[Timmy2]

As an owner of an 80GB Zune "heavy" I just bought a 4GB Zune for carrying when running.

I record or download MP3 files of NPR broadcasts and these are the files I want to listen to on the new Zune 4GB. Since I could not figure out how to cleanly and easily manage two different Zunes using the Zune software I installed a new Zune "setup" in a clean virtual machine. The My Music folder started out empty so I dragged the NPR MP3 files to this folder. The Zune software insists there is no music in the folder. I dragged a typical MP3 "music" file to this folder and the Zune software recognized it immediately. So there must be something about the metadata or file structure of these various NPR recordings that the Zune software doesn't like.

These same files dragged into iTunes and worked perfectly on an iPod Shuffle but the Shuffle provides no practicaL way to fast forward, rewind or resume listening to a long-form recording, thus my Zune 4GB purchase. I'm starting to wish I'd bought a Nano.

Is there a Zune-specific diagnostic app or detailed spec available that I can use to figure out why these MP3 files are incompatible with the Zune?

[Timmy2]

As an owner of an 80GB Zune "heavy" I just bought a 4GB Zune for carrying when running.

I record or download MP3 files of NPR broadcasts and these are the files I want to listen to on the new Zune 4GB. Since I could not figure out how to cleanly and easily manage two different Zunes using the Zune software I installed a new Zune "setup" in a clean virtual machine. The My Music folder started out empty so I dragged the NPR MP3 files to this folder. The Zune software insists there is no music in the folder. I dragged a typical MP3 "music" file to this folder and the Zune software recognized it immediately. So there must be something about the metadata or file structure of these various NPR recordings that the Zune software doesn't like.

These same files dragged into iTunes and worked perfectly on an iPod Shuffle but the Shuffle provides no practicaL way to fast forward, rewind or resume listening to a long-form recording, thus my Zune 4GB purchase. I'm starting to wish I'd bought a Nano.

Is there a Zune-specific diagnostic app or detailed spec available that I can use to figure out why these MP3 files are incompatible with the Zune?

[gjw]

Here are the supported audio files:
Windows Media® Audio Standard^[3] (WMA) (.wma): Up to 320 Kbps; constant bit rate (CBR) and variable bit rate (VBR) up to 48-kHz sample rate. WMA Pro 2-channel up to 384 Kbps; CBR and VBR up to 48-kHz
WMA Lossless
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) (.mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .mov) - .m4a and .m4b files without FairPlay DRM up to 320 Kbps; CBR and VBR up to 48-kHz
MP3 (.mp3) – Up to 320 Kbps; CBR and VBR up to 48-kHz

Are they perhaps DRM protected?
The Zune won't import any songs with DRM protection.

[Timmy2]

Thanks for responding.

I figured out what was happening and apologize for asking the question. The files were tagged as Podcast genre so the Zune software had immediately put them in the Podcasts section instead of Music. Lovely thing that, too, because when an mp3 file is tagged as a Podcast the Zune (supposedly) does the iPod bookmarking thing so you can resume listening where you left off. I'll verify this over the next couple of days.