[tstarn06]

Julie, there is a program called zalternator that allegedly allows you to skip the Zune software completely and use WMP, Mediamonkey or even iTunes to manage Zune. I tried installing it, but it had a problem with WMP files, so it didn't work for me. But others swear by it. You might want to Google it and give it a go. Easy to uninstall/change back.

I had some initial problems with the Zune software, but lately, it's been doing exactly what I want it to do. Then again, I could care less about album art, etc. And I have managed to avoid those phantom "unknown" album woes.

 

[Ozric]

Oh the amount of time I spent re-tagging my files and embedding album art so everything looked just right on the Zune was ridiculous. And I still have duplicate entries etc. It even took me registry changes just to get the damn SW installed in the first place. God, if the rest of the Zune's functionality just wasnt as good as it is, I would have switched to Cowon or Sony. To add to my woes, I just had to return a new ibasso D2 because the pot developed a noise issue!

All this happens two days before I am to take a flight for an extended period outside the country. Gotta love Murphy's Law.

 

[sinner6]

I have 80 gig of music on my Zune and not 1 duplicate or "unknown artist".
I use MediaMonkeyfor tagging, it has a very nice feature that will find "files to edit", you can pull them up by various "unknowns"and correct accordingly and all will be well. I admit I did have to do a days worth of work, but now it is flawless for both my wife and myself. let me know if you need help, once it's all up and running it's a real joy.

 

[soozieq]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tstarn06 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Julie, there is a program called zalternator that allegedly allows you to skip the Zune software completely and use WMP, Mediamonkey or even iTunes to manage Zune.

Tom: I already tried it on my laptop and pc (both running Vista) and couldn't even get it to install! As I'm adding music much more slowly now (since the initial load up), I'm hoping the issue will be more tolerable. Mind you, trying to force 2 CDs into the same folder was enough to get me ready to list it on eBay, it was that bad!

Ozric: I've managed to 'escape' any duplicates, but I do end up with empty 'ghost' albums that refuse to be deleted from the Zune. They do disappear eventually, but until they do - I'm always wondering how long I'm going to be staring at the horrible brown 'unknown' square when there's nothing in them!

sinner: The thing is I don't have a single 'unknown' artist or unknown anything anywhere in my library. I'm really proudly anal of that

. . . it only becomes 'unknown' when it gets to the Zune! Like I said, when I check the tags in various programs, they're all present and correct. There's not even a missing year - so it just doesn't make sense. And the Zune does eventually accept the albums, but not until it's good and ready, which means the tags are fine.

 

[tstarn06]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ozric /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oh the amount of time I spent re-tagging my files and embedding album art so everything looked just right on the Zune was ridiculous. And I still have duplicate entries etc. It even took me registry changes just to get the damn SW installed in the first place. God, if the rest of the Zune's functionality just wasnt as good as it is, I would have switched to Cowon or Sony. To add to my woes, I just had to return a new ibasso D2 because the pot developed a noise issue! All this happens two days before I am to take a flight for an extended period outside the country. Gotta love Murphy's Law.

There is a zune patch out there that allows you to "see" the Zune using Windows explorer, which then allows you to delete unwanted phantom files, folders, etc. All I know is, it worked for my Zune80. You must have the Zune plugged in and the software on for the patch to work. I know Julie had problems with it too. But I love that I can just check my Zune as an external hard drive if there are any files I can't remove using the flaky software.

Patcher to make your zune an External Hard Drive

 

[tstarn06]

I got it to install, but I kept getting an error message from WMP. So I gave up. Wonder why others had it work for them?

Quote:

Originally Posted by soozieq /img/forum/go_quote.gif Tom: I already tried it on my laptop and pc (both running Vista) and couldn't even get it to install! As I'm adding music much more slowly now (since the initial load up), I'm hoping the issue will be more tolerable. Mind you, trying to force 2 CDs into the same folder was enough to get me ready to list it on eBay, it was that bad! Ozric: I've managed to 'escape' any duplicates, but I do end up with empty 'ghost' albums that refuse to be deleted from the Zune. They do disappear eventually, but until they do - I'm always wondering how long I'm going to be staring at the horrible brown 'unknown' square when there's nothing in them! sinner: The thing is I don't have a single 'unknown' artist or unknown anything anywhere in my library. I'm really proudly anal of that . . . it only becomes 'unknown' when it gets to the Zune! Like I said, when I check the tags in various programs, they're all present and correct. There's not even a missing year - so it just doesn't make sense. And the Zune does eventually accept the albums, but not until it's good and ready, which means the tags are fine.

 

[Ozric]

The duplicates and other messed up entries that refuse to be deleted are in the software ("collection"), not the player. I've been through using Media monkey, Tag and Rename, removing ID v 2.3 tags etc. I just dont want to unzoone the software because reinstalling means another major nuisance involving manual registry changes etc. The software even made WMP 11 dysfunctional (no video display, only audio) on my laptop.

 

[HipHopScribe]

Make sure you turn off the option in the software to automatically update album art and media info, other than that and poorly kept tags I don't know what could be causing all the problems some people have with the software, I guess compatibility issues with other programs could be it.

 

[tstarn06]

I agree on that front. Turning off the auto-update is important. And after some initial frustration, I am cruising along with the Zuen SW. I do understand the hassle factor though, because I still have a couple of CDs that the Zune will not recognize as it should, despite tagging them properly, etc. It is mysterious, and hopefully MS will do something to fix that in the next release.

 

[soozieq]

Well, I have everything 'auto' turned off on the Zune AND WMP. I don't trust either of them.

Tom, I know you've said before that you don't care about artwork or unknown artists showing up on the Zune, (in fact, I think there was a time when you said you had no artwork at all?) - but for the obsessive compulsives (like myself), it's really irritating when the software doesn't work as it should.

Here is an example which is still mystifying me: I have one track by Ray Charles and Willie Nelson, "Seven Spanish Angels". The Zune will not allow me to apply Ray Charles as Artist. I can call him CharleY, CharleB, CharleM, CharleO. . . I can end his name with any letter of the alphabet other than 'S'. So I've ended up calling him Ray CharleZ, how stupid is that? This was a week ago and nothing I do will change the name. The Zune refuses to let me name it correctly and it's crap like that which pees me off, because it's totally illogical. Plus I should be able to organise and name my files exactly how I like, but I can't.

Still. . . the sound is so good that it's not too hard to forget the nightmare when I'm listening. However, I'm already getting that sinking feeling waiting for some CDs to arrive tomorrow that have to be put on

 

[tstarn06]

Album art isn't important, but "unknown album" bugs me too. Also, I have one track, Freedom by Richie Havens from the Woodstock CD, that keeps coming up as Various in the artist category, no matter how many times I try to fix the tag with every known tag editing software known to mankind. No matter what, it still shows up as "Various" in the artist list. Doh!

But that's my only serious issue. Oh, and for some reason, I can't change one Dan Hicks CD to Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks, no matter what I try. Even when I make the right changes in the tag editors, that one CD (out of the 6 of Dan's collection that I own) keeps coming up as Dan Hicks without the band name.

I wonder if it's not just in the tags themselves (from the recording companies). Same with a James Taylor CD I have, Mud Slide Slim...I could not get it to work properly, finally it just did.

Who knows? To quote the great line in a Woody Allen movie, "I don't even know how the can opener works, how the hell do I know why there were Nazis."

Same with MS Zune software.

 

[Ricardo Dawkins]

@soozieq
Embeded your Album Art
Save the metadata in id3v2.3 with UTF-16 encoding.

ok, ppl. if you all are having problems with your Collection, why not kill it using the Collection Reset Tool and start fresh ? (if you gonna ask, I killed it just 1 time because the "Art Cache" folder was getting full of duplicates album art)

Just use a good tag editor like Mp3tag - the universal Tag Editor (ID3v1, ID3v2, APEv2) (I use it) or MediaMonkey Free MP3 Jukebox Player, Music Library Organizer.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2017/...86e4c169_o.jpg

 

[sinner6]

Agreed, album art must be embedded to be hassle free.

It sounds like your Zune database may need to be rebuilt.

To do this, navigate to ("view hidden folders" must be enabled in Windows) to following directory:

C:\Documents and Settings\"your user name"\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Zune

There, you will see a file named "ZuneStore.sdf", rename this to ZuneStore.sdf.bak and restart the Zune software and point it to your music directory, and it will rebuild the database. Then wipe the Zune and resync it.

Once I got my tags all edited correctly, I still had to do this to flush the bad tags from the database, but now all is well.

If your album art is not embedded and you are curious about this proscess, let me know.

Best of luck!

 

[Ozric]

The collection reset tool worked really well, thanks. Wonder why I didn't find it before.

Actually my experience (I also read the same on some forum) is that ID v3 2.4 UTF - 8 tags work better if a particular album is giving problems with album art or other tags. I use Mp3tag for removing older tags. Retagging while the Zune software is running sometimes updates the entries.

 

[omega52]

I have a double CD of Janis Ian Live Working Without a Net & it is possessed! Disc 2 is fine songs 1-15 all OK. Disc 1 is another story.
Songs 1,2,_,4,5,6,7,8,_,10,11,_,_,14,_,16 are listed under the Artist Janis Ian & songs 3,9,12,13,15 are each shown as a separate album with the same cover art & the name of the song is the album title. So what I have is Disc 2, Partial Disc 1 & 5 "albums" each with one song in it. I have used MP3tag & changed everything to look the same with no change to the collection. WMP did a similar thing, but I don't recall if I had changed the tags at that time.

Weird?