[beachpea]

I've updated my X3 to the latest firmware 3.0 and have been using it for a week. During that time, I have experienced frequent (several per listening session ~1 hour each) screen freezes or shut-downs with screen dark, always between songs, as the player advances from one song to the next. I have had to use the reset button to restart the player each time to listen again.
 
Looking through my settings, I've been using gapless playback for the purpose of listening to live albums uninterrupted. Having read here on Head-Fi that gapless playback has been a problem in the past for some owners, I decided to switch gapless playback off to see if it made a difference with the spontaneous freezes/shut-downs. So far, so good. However, I lose that feature by doing so. Can you offer a solution to this problem? With this same X3 player, I had never experienced this problem before having used every prior version of the firmware to date. Will this require yet another firmware update to resolve?
 
I like the FiiO X3 for its sound quality, but I must say it has been quite the journey getting it to function properly and reliably! Thanks to FiiO for sticking with it so faithfully, but much too bad that it has been so necessary to iron out all the nagging problems that have come with it.
 
Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.

 

[ibs63]

Is anyone having a problem formatting the micro sd cards with the X3 3.0 firmware?  I am trying to format a new Sandisk Ultra SDXC 64 gb card.  It is exact the same model card that I purchased earlier and was able to format it with the previous 2.x firmware.  The X3 recognizes a card is inserted but when I try to use the format function it gives me a message stating that the "TF card is not found. Formatting failed".   Any suggestions?
 
BTW, I also have a DX50 and the player is able to access the card and play music. My PC can also read/write access the card. 

 

[ibs63]

So I did a little digging and found the thread on using a tool called GUIFormat and setting the allocation unit size to 32768 to format the 64 gb card from exFAT to FAT32.  Once I did that, the Fiio X3 with firmware 3.0 was able to format the card.  Not sure why had to do this with this firmware when the older firmware didn't need the extra step.

 

[tjw321]

  Is anyone having a problem formatting the micro sd cards with the X3 3.0 firmware?  I am trying to format a new Sandisk Ultra SDXC 64 gb card.  It is exact the same model card that I purchased earlier and was able to format it with the previous 2.x firmware.  The X3 recognizes a card is inserted but when I try to use the format function it gives me a message stating that the "TF card is not found. Formatting failed".   Any suggestions?
 
BTW, I also have a DX50 and the player is able to access the card and play music. My PC can also read/write access the card. 

I can confirm this. Just received a couple of 64GB cards and the X3 will not format them unless they have already been formatted to FAT32 (or at least, nor exFAT). Kind of defeats the purpose of the on-device format function...

 

[ibs63]

Fiio responded very quickly to an email I sent on the formatting issue with firmware 3.0.  Here is their response:
 
Thanks for your mail and support to FiiO!

Regarding to your problem, we suggest you use a tool to press your X3's reset hole then reinsert the SD card to have a try. 
Could you inform us whether all of your SD cards can't be formatted by the X3 running FW3.0? We can use our X3 running FW3.0 to format the SD cards without any problems. We suggest you update your X3 to FW3.0 again. 
You also can click the link below then search GUIformat, and then use the GUIformat software to format your SD card as FAT32. Pls note that, the allocation unit size is suggested to choose 32K or lower but not 64K when you formatting your SD card. 
http://www.fiio.com.cn/support/download.aspx

 If you have any other question, please feel free to contact us!
Have a nice day! ^_^
 
I let them know that more than one user experienced the need to format to FAT32 before the X3 could format the card.  Maybe someone can try the reset or re-install the firmware and see if that works.

 

[tjw321]

This is why I hate dealing with support. You would think they would at least read your e-mail properly and therefore be able to reproduce your problem rather than just putting the onus back on us to follow time-wasting steps like this. Anyway, I had one card still as yet unformatted and, big surprise, the X3 can not format it even after a reset.
 
So, to reproduce the problem:
 
Get a brand new, fresh out of the packet SDXC card (i.e 64GB or above) and try and format it in the X3. The problem is that the X3 is not recognising SDXC cards in exFAT sufficiently well to be able to reformat them.
 
I thought it was pretty obvious from your description....

 

[surge]

Is there a way to play all songs from e same artist? Before update I can just click e artist n x3 will shuffle all e songs n play. Now under artist it will show all albums by e same artist n I can only play e album I click on but not all e songs. Is there a way to play all songs under same artist?

 

[bhabba]

Is there a way to play all songs from e same artist? Before update I can just click e artist n x3 will shuffle all e songs n play. Now under artist it will show all albums by e same artist n I can only play e album I click on but not all e songs. Is there a way to play all songs under same artist?

 
No, this is not possible with FW 3.0. I (as well as many other users) hope there will be "play all" options in future FW versions to be able to play all songs of a certain artist (as well as all songs of a certain genre). You could vote for the according feature request in bugzilla (Bug 2 – enhance category browsing: 'play all' options on different levels, browse by year, ...)!
 
And maybe you wanna have a look at these requests, too:
 
Bug 61 – "Play All" option in folder view (aka "Browse Files")
 
Bug 176 – playback across multiple folders/category entries

 

[surge]

.
No, this is not possible with FW 3.0. I (as well as many other users) hope there will be "play all" options in future FW versions to be able to play all songs of a certain artist (as well as all songs of a certain genre). You could vote for the according feature request in bugzilla (Bug 2 –enhance category browsing: 'play all' options on different levels, browse by year, ...)!

And maybe you wanna have a look at these requests, too:

Bug 61 – "Play All" option in folder view (aka "Browse Files")

Bug 176 – playback across multiple folders/category entries

could u pls advise how can I restore e previous version in this case? Thanks

 

[JamesFiiO]

could u pls advise how can I restore e previous version in this case? Thanks

 
the same way which you upgrade the firmware, you can put the previous version into the Micro SD card and " upgrade " to what every version you want.

 

[surge]

the same way which you upgrade the firmware, you can put the previous version into the Micro SD card and " upgrade " to what every version you want.

done. Thanks for w quick reply.

 

[petecc]

I'm new to the X3 and I upgraded to this firmware almost immediately so I can't really compare to previous versions (except for menu navigation, see below).
 
In so many ways, I love this device; it seems to be well made and I love the sound but, speaking as a software engineer, if I had written the user interface, I'd be mortally ashamed.
 
First, and the most seriously, there seems to be a fundamental navigation bug. When you select some files to play (I always use folders but I quickly tried an album and the same problem is apparent) the playing screen shows the file, its track number and the total number of tracks playing (e.g. 3/10). If you press 'back', then you get back to the list of tracks playing - as I'd expect. BUT not if you stop and power off in between selecting the folder and pressing back - in that case it shows you 'all songs' instead - it still displays the track and total tracks (e.g. 3/10) - so it still knows what it's playing, it just won't show it. The only way to get back to the list is to navigate back down from the main menu. The same thing happens if you back right up to the main menu without powering off - then again the only way back to the list of tracks playing it to repeat the full navigation.
 
I've never seen such an obvious bug in a version 3 - it shouldn't have made it out of beta testing! I'm amazed nobody else has commented - do I have a faulty unit? Am I missing something obvious?
 
Second, still no support for a single image file for the cover art for a folder (cover.jpg; folders.jpg)? Excusable in an initial version 1.0 but this is version 3.0! This is a space limited device (64gb micro sd is the biggest at a sensible price and 128gb is the biggest at any price) and having to have an image for each track is a waste of valuable space.
 
Third, the move from a text menu system to the 3 x 2 icons is, IMO, a giant leap backwards. It would make sense for a touch screen interface, or even one with four navigation buttons but this device only has up and down. What's more, the down button it to the left of the up button, so to navigate right, you have to press the leftmost navigation button; crazy. At least you can change the theme from that horrible orange colour - except for the startup screen which ignores the theme. Ideally, I'd like to be able to go back to the text menus (I'm almost tempted to try downgrading to the previous version) but at least make the startup screen follow the theme, please!
 
This is such a beautiful device - it's such a shame it has such a dreadful interface.....

 

[TrollDragon]

The Path Navigation Bug has been around since day one, it might get fixed eventually...

The problem with the X3 is lack of buttons so they have to double duty some of them. If the X3 would have had a dedicated "Menu" button instead of a "Menu / Back" button things would have been a lot easier...

 

[petecc]

The problem with the X3 is lack of buttons so they have to double duty some of them. If the X3 would have had a dedicated "Menu" button instead of a "Menu / Back" button things would have been a lot easier...

 
I agree that the lack of buttons is a limitation but I can't see how it's an excuse for anything I've raised. The menu/back clearly works like back in the playing screen - if you don't power down, anyway - if you do, it transforms itself into an 'all songs' button - that can't be a compromise - it's a bug. Similarly, the navigation; if you don't have left/right navigation buttons, don't design the UI to look as if it needs them - it isn't rocket science......

 

[bhabba]

Originally Posted by petecc /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
First, and the most seriously, there seems to be a fundamental navigation bug. When you select some files to play (I always use folders but I quickly tried an album and the same problem is apparent) the playing screen shows the file, its track number and the total number of tracks playing (e.g. 3/10). If you press 'back', then you get back to the list of tracks playing - as I'd expect. BUT not if you stop and power off in between selecting the folder and pressing back - in that case it shows you 'all songs' instead - it still displays the track and total tracks (e.g. 3/10) - so it still knows what it's playing, it just won't show it. The only way to get back to the list is to navigate back down from the main menu. The same thing happens if you back right up to the main menu without powering off - then again the only way back to the list of tracks playing it to repeat the full navigation.
 
I've never seen such an obvious bug in a version 3 - it shouldn't have made it out of beta testing! I'm amazed nobody else has commented - do I have a faulty unit? Am I missing something obvious?
 
Second, still no support for a single image file for the cover art for a folder (cover.jpg; folders.jpg)? Excusable in an initial version 1.0 but this is version 3.0! This is a space limited device (64gb micro sd is the biggest at a sensible price and 128gb is the biggest at any price) and having to have an image for each track is a waste of valuable space.
 
Third, the move from a text menu system to the 3 x 2 icons is, IMO, a giant leap backwards. It would make sense for a touch screen interface, or even one with four navigation buttons but this device only has up and down. What's more, the down button it to the left of the up button, so to navigate right, you have to press the leftmost navigation button; crazy. At least you can change the theme from that horrible orange colour - except for the startup screen which ignores the theme. Ideally, I'd like to be able to go back to the text menus (I'm almost tempted to try downgrading to the previous version) but at least make the startup screen follow the theme, please!

 
1. As TrollDragon mentioned, a screw*** load of people already did comment on it actually. Because it's pretty annoying to read about the same issues over and over again Joe from FiiO set up a bugtracker. Open an account there and vote for this issue to be solved: Bug 6 – navigate back through file tree from 'Now Playing' screen | navigation type forgotten after power off
 
2. This is also being requested on bugzilla for a long time now and obviously you could increase the votes for it as well: Bug 11 – limited support for cover art. In this post Joe recently stated it's on the development schedule...
 
3. Look at this post in the firmware modding thread, a bunch of users (most notably Mr. Trev) created several list based versions of FW 3.0, they're simply amazing I think