Sony’s Connect Player is back on track

Screenshot of Sony Connect Player v1.0.04.16100. Sony recently updated their Connect Player software (to version 1.0.04.16100) and I’m very glad to report that it’s a huge, huge improvement. It now runs at a decent speed on my fairly modest Athlon 1800+ system and appears to be stable. Nice one Sony.

Non-Starter

The new version wouldn’t start at first though – it just hung at the “Initialising Library” stage. The fix was fairly simple: I went to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Sony Corporation\CONNECT Player\Library (the path may be slightly different on your machine) and deleted everything in there. Once I did that, it started up with an empty library just fine.

From there, I went to File > Import Files... and pointed it at my iTunes music folder. It picked up everything (all 36.6gb of it) and imported it fairly quickly.

GAARGH! Compilations!

Alas Connect Player went the same way as SonicStage and imported each track in my various-artists compilations as a separate album. A bit of trial and error found a fairly easy way to correct this:

  1. Switch the view mode to Group By: Album.
  2. Open up one of the albums that make your compilation, right click on the track within and select Properties.
  3. Under Album Artist enter Various Artists (or whatever else you want it to say). Click OK.
  4. Now, select all of the other “albums” in that compilation (shift-click or ctrl-click to select more than one album) and drag-drop them onto the one you’ve just modified. Click OK to the warning box and hey presto! They’re all in one album.

Sync

Right, now for the one thing I’ve not tried yet: Syncing it up with my Walkman. Wish me luck…

146 Responses to “Sony’s Connect Player is back on track”

1. Rob Slater

yer you should be able too, sonicstage will hopefully improve again and just be as good as connect player was with the extra features

2. Saint David

Yes my new version of sonicstage is playing up just like my old one ! i Plug in my nw3000 it says its connecting and thats about it i cannot remove or add any songs to my MP3 and its driving me insane its 1 in the morning and i am detemined to get to the bottom of this ! has anyone else had this ? cheers Sony !

3. cTV

I’ll sell my walkman on ebay, I’m ashamed to have that in my house.

I just found my old mc-walkman… times were better 27 years ago, just not so complicated… casette in, press play and that’s it

4. Allan

Im stuck.. Have just bought a new laptop with Vista Premium and soon realised the problems of incompatibility.. Read to download sonicstage 4.3 as this is the new vista compatible software etc. But it refuses to recognize my walkman, it is infuriating.

I read a suggestion that this is because all the music was imported previously using xp and that initialising the walkman may solve this…? Is this true, i dont want to lose all my music and still have it not working!

5. Olly

@Allan — Sorry, I’ve got no idea about Vista compatibility. You could try asking on the ATRACLife forums.

6. Astrodude

Hi, I have a Sony network walkman mp3 player and was disappointed to find out that it wouldn’t play mp3 files without having to use the SonicStage software…I’m a windows xp user, and for me, downloading the MP3 file manager software version 2.0 saved my butt (and my patience!) If you are wanting easy “NO FRILLS” mp3 transfer to your player, (not back to computer) this is what you should use. We use Windows Media Player 11 to rip songs from our cds and then transfer them to all our different mp3 players, and this has seemed to make it easier for my sony player. I don’t know if this will work for everyone, but thought I would put a note in here, as I was frustrated with the same issues. The link to download the different versions of the mp3 file manager is: http://www.sonydigital-link.com/DNA/downloads/downloads.asp?r=www.hydrogenaudio.org&c=WM&sc=NWF&t=lp&f=lp_mp3&l=en

7. gonzalo

hello.. i lost my cd and i can´t pute music in my sony connect player NW1000
how can i do?
thanksss

8. Alpha

Hey Folks I lost my Connect CD which I got with the NW A1000 model so can anybody help plz

9. Olly

Sony no longer support the Connect Player – you’ll need to get the latest version of SonicStage from http://www.sonydigital-link.com/DNA/sonicstage/sstage_dl.asp?l=en

I’m sure there’s an echo in here…

10. Holly

Allan,

Re: Vista and the NW-A1000 … i am in exactly the same position. Have you found any answers yet?
Would be great to get some help on this!
Thanks

11. Graham

Hi guys

Like many here im struggling with Sonic Stage. I have downloaded the most recent version but i would really like to know if there is another player or software that can be used instead. I find sonic stage awkward to use and its very slow. It also has the same annoying thing that connect had, namely when you transfer a playlist each individual track is listed on the player and not as a complete playlist. I know u can go in and alter the name of the album etc but its very fiddly and time consuming. I ve tried mp3fm which was recommended by another post but it doesnt work. Im looking for soemthing which is about as easy, straightforward and time efficient as I tunes. Let me know ur thoughts.

Thanks.

12. Olly

@Graham – You could try http://sourceforge.net/projects/mlsony – it’s a plugin for Winamp.

There’s that echo again…

13. damo

how long does it take to download sonicstage.i have tried a few times and failed

14. Olly

It always used to take ages. Sony’s servers seem to be incredibly slow.

15. Cath

I have just spent 2 days uninstalling and reinstalling software – both sonic stage and connect (didn’t realise it was supported anymore). Anyway, I have FINALLY managed to put music back onto my connect player. The problem is that for some reason each track has been copied between 2 and 10 times – I started to manually delete but working through thousands of songs is going to take weeks to do. Any quick remedy for this problem? They are also now stored in duplicate in ‘my music’ on my pc so it’s not a matter of just starting over. Thanks in advance for any info.

16. Jon

I’m not having too many problems with the new sonicstage cp, unlike everyone else. my only problem (which is quite big) is that i cant transfer music to my nw-a3000. it’s been working fine for about a year but it’s decided to go weird on me. i plug it in and can access all the data on it via my computer but both sonicstage and mp3 file manager cannot recognize it. i think i may have to re-initialise the disk, but here’s my problem, i dont have all my songs backed up. can i copy my omgaudio folder from the player onto my computer, re-initialise then copy back to the mp3??
(sorry for the essay :-) )

17. sano

hi i’d like to know if there’s a way to transfer music from my mac to my nwA3000… ? without installing windows or such thing ;)

18. IAN

Have opened Sonicstage CP v4.3 today and cannot play any of my downloaded tracks (all purchased from connect – the message “Cannot play this track because it’s licensing information cannot be retrieved – For more information contact the source from which you received this track” appears with the numbers 00002460-2100 in the window pane bar and 000084e0 following the message.

Did a restore yesterday but when sonicstage loaded it went through the various messages identifying that a restore had completed and all seemed okay.

Any ideas?

19. IAN

Re 118 – didn’t read the earlier posts that explained what had happened. Luckily for me those nice people at Sony recredited my account and allowed me to download all my lost tracks for free. Never expected that!

20. John

Hi, can anyone help with a Sony/Sonic problem? I’m thinking of getting out of ATRAC, and giving in to the iPod phenomenon… I think the only way through is to convert ATRAC to WMA, and then let iTunes do the conversion from WMA to AAC. But before that, I have to get my music from my NW-HD1 back onto my PC… I’ve never been one for music-on-the-PC so I must have cleared the Sonic Stage library some time ago – there’s nothing in it now, anyway. And now it tells me that I can’t retransfer the music back to Sonic Stage!! Is there some way around this?? (This is all music I have converted from my CDs.) Thanks…

21. Sam

Similar to John’s problem, i have been given a new iPod as a present and its much newer, shinyer and spacious (in GB terms) so i need to transfer my music library from ATRAC into WMA or a format iTunes will recognise- How do i do this with the connect player? I tried to use the sonic stage thing but it didnt recognise my NW A1000 and wouldnt ‘connect’ (excuse the pun) so i sacked it off and deleted it. Any help on converting the files would be great. Thanks

22. Olly

The only way I’ve found to do that is to burn it to audio CD, then rip that back into iTunes (preferably in MP3 or AAC format, so you can use them anywhere).

23. Tom

lol just buy an ipod…sony sucks

24. Olly

I did ;)

25. Alan Hill

Hi Olly,
Have scanned back through nearly 18 months worth of stuff here and I’m really impressed by your patience and interest in helping with all these frustrating problems. I managed to get about 8 albums into my daughter’s NW-A1000 before Connect Player fell over. Gave up before tearing out all my hair about a year ago but have a few days on my hands so thought I’d try the later version or shift to Sonic Stage. I am struggling to go forward or back. When trying to remove the old CP installation I cannot remove the OpenMG Secure Module. When I use Add/Remove programs, it fires up the Installshield utility which chugs for a few seconds but closes without changing anything. When I try installing from the bundled disc I get an error message while it is configuring the OpenMG Secure module: “Error 1317 An error occured while attempting to create the directory C:\Program files\Installshield Installation Information\ {F5E4C38C-73BC-4D44-8BFC-969C2B4DABCA}”. Retry does nothing, Cancel just gets me stuck in loop until reboot or break out with task manager.
The Sony scenario suggests that I need to have a working Connect Player before I can migrate to SonicStage, but can I abandon the remaining scraps of CP and somehow download & re-start with SS? Alternatively, is there a definitive instruction list somewhere for removing all traces of Open MG so that I could start again. I would be fairly nervous editting the registry.
Many thanks again.

26. Olly

@Alan,

If you’re happy to wipe the player and you still have copies of all the albums, the way forward is to remove all traces of Connect Player from your system and then install the latest Sonicstage.

Another alternative is to install Winamp and give the ml_sony plugin a try. Again, you’ll probably have to wipe the player.

I’ve never run into the uninstall problem you’re experiencing (and I’m not likely to either – my Sony player died quite some time ago), but it might be worth asking on the ATRACLife forums?

27. Alan Hill

Thanks for the reply Olly,
Do you have a list of where to find all the bits of the Connect Player?
Do you know whether Sonicstage uses the same OpenMG system because I suspect if I can’t clean it all out I will fall into the same trap?
We have all the albums that were copied to the Sony player but how/when would the player be wiped? On one of the many sites viewed yesterday, used by suffering Sony users, I think I read that the player needed to be wiped before the migration?
Many thanks again and have fun with the mountain biking. I used to do a bit but I seem to be getting old and creaky far quicker than I would like.
Regards

28. Kayla

this thing sucks :( ok so i have had my player thing for a while and it worked on my other computer. but when i go to install sonicstage on this computer it goes fine until i have to restart it. my computer restarts and then i go to open the program and it says i have to restart it first.. but i already did. and it was infact fully off at one point. i have even tried totally shutting down and turning it back on.. but still says i need to restart… any knowledge as to why this happens??????

29. susan

SonicStage is no longer working for me ever since I bought a new computer with Vista. It is very frustrating not being able to put new music onto my mp3 player. Any ideas what I can do?

30. Lidia

I have recently changed computers, but have lost the CD to install Connect player with. Is there any internet download for it so that I can carry on updating my mp3 player?

31. Olly

@Lidia — Sony no longer support the Connect player. You’ll need to grab the latest version of SonicStage and use that instead:
http://www.sonydigital-link.com/DNA/sonicstage/sstage_dl.asp?l=en

32. Ian Astley

Why did I not look into this before I bought it?! Oh god I am dreading trying to get all my music on it!

33. Cam

I have a Dell running Vista. I have installed Sonic Stage 4.3 but whilst it runs and has some of my newer music on it, it wont recognise my NW-A1000. So i am unable to add any moe music to my walkman. I have happilly used NW-A1000 for 2 years without a problem. I did a full uninstall of sonic stage and then reinstalled from a download fron Sony, but still it won’t recognise the NWA1000. Can anyone help?

34. Olly

@Ian Astley — I looked into it and still bought one, damn fool ;-)

@Cam — Sorry, I’m not sure what might be causing your problems. I know the NW-A1000 works on a Dell running Vista because my housemate has one. There’s two things you could try: 1) Make sure your drivers are all up-to-date and 2) try asking on the ATRACLife forums.

35. Cam

Olly many thanks. The NW-A1000 previously worked on my Dell but the hard drive faile and had to be replaced and since the re-installation of sonicstage it don’t work. Will try the ATRACLife forum

36. Kuro Yoma

I have a NW-E005F Sony MP3 player. I have been getting this error 000066d7. This error code appears in the title bar (00001eea-2060). I tried a few things and learned alot. Still not sure what the initial problem was but my only beef with this mp3 player was Sonic Stage. With a winamp plug in(the best player ever) i can honestly say that this little mp3 player works with all my needs.

37. kiky

hi every one if can help me becuse my mp3 NW-A1000 CONNECT Player software dosent open in window vista what shud i do

38. Jane de Lartigue

I have an NW-A1200. I used to have a PC with connect player on it with all my songs backed up. I bought a mac laptop and have a virtual PC on it and now I want to put my library from my MP3 player back on it. I have tried downloading connect player from the CD but it won’t open at all. So I downloaded the latest version of sonic stage but I cannot sync with my player without wiping off all the songs. Is there any way I can get around this?
Thanks.

39. Mariam

Hey. I have a sony NW-1200 and it is giving me system error 032. Could anyone please help? The screen just says “connecting” and i can’t access any of my music. My computer is not recognizing the device anymore either.

40. Olly

Mariam – There’s a reset button recessed into the bottom of the Walkman. Otherwise, i’m not sure what to suggest apart from sending it back to Sony for repairs?

Jane – VirtualPC / VMWare / whatever needs USB to be enabled. Do other USB devices (mice, memory sticks, printers) work? I think there were a few tools floating around to extract the music from the Walkman. Google is probably more help that I am.

41. James

Can anyone help? I have been using sonic stage 4.3 for a while without problems. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, when I try to play any music in ATRAC format that I downloaded from the old Connect music store, I get an error message ‘Cannot play this track because its licensing information cannot be retrieved’. This involves several hundred £££ worth of music and is deeply annoying.

42. Olly

@James – here lies the problem with DRM.

I seem to remember Sony were going to close the Connect music store. I don’t know if that’ll have had an effect on your downloaded music. I guess you’ll need to contact Sony to find out.

43. Fistofheaven

Well i had to transfer my harddrive to a portable because my laptop crashed but when i try to put the music that was on my sonicstage to the sonicstage on my desktop when i finally got it on there i hit play and i get a error messaGE ( cANNOT PLAY THIS TRACK BECAUSE ITS LICENSING INFORMATION CANNOT BE RETRIEVED. FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT THE SOURCE FROM WHICH YOU RECEIVED THIS TRACK (OOOO84E0)) HOW CAN I GET MY MUSIC BACK I EVEN TRIED TRANSFERING THE SONICSTAGE FOLDER FROM MY EXTERNAL TO MY DESKTOP BUT THEY SHOW UP ON THE SONICSTAGE BUT DOES NOT PLAY .. ANYONE KNOW WHAT I CAN DO TO MAKE IT WORK

44. marie

Please some one could send me in zip the content of his her..nw-a1000 ? i formatte or inicialiatign hard disk and my folders including omgaudio was deleted and i can use please please.

45. tania

i have a problem with my mp3 sony NW-e407 and every time i want to upload music with the sonicstage this error appears from nothing:

(00001eea – 2060)
000066d7

i dont know what does it mean but i cant upload the music! please i need a solution to this problem.

46. ani

HELP PLEASE :( my poor mum needs her mp3 player to listen to calming music. i’ve had the NW-A1000 series for ages, but now I can’t find the CD-ROM (ugghhh have SONY ever heard of plug n play????)

I also use a mac. Can anyone give me advice on this? Would appreciate it so much, m getting fed up with SONY!!!!!!! Thanks.