Wireless Sync with Zune 30 - HOW I GOT IT TO WORK!!!!

When I tried to gety my Zune 30 to connect and sync by wireless I kept getting the error message that I must be connected, it would find my network and attempt to connect to my PC but then would never actually connect.

After spending several gureling hours trying to get it to work I was finally connected and it worked great although the wireless sync is much slower than the cabled sync.

I'm using Windows Vista so these steps are for that OS.  Not sure how it translates to XP or if there are different steps for that OS. 

Here's what I did to get it to work:

1. I had to configure my wireless router correctly. 
   • My wireless encryption was 128/bit versus 64/bit.  I had read several posts saying it has to be 64/bit so I logged into my wireless router and changed the encryption to 64/bit.  
   • I also had MAC encryption off on my router so I had to turn that on and tell it to allow the specific MAC address from my zune.  You can find that on your Zune device itself by going to settings / wireless / information (Note that the zune MAC address uses dashes *-* to separate the values instead of the standard colon *:* but you can replace the dashes with the colon when you set it up with your wireless router and it should be fine).
2. I now had to set my Zune software up to the new ecryption. 
   • I plugged in my Zune and opened the zune software. 
   • I went to the device settings and into the section on setting up a wireless sync and removed my previous setup attempt
   • I then set up the wireless set up again using my new 10 digit 64/bit wireless encryption
   • The software did it's thing and said I was all set.
3. Still getting the "Must be connected" error on my device but I at least know that my wireless network is set up correctly.
4. I now had to reset my device on the computer itself because I discovered that the device is being reconginzed by the computer but was not doing anything about it.  This is typical when you plug something in and it doesn't find the drivers or something, the device can be seen but nothing happens and you still can't access the device.  To correct this...
   • I clicked on Start / Network.  This displays all the computers and devices in your system. 
   • On my Zune Device I went to Settings / Wireless / Star Sync.  The zune device goes through 'Finding the Network' and then 'Connecting to PC' screens. 
   • When the Zune Device is on the 'Connecting to PC' screen I went back to my Network screen on my desktop and hit F5 to refresh my screen, sure enougy my Zune device appeared confirming that the computer recognizes the device but is not doing anything about it.
   • In the deskop Network window after the device appeared I clicked on the device and hit Uninstall (located at the top of the window) which essentailly removes the drivers and device from the system. 
   • I let my Zune device error out again and I got the "Can't Connect to PC, Make sure you're logged on" error again. That's good, I wanted it to do that. 
   • I hit OK on the device and went out of the sync screen
   • I hit F5 on my desktop and device dissappeared from the network screen as well.
   • I've now successfully uninstalled the device from the computer.  Note that this doesn't really uninstall anything except remove the drivers for the device.  You want the computer to do that so that when it connects again it recognizes a "NEW" device and re-installs the drivers.  
   • On my Zune device I sync again and let it go through the 'finding network' and 'connecting to PC' screens again. 
   • Once I see the 'Connecting to PC' screen I went back to my Network screen on my desktop and hit F5 again to refresh, the Zune device appeared again.
   • I then clicked on the device and at the top you should see the option to Install instead of Uninstall. 
   • I clicked on Install and got the "Installing Device Driver" popup.  Don't do anything at this point, let the computer find and install the drivers again.
   • When it was done installing everything again on my computer the device lit up and said "Preparing to Sync"... and then... Viola!!!! It started to Sync!!!!

It works great every time now however be aware that if you plug the device into the computer cable again and sync using the cable (which is much faster) it messes up the wireless sync drivers and you have to go through step 4 again of uninstalling and installing the device during wireless sync in order for it to work.  I guess it wouldn't be a Microsoft Product if it didn't get confused and stop working like that.

I hope this helps.  Sorry there are no visuals but I tried to write down all my steps.  Enjoy!!!

Whenever I’m about to do something I ask myself 'would an idiot do this?' If the answer is yes then I don't do that thing.

Great write up, also this may help you as well.  I foudn this out while talkign with Zune support, while I was on hold.

Go into your 'Serivces' program under Administrative tools, and make sure that these serives are started.

Zune Network Sharing Service
Zune Wireless Configuration Services
Zune Bus Enumerator (possibly called UPnp-x bus enumerator in Vista)

If you have OneCare installed, make sure that the service 'OneCare Firewall' is started  If this is disabled, it will not let you use your zune to wireless sync.  For some reason if you disable it, it blocks all ports.

 killer turtle 1 wrote:

Great write up, also this may help you as well.  I foudn this out while talkign with Zune support, while I was on hold.

Go into your 'Serivces' program under Administrative tools, and make sure that these serives are started.

Zune Network Sharing Service
Zune Wireless Configuration Services
Zune Bus Enumerator (possibly called UPnp-x bus enumerator in Vista)

If you have OneCare installed, make sure that the service 'OneCare Firewall' is started  If this is disabled, it will not let you use your zune to wireless sync.  For some reason if you disable it, it blocks all ports.

Thanks!  I went in and they were not started, I started them and right clicked on it to change it from "Manual" Startup to "Automatic" - I'm assuming that will automatically start the service every time.

Didn't know that about the 'One Care Firewall' Mine is turned on but at one point last night when trying to get it to work I did turn it off to see if it was something in there that was blocking the device but that was  not the case, I got the same error and now that you say that it makes sense.  Cheers!

Whenever I’m about to do something I ask myself 'would an idiot do this?' If the answer is yes then I don't do that thing.

 DJSlime wrote:

i think i am having the same problems illustrated here but i'm running xp and can't find anywhere to see the connected devices in my network....

any help?

In XP - It might be worth a shot doing step 4 above using "Device Manager" to remove and add the device again.  I would imagine that the device would appear there and you can remove it from that screen and then re-install it when the system finds it again.  No promises though.  You can get to device manager by right clicking My Computer and going to Properties.

Whenever I’m about to do something I ask myself 'would an idiot do this?' If the answer is yes then I don't do that thing.

 ARock3818 wrote:

In XP - It might be worth a shot doing step 4 above using "Device Manager" to remove and add the device again.  I would imagine that the device would appear there and you can remove it from that screen and then re-install it when the system finds it again.  No promises though.  You can get to device manager by right clicking My Computer and going to Properties.

Wow, I didn't realize there were issues with the 30's & wireless sync.  I updated everything when I got home from work last nite and shortly thereafter had my Zune synching wirelessly with no issues.

All I needed to do was add the Zune MAC address into my router (knew I needed that due to MAC filtering) and it connected without a hitch.  Also, even though the Zune does use "-" in the MAC you can use the standard ":" when putting the address into your filter ;)