File and/or other quantity limits on Fuze?

MP3 players Sansa Fuze
1

I’m wondering what are quantity limits on number of files, folders, tag types or lengths, or other ‘gotchas’ built into current (and earlier) firmware revs. for the Fuze.  (I’m running the latest Version 2 firmware) And, are those limits increased or separate for the external memory, or the same?  I’m running an 8 GB Fuze, rev 2 hardware, with an 8GB Kingston uSD.

I’ve got loaded J. Vernon McGee’s entire 5 year Thru the Bible study, which consists of 67 folders, 5086 files, each folder with it’s own m3u playlist, loaded onto an external 8GB uSD card.  When I add my Audiotreasures audio KJV Bible into the internal memory, the “renewing database” or whatever it’s called, does complete, and the Fuze doesn’t crash, but a bunch of the playlists don’t make it through, nor any other method of accessing playback of the files.  I believe it drops some of each (Bible and Thru the Bible).  Incidentally, the KJV Bible consists of 66 folders of 1255 files, also with an m3u playlist in each folder.

If I run just the Thru the Bible in the external memory, and put music albums into the internal memory, if I get beyond 60-70 albums, I begin to loose the ability (and playlists) to access Thru the Bible files, although they are still on the external memory.

I had similar limitations on my previously used Sansa m250 where I couldn’t even get just the KJV Bible all loaded, but that was (eventually, after a year or two) fixed with a firmware update.

I think Sandisk shouldn’t be so stingy in their database limitations, since the space they use must be insignificant compared to the real audio space available!  Hey, Sandisk, if your going to give us all that space, how about letting us use it???

2

I don’t know the exact limits but there may be a workaround.

I believe there is a limit on the number files the database can handle within one folder. 

And I’m guessing that Thru the Bible and the KJV are each in one overall folder.

Try moving half of each one into a different overall folder, so you have TTB-1 and TTB-2 and KJV-1 and KJV-2, and see if that makes them more accessible. It might not work, but it’s worth a try. 

3

Yes, each, TTB, and KJV, are in their respective, and separate folders (and not in a superfolder, for instance, Bible).  I’d try your workaround, but recall that each works when loaded alone, which means that the number of files per folder has not changed when the other is added in its own, separate folder.  Since they work alone, they should therefore work when both are loaded, no? 

4

In fact, I believe it may be a total files limitation, since adding music albums decreases the detected Bible playlists.  I just added 200 pictures, and lost about 200 files worth of playlists (4 playlists) in Thru the Bible.

5

There is a limit of 8000 total media files (IIRC) in the current firmware. Other factors can decrease the usable number, such as long track names.

6

Thanks.  That’s what I was getting at.  I think I’m probably up there, when counting albums, both audio books, and a couple hundred pictures.  That limit is not high enough for folks like me, who are listening to low (32kbps) resolution files, and lots of them.  What does it take to get Sandisk to increase that limit?

By long track names, I assume you mean file names, or is other tag info field lengths a factor as well?

I’ll try and total up my loaded files now and see whether I’ve hit the 8000 limit.  Is there any limit on folder quantities, or do they count as a file each?

Thanks again!

7

Folder name counts as part of the file name. My guess is that there’s a ceiling above which the overall file name length takes more than its allotted space and uses more database capacity, thereby reducing total number of tracks. So it’s not a hard count of 8000, but probably somewhere less.

A way to alleviate the problem is to use short folder names, and avoid nested folders if possible.

BTW, the song limit issue has been discussed previously. You main gain additional info by Googling for “sansa fuze song limit”.

8

I also have the J.Vernon McGee TTB, KJV Bible, S.M. Davis MP3 set, and Jon Courson TTB. Only ~5700 files appear

I have firmware V02.03.33A. Recognized files are 5170 even though the actual is ore than double that.

I have the 8GB Fuze with a 16GB Sandisk uSD. I have all files compressed to 24kbps using iTunes. THe file names are fairly long.

It took iTunes 3 days to compress all those files on my PC.