Don't upgrade that Zune... yet

The flaming pushpin is never a good sign on a support message board.

(Update: As of 2/01/08, many of the bugs discussed in this blog post have been addressed in Firmware update 2.3 and the PC software update 2.3. While no software is 100% perfect, the Zune software development team has been making significant strides in the past few months, and most users shouldn't experience these same hiccups that were encountered early on.)

Legions of first-gen Zune owners are are downloading the latest version (v1.2) of the PC-based Zune software, and profoundly regretting it. If the Zune support message boards are any indication, there are some bitter first-gen Zune owners out there who are feeling slighted by Microsoft's all-inclusive upgrade to their Zune line.

The major sticking point on the forum (with 9,200 views and counting) seems to be abducted library metadata (album art, ID3 tags, playlists, song ratings) caused by upgrading to the latest version of the Zune PC software. The Zune support team has posted a seemingly viable solution to the problem, but not everyone is happy having to poke around on their computer's Local Settings folder to rename and delete files.

To see if the complaints had any merit, I upgraded from v1.1 of the software (the version I was given for the official CNET review) to the latest version. The result? The majority of my personal music library had been scrambled--artist and album information got all mixed up, and album art was reassigned randomly across my collection. My Zune Pass subscription music files, however, survived unharmed. To be clear, the Zune software upgrade didn't scramble my actual music files, they just appeared scrambled within the Zune software. The same files displayed perfectly fine in Windows Media Player. Instructions posted in the Zune forum solved my metadata scramble problem, but it was a hassle.

Another problem people are running into with the new Zune software is an error message ambiguously telling users that they are "missing a package." The solution for this seems more nebulous. Suggestions range from making sure Windows is up-to-date, to enabling firewall protection.

The overarching problem users are complaining about are the features that have been stripped out of the Zune PC software. Smart playlists, in-depth ID3 tag editing, drag-and-drop album art, and the five-star rating system have been scrapped in an effort to presumably make the software less intimidating to new users. In the big picture, I think the Zune's new PC software makes the device more attractive to a larger range of consumers, but I can understand power-users feeling betrayed by having features taken away from them. The problem is compounded by the fact that the closed ecosystem of the Zune hardware and software leaves more demanding users with nowhere else to turn.

My recommendation: first-gen Zune users should resist the temptation of upgrading their Zune PC software until the next version is available. Doing so could result in a huge headache of reassigning album art, rebuilding playlists, and tinkering with hidden application files.

Anyone else having these upgrade glitches? Thoughts on the new Zune PC software? Sound off in the comments section.

[punji123]

At first I thought that the new upgrade would be great. It was about time Zune got new features. However, when I tried to install the new software I got a message saying that it could install. So, I spent hours on the phone with technicians with no success. And since they recommend I uninstall the previous version of the software, I don't have any. I can't install the old software with out it switching to the new. So, now I can't visit the marketplace or sync my Zune. BEWARE OF VERSION 2.1!

[thepoetrydude]

The only issue I've had is the zune software auto detecting my zune wirelessly and launching the program. This was while by zune was charging via AC. I assume that is was detecting it anyhow. My solution, close the zunelauncher app under processes in task manager and using spybot to keep it from running at startup. Running Vista Ultimate x64 too, if that by chance makes any difference.

[Robert G K]

I don't own a zune, but I think the product is kind of cool. The one thing I'd like to touch on is the rating system. I heard people aren't liking it and I don't blame them. I think though that microsoft shouldn't have taken options out, but instead maybe made the default options the easy options and in a pull down menu they can have an advanced option that would let users who wanted them have more options.

Now the rest of the problems with the new software seems to just be either lack of testing to fix the problems or they figured they would bring out the software then fix the problems later. They wanted the new software to be ready for when Zune 2 comes out, but they should have made the upgrade for Zune 1 players later on when the problems are fixed.

[Lee Ross]

Im pissed and just stoped my zune pass subscription. They can get someone else to beta test their crap software. Oh BTW i have a zune 30 for sale CHEAP!

[Theskippur]

I went from version 1.4 to the new version of the software with no problems at all.

[browninggold]

2.1 rocks easy to download navigation on Marketplace better. Wife and Son downloaded 2.1 also-watchout ipood
heart-broken heart better than the 5 star rating

[Balicea2502]

The most annoying thing about this new upgrade is you have to keep your whole collection on your PC's hard drive. If you dont soon as you plug in your Zune everything will be deleted. Trust me, I know. 128 albums down the drain. They say we are only targeting those who keep albums on there PC. Just horrible. Stay away from the Zune

[justifide]

"They say we are only targeting those who keep albums on there PC. Just horrible. Stay away from the Zune"

and how many music players are targeting people that expect to only have their music collection on their mp3 player? i don't know of anyone that would only store their music files in one place. heck, i have my entire library on 2 different drives AND my select files on my zune just in case.

your zune isn't meant to be a back up device...its meant to listen to your music AWAY from your computer. with the price of external drives, go to staples.com and look at the price of a 500gb Western Digital external. worth it if you are that bummed about using your diskspace.

[jmhaynie]

I had a few problems connecting my Zune 30 to my wireless network (which turned out to be a router problem), but other than that, I have had absolutely zero problems. I just went back and checked the album art and songs for a bunch of artists and everything looks great. I must have just gotten lucky.

Also, I have NONE of my music on my hard drive. It is all on an external HDD, and I have had absolutely no problems with anything. This article was the first indication that anything had gone wrong.

[Balicea2502]

Thats because you still got it on a hard drive. Whether portable or not. If you erase it completely out of your computer it will also erease the zune. On the ols software it didnt do that with the manual sync. On this one you have to keep it on some hard drive.

[JohnnyL]

Why wouldn't you keep your music on a hard drive? If you just keep it on the player and then lose it you're SOL.

[Ausa04570]

Are you sure you have it set manual sync? I barely have half the music that's on my zune actually on my hard drive and I've connected to the software about 30 times yesterday (believe me, I know - trying to get the other issues working) and I've yet to lose anything. It has to be on manual and you have to reset it to that when you update the software.

[redraidersan]

The new software is horrible. It's like they took out everything that was good and replaced it some type of mickey mouse itunes. On the bright side, the Zune also functions as a good paperweight. Not too heavy, not too light.

[freeway8989]

The Zune software hasn't scrambled my album info at all.

I suggest that people refrain from upgrading and instead uninstall the old software and install the new software from scratch. It's an extra step, but seriously, who cares?

Balicea, why in the world would you erase your music library from your computer's HD? No offense, but that's pretty stupid

[wonteach]

The questioner owes neither you nor Microsoft any explanation for WHY he wants it off his hard drive. The fact is that there is NO justification for automatically deleting music from the Zune device simply because it no longer resides on the hard drive. They are two different devices, both of them owned by the person who originally posted the question, and he should d*** well be able to keep whatever he wants on either device.

Furthermore, there is nothing stupid about what he wants to do. I keep all my tracks in their original WAV format, on a 500-gb hard drive. I then make WMA copies to use on my Zune. But there's no reason at all why the WMA files should be cluttering up my hard drive once they have been loaded onto the Zune device. But once again, I shouldn't have to justify that decision to anyone, least of all Microsoft.

[blindsniper]

I have vista ultimate x64 and I have had no issues. Admittedly, I sold my 30 Gb in favor of the new 80 Gb because I had more than 30 Gbs of music, but I only have one album that's kind of weird and I understand why, but can't seem to fix it, w/e. My friend on the other hand, had a bunch of his stuff get messed up. I believe this was mostly because he had some missing metadata somewhere. I went through and tagged everything with MediaMonkey (which is by far the strongest album tagging software out there, even the free version) and had him re-install the Zune software. Everything is fine. I spent like an hour re-doing his stuff and it only took that long because he had like 200 songs with wrong song title, album and no album artist field filled in.

[Tshiaba]

I have a first-gen brown Zune bought in the US, and I have just upgraded to the new software. Everything is just OK. Album arts and the rest. The only issue I will try to understand over the next weekend is that I cannot see all my recorded TV series through the Zune software. But the way, I am running Vista Ultimate.

[spdracer]

If you are one of the ones who upgraded your Zune 30 but now wish to go back to the older 1.x software and 1.4 firmware... here's a link to the instructions:
http://www.zunescene.mobi/forums/index.php?topic=24304.0

IMPORTANT NOTES:
- Once you downgrade, you will not be able to access the Zune Marketplace
- You must downgrade both desktop software and firmware
- DO NOT downgrade if you have purchased tracks from the Zune Marketplace

[mmgj5]

What if you purchased tracks BEFORE the upgrade will they be affected?

[boscorottie]

I love the new software. No glitches with the upgrade. I recommend it actually. I don't see the importance of a ratings system. I only download songs I really like, why would i download a one star song and then keep it on my zune? Never saw the importance of rating a song.

[freeway8989]

I agree. While the new software may not be created for hardcore music listeners (who like to label their music with every piece of information possible), for someone who wants simplicity and/or a solid substitute to iTunes, then the Zune software is great. I'm glad I have it.

I've used iTunes for years and I can proudly say that I'm MUCH more satisfied with the Zune software. iTunes was never able to match the correct album art with my songs, and that's what would happen in the times it was able to add album art all. Of about 30 albums that I have in iTunes, only about 5 have correct album art; the others either has mismatched art or none at all. The Zune software, however, has ALL of my album art right because it works with WMP11 (which has yet to fail me :) ). Add in Podcast support and sections where I can organize my videos and photos, and I was sold.

I'll still keep my current iPod, but my next mp3 player will be a Zune 80.

[someguyineagle]

I LOVE the new zune software! I've had no problems learning how to use it, and while there was a slight learning curve, i have never found the music experience so much fun!

[make_or_break]

For those of you fond of wanting the rest of us to believe you because you know...what I have to ask is...what is it that you know?

Not all Windoze installs are created equally (or perhaps more correctly, [i]morphed[/i] equally). Blanket claims that the software works for you so it should work for the rest of us are about as [i]UNknowing[/i] as it comes.

[jets1969]

I've loaded the zune aoftware, not an upgrade a fresh install, and I've had no issues. I'm running Vista.

[scummons]

Of course my Zune was shot to Hell, but rest assured after about 20 hours of work I fixed all my album art, artist info and anything that Microsoft could have possibly screwed up. But hey, what should we expect from MS?