the file.

    My first thought it is to convert the files to FLAC format, which is a lossless format and which supports id3 tags. FLAC files are also smaller than WAV files.

    Good luck!


  7. on December 24, 2008 at 5:30 pm Kevin Peer

    Thanks for your reply, Guy –

    It doesn’t appear that FLAC files are compatible with the Fuze, so I may have to figure something else out.

    On another note, have you figured out how to update the firmware for the Fuze from your Mac? Using the “Firmware Wizard” on the Sansa site I see only Windows compatible firmware available…


  8. on December 24, 2008 at 5:43 pm Guy

    I should have mentioned that FLAC support is provided with firmware 1.01.15 and later (.22 is the latest release). To upgrade the firmware from a Mac, you’ll have to use the “manual installation” method rather than the Sansa firmware updater. See http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=sansafuse&thread.id=9473 for directions.


  9. on December 24, 2008 at 8:03 pm Kevin Peer

    I just updated the firmware on my Fuze – it certainly seems more zippy and responsive than before! Do you have a suggestion for a program to convert audio from cd to Flac? Media Monkey looks great but it is only for PC’s.

    Thanks so much for your help.


  10. on December 25, 2008 at 2:39 pm John Marshall

    I bought a sansa fuse for my 10 year old and they sold me itunes gift cards at Best buy. Are these compatable? She tried to download a song and it won’t put it on the machine. However, photos from the PC format computer (NOT MAC) is click and drag.

    Help….


    • on December 25, 2008 at 8:54 pm Guy

      John, I have never purchased music from the iTunes store or used iTunes gift cards, so cannot speak from personal experience. Music files purchased from the iTunes store are probably downloaded in Apple’s AAC format, and the music may be DRM protected. If you can convert the music to mp3 files, then you should be able to copy mp3 files to the Fuze using the procedures outlined above. Certainly iTunes itself will not copy files to the Fuze. I do not know if you can convert a DRM protected file to MP3 format. I’ve read that you can get unprotected music files using “iTunes Plus” but, again, I have no personal experience with that.

      I hope that someone with direct experience can answer your question better.


  11. on December 25, 2008 at 6:27 pm Joel Scharf

    Since you have much helpful knowledge to share (and I can’t help but be impressed by your last name!), I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on my Fuze issue. I bought it for my son because I read on CNET that it was compatible with Macs, which is what I have, specifically a G4 iBook running 10.3.9. I can’t seem to get the darn thing to show up on my desktop. I tried reformatting the Fuze – no help. Any advice?

    Thanks,
    Joel


    • on December 25, 2008 at 8:20 pm Guy

      Joel, make sure you set the Fuze to MSC mode. I’ve seen similar reports of compatibility problems with earlier versions of libraries and, presumably, OS X itself. All tests that I have run and that others have reported to me have been with OS X 10.5 or later.


  12. on December 25, 2008 at 8:14 pm Joel Scharf

    Before you even have the opportunity to answer, allow me to share something I just found on another posting site that has offered an answer to the problem. The Fuze appears to work well on the latest Mac OS version, but has this mounting issue on previous versions (10.3 & 10.4). The other interesting thing that some folks stumbled across is that the problem seems to be “fixed” if there is a microSd card in the Fuze when you connect it to the Mac. I tried it and it worked for me too. With a card in the Fuze, both the card and Fuze appear on the desktop as separate drives.
    Regards,
    Joel


  13. on December 26, 2008 at 9:33 am Guy

    Other Techniques

    I have seen alternatives to using KopyMac discussed recently, but have never tried them myself. I list them here should you wish to investigate them. I would appreciate anyone who tries these methods to report back on how successfull the method is.

    Blue Harvest is a shareware product that keeps Windows-formatted disks–such as an mp3 player–free of the AppleDouble files and other unwanted files the Finder places on non-Mac formatted disks. In Blue Harvest’s preference panel, be sure to set the option to “Keep Non Mac Disks Clean.” Requires Mac OS X 1.4.x or 1.5 or greater. With Blue Harvest, you should be able to drag files directly to your player using the Finder and without using KopyMac. Note that this utility will also remove DS_Store and ._ files form any other non-Mac or network disks you attach to your computer. This may not be desirable. See http://zeroonetwenty.com/blueharvest/ for more information.

    XNJB is a graphical interface that allows you to select and synchronize files to mp3 players. It requires the player be in MTP mode rather than MSC mode. Reports on the XNJB user forums suggest that some people have gotten XNJB to work with the Sansa Fuze. Requires OS X 10.3.9 or later. I recommend checking the XNJB user forums for compatibility with your player before trying this. See http://www.wentnet.com/projects/xnjb/ for more information.


  14. on December 26, 2008 at 10:42 am Joel Scharf

    Guy,

    For the record, my Fuze is in MPC mode – that doesn’t appear to be the cause of the issue. From what I read on the other site, my experience matched what others found – the Fuze shows up on the desktop, as a separate drive (apart form the microSD card), but only when a card is in the Fuze.
    On another note, here’s a technique John might be able to use for his iTunes issue. If you burn a CD from iTunes (from downloaded mp3 songs), and then re-import that CD back into iTunes, I believe that the protection is bypassed. The re-imported music, sans the original protection, can then be copied as data.

    Regards,
    Joel


  15. on December 27, 2008 at 4:37 am dan

    can someone tell me if is possible to add or view album art using a mac can someone help me thanks


  16. on December 27, 2008 at 5:43 pm Joel Scharf

    Here’s one more question, Guy. I went through the procedure in iTunes you described to change the id3 tags on multiple files for the artist name and album name. Yet for some reason, my Sansa Fuze keeps putting a total of 4 specific songs, from two CDs, in an Unknown folder. I double checked the tags in iTunes, tried reformatting the Fuze and recopying the music onto it with KopyMac, but the problem persists. Any thoughts?
    Thanks,
    Joel


    • on December 27, 2008 at 7:28 pm Guy

      Song titles, albums, artists, or album artists with Unicode/foreign characters in their names can result in music being placed in the Unknown folder. I’ve had that happen and had to change the text of all my id3 tags to ASCII.


  17. on December 28, 2008 at 3:07 pm Guy

    Updated article with directions on how to determine whether a player supports AAC/M4A. If a player does support AAC, then it should usually not be necessary to set iTunes preferences to use MP3 format.


  18. on December 29, 2008 at 8:13 pm Clayton

    Thanks for sharing your expertise with us mp3/mac novices!
    My trouble comes early in the instructions, though. “When you connect your MP3 player to your Mac, you’ll see it on your desktop.” mmmmyeah…not happening for me. Could it be my stone age OS? I’m running 10.2.8.
    Also, when my Sansa Fuze is plugged into my USB port, it only shows a “Connecting” graphic and the battery symbol makes it appear to be charging. Forever.
    Are my problems related?
    Is there still a chance for me to impress my 9 year-old with some quick music downloads?
    Should I just have him take over?

    Thanks for your help in advance!


  19. on December 29, 2008 at 9:31 pm Guy

    All tests I have run were with OS X 10.4 or later. I suspect you’re right that it is an OS version problem. You’ll need to talk to some Mac expert about that.


  20. on December 31, 2008 at 6:56 am NormZ

    Guy!

    Great resource of information. Thank you for taking the time to write it and posting it. I have taken the liberty of posting the link to Sansa Fuze Forum.

    Thanks again!
    NormZ


  21. on December 31, 2008 at 11:44 am Guy

    Some Things to Check if Mac Doesn’t Recognize Player

    I mainly follow the MP3 on Macintosh issue on the Sansa Fuze forum, as that is the player I have. A problem reported by some Mac users is that their player, set to MSC mode, does not show up on the desktop when plugged into the Mac. Some thoughts:

    Be sure you are plugging your player directly into the computer and not into a USB hub or splitter. The Fuze may say “Connected” on its screen but the computer does not see the player. (On my Windows system, I can connect through a powered hub.)

    All tests I ran were with newer Macs with OS X 10.5 or later. I have seen good reports for OS X 10.4, but mixed reports from earlier versions.

    Some people have found that their Fuze showed up on the desktop when they had a microSDHC expansion card in the player. But others report that adding an expansion card did not help.

    At least one person has reported that the XNJB program has worked for them, using the player’s MTP mode, when MSC mode has not worked.


  22. on January 1, 2009 at 6:43 pm Ka'Lu

    Thank you so much for all your help. Unfortunately, I am still running into problems getting my music onto my mp3 player. I have downloaded the KopyMac. I have set my iTunes to mp3 format. It wouldn’t allow me to drag the folder into the “Copy these items: (Drag)” box. When I opened the folder. The songs are listed as “.m4a” files. Have I missed something? I’d appreciate any help; especially since I purchased these particular players for my girls for Christmas, and I’d like to help them use them fully. Thanks!!


  23. on January 1, 2009 at 7:20 pm Guy

    Ka’Lu, You didn’t say which player you are using, so I’ll assume it is a player that does not support AAC (M4A) format.

    Changing iTunes to mp3 format for importing affects only new CDs that you import, not ones that you previously imported. For ones that were previously converted to AAC, you must convert them to MP3. On Windows, you do that by select the tracks, right clicking, and select the convert to MP3 option. Mac version has similar capabilities (I don’t have a Mac in front of me right now so cannot tell you the exact keystroke equivalent).

    I recommend closing iTunes before dragging the files from the Macintosh HD -> USERS -> username -> Music ->iTunes -> iTunes Music folder. I suggest closing iTunes only to prevent confusion because if you try to drag files files from the iTunes window itself, the files won’t work.

    If that doesn’t do it, please detail the exact steps you are taking, exactly what error occurs, and the version of OS X you are running.


  24. on January 3, 2009 at 11:53 pm Guy

    KopyMac for OS X 10.2

    The link I provided earlier is documented as being a version for OS X 10.3 – 10.5. A version said to be for OS X 10.2 can be found at http://www.tcsn.net/mont/Digitol_Disturbance/Digitol_Disturbance.html.

    I have not tested this version. I suspect it would be useful only if your player shows up in the Finder on OS X 10.2.x. I’d appreciate any reports of success or failure with OS X 10.2.x.


  25. on January 4, 2009 at 12:03 pm ksharun

    Ok. So I tried to start from scratch, and got the same results: nothing. Here’s what I’m doing. I shut everything down, hoping it refresh all the programs. I opened iTunes, and made sure it was changed MP3 encoder. Then I inserted and imported my cd-one that I have not used previously. When done with importing, I connected my Sansa Fuze and opened the KopyMac program. It has the two boxes, with “Copy these items: (Drag)” on top and “Destination: MUSIC” on bottom. It has two “buttons” in between. One is “Clean”, the other is “Quit”. I am able to drag the music folder from the sansa fuze into the Destination box. I close the iTunes, then open the Mac hard drive and locate the album folder I want to download. But when I click on it and try to drag it to the copy these items box, it drags to it, but when I let go, it goes back to it’s original place. That is as far as I can get. Any ideas?
    Ka’Lu


  26. on January 4, 2009 at 1:26 pm Guy

    Ka’Lu,

    It sounds like you are doing everything right. KopyMac is very poor on giving visual feedback about what it is doing, so that can be confusing.

    KopyMac is copying files, not moving them, so it is natural that the files will still be in the original location.

    Try this: Connect your Fuze. It shows up on the desktop and the screen on the Fuze will say “Connected.” Set up KopyMac in the usual way, drag the destination Music directory from the Fuze to the Destination box then drag a folder of mp3 files to the “Copy these items: (Drag)” box on the top. Immediately look at the Fuze screen. It should now say “Writing” for a short time, until the files are copied.

    After it goes back to saying “Connected,” open the player’s Music folder on the Mac and confirm that the folder you dragged is there and that it contains mp3 files. Use the Mac menus to eject the player. Disconnect the player and it should say “rebuilding database” and you should be able to find the music in the player menus after the database is refreshed.


  27. on January 4, 2009 at 2:39 pm ksharun

    Guy,
    You are a wonder! I thank you and so do my girls. Evidently, it was copying, but because it didn’t stay in the box, I didn’t realize that. So now my daughter ( I used her player as my guinea pig) has 4 copies of the same album on her player. I think I just dated myself. But I really appreciate you taking time out of your schedule to help me. So your directions really are perfect (not that I doubted it); I just have to realize that not every program gives visual feedback. Thanks again.
    Happy Sunday!

    Ka’Lu


  28. on January 8, 2009 at 9:57 am Courtney

    This article was exactly what I needed to put songs on my Sansa Fuze. I’m so glad it was here!
    Now, a problem. I’m trying to put an audio book on the mp3 player. I’ve loaded all the files to iTunes and they’re in mp3 format and they go on the player just fine. Except, none of the chapters are in order, so I have to skip around to listen them. Is there anything to remedy this?
    Thanks,
    Courtney


    • on January 8, 2009 at 10:08 am Guy

      This is a problem with the way iTunes encodes track numbers in the id3 tags. It can be fixed by upgrading your Sansa Fuze firmware to the latest release. See http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=sansafuse&thread.id=9473 for directions on how to do this.


  29. on January 8, 2009 at 2:52 pm Lydia

    Thanks so much for this article! My little brother got a Fuze for Christmas, and we were getting really frustrated b/c we could not figure out how to put songs on it. But then I found your article, and now we understand! Thanks again. 🙂


  30. on January 10, 2009 at 9:50 am Courtney

    Thank you so very much! It worked! I finally figured out how to download the file, unzip the file, drag it to the root directory, update, and lo and behold, the audio book files were in order!
    Thanks again.


  31. on January 21, 2009 at 1:49 am Esko (Finland)

    Thanks a lot Guy. Without this site I would have been lost with my new Sansa Fuze and Mac. I encountered the above mentioned language problems, though, when using the KopyMac software. It did not recognize Scandinavian characters correctly, neither the rather common French accents such as in Gabriel Fauré. When I changed all characters in songs and album names to standard English ones the problem was fixed. It would be nice to have a KopyMac that would recognize Unicode/foreign characters. After all, this language issue is a bug for the rest of the world.


  32. on January 22, 2009 at 5:29 pm Rebekah

    I got this Sansa Fuze for my daughter, and I’m stumped. I can copy MP3 files onto it from my Mac just fine (thanks to your wonderful help!), but for some reason, the MP3 files are huge. Each one takes up anywhere from 2 to 4 MB, so I can only put a handful on her MP3 player. Shouldn’t these compress automatically when copied? I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. I’d greatly appreciate any help.


  33. on January 22, 2009 at 6:05 pm Guy

    Rebekah,

    Compression occurs when the mp3 file is initially created, so the mp3 files should be small on your Macintosh before you try to copy them to the Fuze.

    A song that is 2 to 4 MB is already compressed. Depending on which Fuze you bought, the capacity is between 2 and 8 GB, enough space for thousands of songs.


  34. on January 23, 2009 at 4:14 am Rebekah

    Thanks, Guy. I reset the player to the factory settings, and now there seems to be plenty of room for music files. I must have inadvertently added something big in my initial (and faulty!) attempts to copy music. Much appreciation, Bekah


  35. on January 26, 2009 at 9:45 am Esko

    Guy, what do you think about this advice for Mac users that I found on the net? “When deleting files from the Fuze (and any other mass storage device eg a memory stick) it is necessary to empty the Trash whilst the device is still attached to the computer otherwise the deleted file stays in the device’s trashes file (invisible) and the memory used by that deleted file is still used. To make the memory available again it is important to empty that trash file by emptying the computer’s trash (which also empties the trash file for any attached device).”


    • on January 26, 2009 at 10:26 am Guy

      Esko, Thanks for bringing this issue up. I believe that advice is quite correct and think I said so somewhere (but probably forgot to do that here). I suspect that KopyMac’s “Clean” function may also eliminate the trash files on the device, but I did not test that.


    • on January 6, 2010 at 4:01 am Klaus

      You can use Graveyard to delete files directly, without necesity to empty trash. It should be on versiontracker.com

      Regards – Klaus


  36. on February 16, 2009 at 9:01 am John

    Guy,
    I too have the “short spurts” problem with music I loaded on my new 8gb Fuze. My Mac with 10.4.11 recognizes the Fuze just fine. I used KopyMac as you described to load music and clean the Fuze. I reformatted the Fuze using its own internal commands and reloaded the music several times. I listened to the music on the computer to be sure it wasn’t a problem in copying the CD. None of that made a difference. The music is simply unlistenable. Do you have any other suggestions?


  37. on February 16, 2009 at 12:06 pm John

    An addendum to my earlier inquiry. I formatted the Fuze again then added my music without using KopyMac; that is I dragged the music directly from the Mac music folder into the music folder of the Fuze. The jittery spurts are no longer to be found. Could the problem have been cleared up in the programming of the Fuze?


    • on February 16, 2009 at 4:04 pm Guy

      You’re saying that the music was fine with dragged with the Finder but not when using KopyMac? I don’t know what to make of that; it sounds like a problem in KopyMac. It’s always difficult to debug a problem when I can’t examine the player closely to find out what is actually on it. I had a few ideas about how to debug the problem further, but if it is working ok for you now, just enjoy it!


  38. on March 26, 2009 at 7:39 pm Paul

    Here’s another trick that might help some readers. After following the above instructions, my Clip still wouldn’t connect with my Mac Mini. So, after experimenting a bit further, I discovered this additional procedure which works for me every time: First, I plug the USB cable directly into one of the Mac USB ports (not into my powered USB hub), and then I plug the other end of the USB cable into the powered-down Clip; after the two are connected in that order, then I can turn on the Clip and see the “Connecting” message and interact with KopyMac and iTunes.


  39. on March 27, 2009 at 8:38 am szb

    Guy–Many thanks for all the helpful information I have gleaned so far. I have not been able to load a audio book (on A Sansa Fuze silver) because, while I can do this into the “Book” file on om Mac (10.3.9) a “BooK” icon is missing on my Fuze and so the loaded audio book does not show up anywhere on my Fuze.


  40. on March 27, 2009 at 9:26 am Guy

    I don’t understand the details of what you have tried to do on the Mac; there is no “book” icon on the Fuze as such. I suspect your problem is more with understanding audiobook requirements for the Fuze. The audiobook must be in a format supported by the Fuze–that usually means mp3. Other audiobook formats supported on the Mac, such as NetLibrary, won’t work. Then, you must either set the ID3 genre tag to “Audiobook” or copy the file to the “Audiobooks” directory on the Fuze. If you don’t do one of those two, the book will show up on the Fuze as music rather than as an audiobook.


  41. on March 28, 2009 at 4:46 pm Jane

    Thank you Guy! I am 62, just bought my first MP3 and didn’t want to spring for an ipod. I have a mac – an old G4 ibook, just updated a few days ago to Leopard – OS4. Following your instructions, everything has worked just fine, although some of the albums didn’t “take” – I think I didn’t wait long enough before dragging the next one into the box. Thank you so much for your generous sharing. I never could have figured this out on my own and would have had to return this great little Fuze.

    all the best.


  42. on March 29, 2009 at 3:57 pm Jane

    Would you know if I can convert my already existing music in iTunes to mp3 and if so, HOW?

    Hi – just answered my own question. In the version of iTunes that I have – an upgrade that works with 10.4.11, you go to the pulldown menu “Advanced” and click on “convert selection to mp3”. Once I did that, and followed your instructions with KopyMac, everything seems fine.

    Thanks again!

    Jane


  43. on March 30, 2009 at 12:19 am Ang

    Followed instructions and created a MUSIC folder. Files seemed to copy but MP3 player states there are no files!


  44. on March 30, 2009 at 3:16 am Guy

    Are you sure the files are MP3 files and not the default AAC (M4A) files that iTunes usually creates? AAC files are ignored by most mp3 players.


  45. on March 30, 2009 at 12:40 pm Ang

    I usually import as MP3 but I have checked that they are MP3 in the iTunes library. Before finding your website I dragged the files to the MP3 player and the songs would play for a little while and would then jump to the next song. Found another website which advises to delete the hidden files. I did so but the songs played as above. I think that the MP3 player doesn’t recognize the MUSIC folder. The MP3 player doesn’t have a reformat function.


  46. on March 30, 2009 at 2:07 pm Jack B

    Thanks Guy for your excellent article. I am using a Sansa e280 to listen to audio books, and a correct chapter order is therefore essential.
    So far I have transferred a couple of books using your step-by-instructions with no trouble.


  47. on March 30, 2009 at 2:19 pm Guy

    Ang,

    Which mp3 player are you using? Some have a format option in their system menu. The behavior you describe sounds like the hidden files are present. Maybe the Clean button on KopyMac will help>


  48. on March 30, 2009 at 3:09 pm Ang

    Guy,
    I am using a 256MB EasyTech MP3 Player PN511x model no.: [PN511x]. The System tools menu doesn’t have a format option. I tried the Clean button on KopyMac. Do you think I could erase the MP3 player using Disk Utility using MS-DOS (FAT)?


    • on March 30, 2009 at 4:31 pm Guy

      Maybe. I have never seen that player and don’t know anything about it. Nor have I tried to format a FAT drive from a Macintosh. It might be interesting to hook your player up to a PC and see what unexpected files you see on it. Also, try emptying the trash on the Mac with the player connected.


  49. on March 30, 2009 at 10:44 pm Ang

    Guy,
    Checked player on a PC and no unexpected files. Found some info on another web site stating similar problem of music playing for a little while before skipping to songs. It seems that the INTRO function was on. Deleted the MUSIC folder and used KopyMac to copy music directly to device. After a frustrating time trying to find where the INTRO function (I have no manual for the player) was – changed it to NORMAL. Guess what – it now plays! Thanks for you help!
    PS I normally use an iPod but it is being replaced – I know they are more expensive but I think they are worth it.


    • on March 31, 2009 at 5:09 am Guy

      I’m glad you got it working. There’s no contesting that the iPod integrates better with the Mac than other players! Apple likes Apple. I’m very happy with my Fuze and think it a better player, especially when considering cost. But if I had a Mac, I’d certainly look hard at an iPod.


  50. on April 10, 2009 at 5:55 am melia

    guy, thanks for all your info.

    my issue is being able to make playlists. the only playlist that show up on the fuze is “go”

    my fuze comes right up on my mac. i can drag and drop. no problems. but no playlists. tried going through KopyMac, but still no playlists

    like i said – no problems getting the music on there. but cannot separate into playlist folders (even by dragging “folders” of music)

    any ideas?

    thanks


  51. on April 10, 2009 at 5:58 am melia

    btw – i saw this post below on an different forum, but i have no idea what it means or how to do it!!!

    ~~~~~~~

    Are playlists other than the Go List possible?

    Yes.

    M3U playlists should have relative addressing rather than absolute. I.e, begin with “Music\…” and not “\Music\…”. I recommend placing playlists in the root directory. If placed in the \Music directory, the addresses should be relative to the \Music directory, which means the leading “Music\” should be omitted.


    • on April 10, 2009 at 8:17 am Guy

      Melia,

      The message you quoted is correct.

      A playlist is a separate file, with a .M3U file extension, that lists the tracks that constitute that playlist. You would normally create the playlist with some program, then copy the playlist to the Fuze. Sometimes the playlist created by another program has to be modified by hand to meet the Fuze’s requirements. For example, I create playlists on Windows using Media Monkey then modify the playlists to meet the Fuze’s relative addressing requirement.

      How are you trying to create a playlist?


  52. on April 10, 2009 at 8:39 am melia

    i tried running a script through itunes that i found, but it’s not recognizing the fuze

    do you have a recommended program for the mac to create a playlist?


    • on April 10, 2009 at 9:45 am Guy

      Sorry, I don’t know what might be available. I rarely use playlists myself.


  53. on April 13, 2009 at 8:56 pm bob

    Why isn’t my mac seeing my mp3 player?


    • on April 13, 2009 at 9:23 pm Guy

      Impossible to tell without more information. Which mp3 player and which version of OS X are you running? What do you see on screen when you attach the Player? Here are some possible problems: 1) Your player must be set to MSC mode, not MTP. 2) Some older versions of OS X seem to have problems supporting some mp3 players. 3) You are connecting the player through a passive USB hub; you must connect directly to a USB port on your computer.


  54. on May 10, 2009 at 12:02 pm rebecca

    Does this work with Sansa view? I can’t drag podcasts or music from the itunes box to your KopyMac box…


    • on May 10, 2009 at 12:22 pm Guy

      I would think it would work with the View, but have never tried it. Remember that you have to drag from the folder containing the music and podcast files, not from the iTunes application window. What happens when you try to drag files to the KopyMac window?


  55. on May 19, 2009 at 8:36 pm Vanessa

    This is, by far, the most helpful information I have seen about this topic! I was worried that I’d have to return my Sansa Fuze but now it’s my new favorite toy. Thanks Guy!


  56. on June 1, 2009 at 4:37 pm Paul

    Rebecca, to connect the View in MSC mode, it is a little tricky. I don’t own one myself. I just have the fuze but having been on the sansa forums pretty often, I think I know how to do it. First, make sure it is turned on. Pull the power switch to hold and press and hold the rewind button. While still pressed, plug it on your computer. This is the only way I know of to force it on MSC mode and make it reconizable on your mac. Otherwise, you can always try XNBJ without forcing your View on MSC.


  57. on December 9, 2009 at 10:39 pm Siddharth

    Hey,

    Thanks so much for all the help. I just got my macbook pro and am new to the Mac OS too. I was having issues transferring music to my Sansa Fuze. Thanks for all the help. Everything worked great.


  58. on June 24, 2010 at 5:44 pm BL

    Got rid of the “ghost files” on my Sansa Fuze, thanks to this article. Much appreciated!!!


  59. on July 7, 2010 at 1:18 am FredO

    Wow – can’t tell you how helpful this single webpage has been! Couldn’t understand where all the memory was going on my Sansa Fuze, after just a handful of albums – the deleting issue just doesn’t seem to be mentioned in any of the Sansa info. I installed KopyMac, formatted the player and started again – much better! One question – is it best to click ‘clean’ each time before closing?



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