New Zune Desktop Software FIX [Archive]

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enjoythemusic

11-13-2007, 11:55 PM

As you may know, MANY PEOPLE are having major problems when they upgrade their Zune desktop software. This includes incorrect album art, free HD space errors, etc.

From another Zune board. This seems to fix virtually ALL problems with album art, HD free space problems, bad listing oif songs, etc.

Close Zune.exe (close the program and make sure, using CTL ATL DEL... three finger MS salute) that it is not running. Other Zuner services can run.

Open (for Vista) C:user{your_username}AppDataLocalMicrosoftZune or the equivelent Documents & Settings location XP

Find the CurrentDatabase_365.wmdb (that is the 1.0 data store) rename it to CurrentDatabase_365Old.wmdb

Find the ZuneStore.sdf (that is the 2.0 data store) rename it to ZuneStoreOld.sdf

Restart Zune.exe, it will find all the media in your monitored folders and add it to your collection based on the metadata in the files.

You should only need to do this once.

What i did was search for the files CurrentDatabase_365.wmdb and ZuneStore.sdf and renamed them as above. Then i launched the Zune software and it re-indexed my songs. Virtually everything fixed.

Well, not EVERYTHING fixed, but the major problems, There are still association problems i have with some songs to their album art, but it is minor compred to the sheer and utter nightmare experienced earlier.

Who tested this buggy software for MS and let it go public? Sorry and all MS, you guys really blew it imo.

On the good side, the new firmware for the 30 is impressive. Hats off to the firmware guys, the software QC guys deserve a cut in pay and would be nice to meet them at CES before Bill's schpiel the day before the show.

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Another problem, the new Zune desktop software messes up compilations discs. To fix it is NO fun. Again, from another board...

Man, I just figured it out, but it is a PAIN. You have to select "list" instead of browse on the upper right side of the screen. Then, in the columns, right click and check the album artist box to display that column. now, you have to manually go through and change every track on each CD to the same artist (like Various Artists) in order for it to appear as one album...

So basically find the song and edit the album title to the correct one.

BTW: My brother was a programmer and in QC. One of his babies was Ashton Tate Framework... Guess what, it worked on old slow computers and floppies. No bloatware back then. This was, as i recall, the first program to integrate 'office' programs. Max was a true genius.

Jason Dunn

11-14-2007, 01:54 AM

Hmm. *Very* interesting....

Siouxperman

11-14-2007, 04:14 AM

I figured out a very simply way to resolve nearly 100% of the problem with album art. I did a search for zunealbumart.jpg in My Music folder where all of my music folders are stored . I chose Select All after I found all of the files named zunealbumart.jpg and I deleted them. When I opened my Zune software all of my album art matched up.

The only remaining issue I have found has been extra albums in an artist that are actually another artist's albums. I resolved this by choosing the album that is under the wrong artist and deleting it. It deletes the "extra" copy and doesn't impact the album in the correct artist. Example: In the Zune Software when I click on artist Pearl Jam and look at Albums there are Pearl Jam albums and a couple stray U2 Albums. Just delete the stray U2 Albums from the Pearl Jam album choices. The stray U2 Albums still appear in the U2 section but don't show up in Pearl Jam any longer.

Hopefully this is helpful. It worked for me. We shouldn't have to do this but this takes care of most of the problems from what I can tell.

pstork

11-14-2007, 05:13 PM

I didn't have just albums mixed in with other artists. I had stray songs mixed into albums which didn't contain them. I had to rename the two databases and let the ZUNE software rediscover everything from scratch.

That fixed everything. I've now only got one remaining problem. Some new songs that were loaded come up on the Zune as 'unknown album' but in the collection they show up as a normal album.

There are some nice things about the v2 software but maintenance of metadata isn't one of them. I can't say I like the new interface on the Device either. The main menu font is too big and the detail menu fonts are too small.

I am not overly impressed.

enjoythemusic

11-14-2007, 10:36 PM

I am not overly impressed.

Check out Zune Boards discussion group. They have many fixes there. Yeah, the software guys... would like to meet them at the CES... i'd be happy to buy some of the firmware gals and guys a beer as we 'pants' the software guys/gals.

roakleyhall

11-14-2007, 11:50 PM

I did the zunestore refresh, but not the currentdatabase refresh. Everything seems fine, but then, i haven't checked all 22GB of music. should i redo both files and let it all refresh again?

enjoythemusic

11-15-2007, 02:35 AM

If it is not broken, no need to fix it. i can't believe the massive and multiple problems many others are having.

monsieurjohn

11-18-2007, 11:10 PM

hey there... i'm a n00b, beat me with sticks.

i'm fairly happy with the new firmware, but i agree with whoever said the software is terrible for editing metadata. I ended up importing the same folders into WMP to do bulk id3 tag editing like i used to be able to do from within Zune.

the only problem remaining is that any track without album info appears on the device only under the albums colum, "unknown artist" album, and by alphabetical track name. it does NOT appear under that artist. on the zune software it appears to be fine. has anyone else encountered this or discovered a fix?

i tried adding a placeholder album name to all the tracks using WMP as i mentioned, but it didn't appear to help -- the tracks still don't appear under their artists, but now i have two "unknown album" entries on the albums screen. help!

Jason Dunn

11-21-2007, 07:17 PM

the only problem remaining is that any track without album info appears on the device only under the albums colum, "unknown artist" album, and by alphabetical track name. it does NOT appear under that artist. on the zune software it appears to be fine. has anyone else encountered this or discovered a fix?

It sounds like you're missing the Album Artist metadata tag. I'd really encourage you to check out Media Monkey (http://www.mediamonkey.com). It's a free tool that's much better for editing metadata than Windows Media Player.

jmoney

12-26-2007, 06:34 AM

Hey I just got a new 80GB zune and it is my first one. I went to zune.net/setup and downloaded the software. But when I opened up the download it said, "This current version of Windows Media Center isn't supported. Please upgrade your Media Center Machine to 2005 with Update 2 or later." and then there is a link to http://www.zune.net/en-US/support. But I can't find the Meadia center download or the Update 2. Until I find that I cant do anything with my zune.

eufreka

12-26-2007, 07:52 PM