10 Tips and tricks for using the Zune software (features only, no hacks or 3rd party apps unless by design)

 khu wrote:

It seems a lot of the bugs have already been thrown out there and much of the talk is shifting to features.  This post is intended for people that are not having software and hardware issues and want to know how they can use the Zune features to do what they need.  I think most of us can agree that there are many undocumented features (the help pages are a little...light...) and I wanted to point out a few things.

 

To set expectations, I will only be talking about features designed into the software and hardware and not focusing on 3rd party apps meant to replace parts of the software, fix software issues, or hacks.

 

1.  Store content on Zune but not on PC

The Zune has a feature called Guest syncing which can be used for this.  Guest syncing provides the most control over what you put on your device and has several limitations.  This feature is designed so that you can easily get DRM-free content from one Collection and move it to another.  Features that will be impacted with Guest sync:

• No automatic sync
• You may not be able to move DRM content
• No automatic syncing of Podcasts
• No wireless sync (part of automatic sync)

In the software, if you go to Settings --> Device, you will find an option to Forget this Zune.  That will remove the association between your device and the PC and the PC will no longer be its "Home" PC.  Once your device is forgotten, when you reconnect the Zune, you will be prompted to connect as Guest or make the PC its Home.  Connect as Guest.

 

After you connect, you will be able to move any non-DRM content from the Collection to the device.  This will have to be done by either flagging the content with Sync To Device or dragging it to the Zune icon.

 

Once you have all of the content copied over, you can delete the content from your Collection.  Verify that it did not delete from the Zune and you can then delete the content from your PC.

 

In my testing, the only real drawback I saw is that when you use the Zune software to browse the device, album art does not show up.  However, album art is indeed on the device.

 

2.  Drag and drop from explorer to Collection

There is a particular hotspot in the gui but I have successfully dragged and dropped music and video.  For music, launch the software and go to the Collection --> Music tab.  Select the files in Windows Explorer and drag them to the center pane where your album covers appear.  The mouse pointer should change to a + and you can drop.  A message appears at the bottom of the window stating X Media Items Found or Invalid Media.

 

You can do the same with movies but need to be on the Collection --> Movies tab.

 

3.  Copy by Playlist

The software is now designed to make sure when you sync a playlist, it puts all of the necessary tracks on the device.  Regardless of whether or not it is already on the device, create a playlist, add tracks, and Sync to device.  If a song is not on the Zune and it is needed for the list, it should get synched.

 

4.  Import playlist

You can import a playlist created by another application such as Windows Media Player.  The playlist directory is a sub-directory of your media download location.  To find this, go to Settings --> Software --> General.  Make note of the location you selected for downloaded media.  Browse to that location in Windows Explorer and you will find a Playlist subdirectory.

 

Create a playlist with a 3rd party application and save in m3u format.  Copy the playlist to your Playlist directory and the Zune software immediately sees it.  When I did this, I actually saved the list to that location and it created duplicates in the form of a .zpl, .wpl, and .m3u.  I deleted all but the .zpl.

 

You can easily and permanently delete lists by deleting them from this directory.  You can also quickly change the name of a list by opening the file in a text editor like Notepad and changing the name.  It is just a few lines down from the top and easy to recognize.

 

You can also drag a playlist file to the Playlist window.

 

5.  View your playcount

Playcount is now visible on Zune.net but you can also view this from within the software.  Go to the Collection --> Music tab and on the right, you can select Browse or List.  Select List.  Right click on a column heading and select Choose Columns.  Find Play Count and make sure it is checked.  You can now view your Play Count for each track as well as sort by that column.  This can give you a good idea of what you might want to rotate out, rotate in, or get rid of completely.

 

6.  Shuffle...then shuffle more...

This was an update sometime back but may still be a little known feature.  If a shuffled playlist isn't shuffled enough, you can continue to shuffle it.  Without leaving the screen, toggle Shuffle on and off several times.  It will shuffle the already shuffled list.

 

7.  Zoom for that closeup

It is a bit limited but when viewing a picture on the Zune, hit the center button.  You will get an option to Zoom In.  When selected, you can use the wheel to pan and scan around the picture.  A small icon appears in the bottom right that will show you where in the image your focus lies.

 

8.  Use quicklist to repeat a single song

Unfortunately, there is no built in featue to simply select a song for repeat.  However, you can add the song to your Quick List and set the Quick List to repeat.

 

9.  RDS and the FM Radio

One of the much touted features of the radio is pulling in RDS (Radio Data System) information.  Depending on what the station chooses to broadcast, you can get a wide range of information on the display of your Zune.  Call letters are fairly common but I have seen others report one station actually broadcasts DJ information.  Here is an article that outlines what is available through RDS.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System

 

Keep in mind that the headphone cord works as an FM antenna.  Also, even if the station sounds clear, you might not always get a strong enough signal to get the RDS info.  Of course, not all stations broadcast RDS but it is still a pretty cool feature.  With luck, in the future Zune users could get the same kind of info on the Zune display as many see with satellite radio.

 

10.  Find location of file

Although we no longer have an actual menu item to Find Location, some may still find the need.  Find Location was an option that appeared when right clicking on a file in the old software.  It would automatically launch a Windows Explorer window that went straight to that location.  You can still do so even though you aren't prompted.

 

Right-click on a file and select Properites.  The path to that file appears in red in the Location area.  If you click on the path, it will launch an Explorer Window.  This is handy for jumping straight to a directory that contains a file or finding the directory if you are not quite sure how you organized it on the disk.

Feel free to add any other tips others may find useful.

ok 1: where do i find those feature like guest syncig  2: what is the explorer that you talk about in the drag and drop 3:wher do i find the software that you talk about it 4:how can i export my playlist of wmp 5: i just buy the new 80gb just 2 day ago and i getting tired of this because i cant hear my music only a couple of songs that the program send it to my zune and i dont now how they get there  please i need heeeeeeeeelp

 pito4rock wrote:

what is the explorer that you talk about in the drag and drop

Hmm, with that comment alone I can already tell you're beyond the point of help   

---

Jf Vigor

HI,

I noticed that the M3u's could be dragged into the playlists area.  If I have X ammount of songs, why does it say it wants to synch around twice as many?   This is after I have clicked the playlist and selected synch playlist.. with an empty zune.

 

KY

 

PS.  I am also getting a lot of c00d11cd errors as well.  Many of these songs are ones I copied from CD, some are old ones I have no idea where they came from... friends... downloads...  Any ideas on how to find out specifically what the errors are for?

 khu wrote:

4.  Import playlist

You can import a playlist created by another application such as Windows Media Player.  The playlist directory is a sub-directory of your media download location.  To find this, go to Settings --> Software --> General.  Make note of the location you selected for downloaded media.  Browse to that location in Windows Explorer and you will find a Playlist subdirectory.

Create a playlist with a 3rd party application and save in m3u format.  Copy the playlist to your Playlist directory and the Zune software immediately sees it.  When I did this, I actually saved the list to that location and it created duplicates in the form of a .zpl, .wpl, and .m3u.  I deleted all but the .zpl.

You can easily and permanently delete lists by deleting them from this directory.  You can also quickly change the name of a list by opening the file in a text editor like Notepad and changing the name.  It is just a few lines down from the top and easy to recognize.

You can also drag a playlist file to the Playlist window.

I have a brand new Zune 80 and have a lot of playlists in WMP that I'd like to have on the Zune. I did each step exactly as you outlined a couple times to make sure. I opened each of the 5 playlist files with notepad to verify that data existed. Each file contained only the references to the individual mp3 files. There was no other data or name of the file listed from top to bottom. They work fine in WMP but Zune wouldn't recognize them. I then manually created them with the same names and then replaced the empty files with the full files. Zune still sees them as empty. It never created the wpl or the zpl files by itself so I copied each one to a zpl file manually. Still nothing. You must be referring to a previous version of Zune with these tips. Any chance you tell us how to do it in the latest version? For the record, I would still rather manage this thing with WMP. It works way better and I already know my way around it. Thanks.

What you can do is go to WMP, create a playlist, save it as a M3U playlist to the same directory as the Zune music directory, and it automatically recognizes the playlist.  Next time you sync, you have a playlist on the device.

I listen on my computer at work, but can't seem to find the equalizer on the computer based program?  You used to be able to choose from "Rock, Jazz, Hip Hop" etc.  Anyone know where I can find it?

Does anyone know how to update a track number on a particular song?  I have some songs that show the track number as "0" and I want to update it, but on the new software, it doesn't seem to want to let me do that.  Any ideas?

These "tips" and "tricks" seem mostly like work arounds of the poor software update.  Put out a new version ASAP.  I still love my Zune, but these half steps annoy more then help.

to change the track number go the the actual mp3 location (by clicking the song in zune, properties, then clicking the link) then right click the file and go to properties. then go in the details tab. from there you can edit the artist, title, album, track number, etc.

if you need to change the album/artist info on a bunch of songs you can highlight all the songs in the album and click properties (on the actual files not in zune). then the changes you make wil affect all the tracks.

these changes were a lot easier in the old zune. i miss all the drag and drop options (merging albums and such). i think the only useful new feature is the new search that you can use just by typing at antime.

I suppose a lot of the bugs may have been worked out, but definitely not all.  I have an 80GB Zune, and I don't know about anybody else, but mine glitches a lot.  For example, at the main screen, I will press the center button (to go to Videos, let's say), and it goes to the Video screen, but before I can choose a video, it shifts immediately back to the main screen.  It might do this numerous times and is so frustrating I feel like smacking it.  It's like it gets stuck in this loop. 

For another thing (and I hate to say it, because I love my Zune for what it does), I don't know if it's me, or is this thing a bit PRIMITIVE?  I don't understand why it wasn't made so that I can get the same features and abilities as I have with the Zune program on my PC.  I want to be able to edit, delete, and FIND things, without scrolling all over the world.  It doesn't even "wrap":  If I am looking for a song (or artist) with a Z, I can't just go backwards from A; I have to scroll all the way to the Zs.  Then, if I need to go back (let's say, to shuffle the songs), I have to go all the way back up to A...I mean, I have almost 5000 songs in there at this point, and finding something can take a bit of time.  When I'm in the PC program, you can search, you can edit, you can delete...my Zune has some songs duplicated on it, and in fact, some things I have deleted from, or edited in, my PC, never make it to the Zune...despite multiple sync efforts. 

A third issue I have is with this album art stuff.  On a few occasions, the program has pulled in incorrect album art.  For example, I had a CD of the Jackson 5's Greatest Hits (NO SNICKERING PLEASE), and it pulled in the album art for Michael Jackson's "Bad."  I didn't realize it until one day I was listening to something like "Mama's Pearl" and realized it was not "Dirty Diana," as my Zune would have led me to believe.  It did the same thing with some "Metal Mania" CD:  I guess there were several volumes of this kind of thing, and it pulled in the info for a different one from what I had.  Luckily there is the "edit" feature for the song titles and artists, but I could not change the album art.  Also, it has pulled album art from The Hooters "ZigZag" album into some other stuff that is NOT Hooters, and put one of John Mellencamp's album covers for some stuff by The Eagles.  God knows.  I haven't found out how to delete undesired album art and either replace it with nothing (which is better than the WRONG thing), or replace it with the correct album art; I mean, where would I find it?

Maybe there will be software upgrades in the future (a girl can dream).  In the meantime, my Zune keeps me great company when I am on the gym floor for 40 minutes and then on the treadmill for another 40 minutes, of sheer boredom....if not for my Zune, life would just be zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.... 

 

 

 

Thanks for that saying at the bottom about third base...I laughed out loud when I read it!  I collect poems and little quotes and sayings - I'm adding it to my collection.