topic Re: Walkman NW-A45 Song Limit in Portable Audio

Walkman NW-A45 Song Limit

pettjon — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 15:16:32 GMT

According to Curry's the NW-A35 has limit on 15,000 songs and this is the only time I have ever seen this mentioned.

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/audio-and-headphones/audio/ipods-and-mp3-players/sony-nw-a35-hi-res-walkman-touchscreen-mp3-player-with-fm-radio-16-gb-black-10161692-pdt.html

What is the maximum number of songs the new NW-A45 can hold or can it take full advantage of the very large memory cards out now which can hold a lot more than 15,000 songs?

Thanks

Re: Walkman NW-A45 Song Limit

Pascale_F — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 10:40:24 GMT

Hi pettjon,

Welcome to the community.

The NW-A45 Walkman with High-Resolution Audio has 16GB of built-in memory, but you can add more by using a Micro SD card. It says on the Sony website that a Micro SD card is not included and that availability of different built-in memory sizes is dependent on region/country.

Regarding the size of the memory card it will take, and the maximum number of songs it will hold, it's best to contact Sony Support about this.

Hope this helps,

Pascale_F

Re: Walkman NW-A45 Song Limit

wrangle60 — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 21:10:00 GMT

Hi,

I bought mine in Singapore in November and the guy in the Sony centre where I bought it said the max micro SD card it would take is 128GB which I bought and its working fine. I only have about 10000 songs on the card so can't help with any limit.

Harry

Re: Walkman NW-A45 Song Limit

pettjon — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 23:46:22 GMT

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Unfortunately I think you were misinformed going by this link describing the older NW-A35

http://sony-eur-eu-en-web--eur.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/137929/~/what-is-the-maximum-storage-capacity-of-micro-sd-cards-compatible

Re: Walkman NW-A45 Song Limit

pettjon — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 19:16:51 GMT

Thanks Pascale_F,

Sony Support say the limit is 20,000 songs.

Re: Walkman NW-A45 Song Limit

Pascale_F — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 20:48:02 GMT

Hi Jon,

Okay, thanks for updating the thread.

Best wishes,
Pascale

Re: Walkman NW-A45 Song Limit

Wozrokka666 — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 21:59:42 GMT

Hi Peoples!

Just bought mine to replace absurdly difficult Cowon Plenue D. I wonder if that limit is set in regard to purely number of songs, or size of files, or length of tracks, time wise? I listen to everything from Ambient to Classical to Trip Hop, and all kinds of Rock, some stuff can be 50/60mb, in ALAC, FLAC, DSD, and some in lowly 320 MP3, I would splash the cash for a 256GB card, but, it looks like a 128 will have to do, Unless anyone can advise that they have no issues with a bigger card? I will use mostly with wired Headphones, either B&W P5's or Beyer T70P, any opinions, I also have HiFiman HE 400's for serious home listening. Grateful for any and all tips, recommendations, assists with software, creating playlists etc. Was commited Ipod user for many years, till hard drives became unreliable, yadda, so have been ingrained with Itunes as carrier, and for making playlists, but on windows PC's Laptops. Have little experience of Sony mobile phone music player software, but always had some snags. Would anyone have any recommendations regarding other software, or do I need to perservere with Sony proprietry software. Also are there any pitfalls regarding formatting of SD Micro cards?

Thanks, in advance for any wisdom! Woz

Re: Walkman NW-A45 Song Limit

pettjon — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 15:58:20 GMT

Hi have a 256gb card formatted using the Walkman and have no problems with the 25000+ songs.

I too have an iPod which has a good interface and music synchronization. Unfortunately the Sony PC software has no synchronization concept as far as I could see and crashes with Japanese messages randomly/sometimes when putting music on the Walkman (card inserted in it.)

I now put music on the card directly via my PC card reader and then insert into the Walkman.

Everytime you switch on the Walkman it loads music into it's database from the SD card which takes a few minutes so new music gets loaded this way.

Hope this helps.

Re: Walkman NW-A45 Song Limit

Big_Mac — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 15:16:09 GMT

Hey pettjon!

What brand 256GB micro SD card did you use? I formatted a higher qulity SanDisk in the player; switched the card to the PC and loaded 115 GB of music on the microSD card usng Music Center. When I put it in the player, it showed as having 115 GB used on it, but none of FLAC music was visible. I was able to take the 256 GB card and put it in my wife's Pioneer payer and it saw everythg. I have heard only a Sony card will work in the Walkman? What do you have?

Re: Walkman NW-A45 Song Limit

Big_Mac — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 15:21:23 GMT

Did you ever get a 256 GB solution for your A45 Walkman? I currenty have the same struggle. If so, what card did you use?

Re: Walkman NW-A45 Song Limit

Big_Mac — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 23:32:40 GMT

Nevermind. I found this post from iLFuma on a different blog. I could not get my SanDisk 256 GB microSD to hold music on the card once I formated in the Sony A45 Waklman and loaded music using Music Center. iLFUma provided this link. https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/index.html

I dwn downloaded the Windows version. Formatted the card on the PC using the SD formater, then loaded about 115 MB of FLAC music. No go. But when I did it again, but this time I loaded the music using Music Center, everything showed up. I have loaded close to 200 GB of FLAC music and no issues. Thanks iLFuma.

Re: Walkman NW-A45 Song Limit

pettjon — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 20:29:19 GMT

Samsung Evo formatted in the Walkman

Re: Walkman NW-A45 Song Limit

Huggy19 — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 20:11:32 GMT

Am having issues with trying to load just over 6000 tracks on a 256gb card. Have tried using Sony Music Centre and also via file explorer. It starts to create database very slowly and then the progression 'flies'! Sees all the folders but nearly 3000 tracks not visible sitting in empty folders. So frustrating and all because I resisted replacing a lost Apple iPod classic with another Apple.

Any suggestions would be appreciated but am already thinking of binning this product.

Re: Walkman NW-A45 Song Limit - hopefully useful answers here....

pureambient — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 10:12:32 GMT

Hi everyone

I know this is an old thread but in case you still use the NW-A45 player - I have three of them now, and don’t want the newer A55 - not worth it for the money or the new A105 VERY expensive and I don’t need the features it offers. The NW-A45 player is the best for my money.

I HAD a very large collection of MP3 files, so I started out with two players - using 2 SanDisk HDXC cards at 400 GB each

I just bought a third A45 for my wife and I’m going to look at larger still cards - as I am currently rebuilding my CD collection as all FLAC (as much as possible) using a brilliant free tool called Exact Audio Copy (which I highly, highly recommend for ripping FLAC from CD - the best!!). I have had zero problems with 400 GB micro SD cards...but be sure to buy a reputable brand - like SanDisk - and make sure you buy SDXC not just SD ...IT HAS to be XC.

I have read, but not yet confirmed...on one blog - that it can support up to a 2 TB card !!! I haven’t verified that yet...but I am going to look at trying a larger than 400 in one player to see how it performs.

It is my belief that the idea of a “song limit” is a myth. There is no such thing.

The limit...is the size of the card you buy and install.

As to the often asked question “how many songs will it hold?”....

1) The capacity of the SD card

2) The type of audio file (compressed - Like MP3 - means smaller, uncompressed - like FLAC - means larger)

3) How many of which types you have

that means you can’t really express player capacity in terms of “how many songs”...unless you state the file type, compression ratio, or average size - and even that doesn’t work, because some FLACs are small (one minute song) and some are HUGE (61 minute song)

Just for reference then...here are two examples - of two of my players - each with a SanDisk micro SDCX 400 GB card installed - (your results WILL VARY - probably by a LOT - so this VERY VERY APPROXIMATE ONLY):

___________________________________________________________________________________________

REAL EXAMPLES OF “HOW MANY SONGS FIT - WITH A 400 GB micro SDXC card

(366.75 GB USEABLE CAPACITY)

EXAMPLE 1

PLAYER 1 - “Green”:

“Green” contains mostly MP3 files all encoded at 320 Kbps (so the largest possible MP3 - 320 is best quality possible for MP3 format) with perhaps 500 FLACs now and looks like this:

366.75 GB usable space on the 400GB SDCX card

0.94 GB Free space (so it is VERY full)

= 26115 songs currently

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

EXAMPLE 2

PLAYER 2 - “Blue”:

“Blue” contains almost all MP3 files - many encoded at 320 Kbps but some at lower rates like 128 Kbps or 256 Kbps (which are smaller than 320 Kbps) - plus a much larger number - several thousand at least of the much larger FLACs - so a real mix of stuff on this player - and “Blue” looks like this:

366.75 GB usable space on the 400GB SDCX card

81.30 GB Free space (so this player is not full...it’s a work in progress)

= 12561 songs currently

>>>>>>>>>>>EXAMPLES END>>>>>>>>>>>>

Please note that:

When you have a lot of MP3-320 and a few FLACs - you get over 26000 songs

When you have a lot of FLACs and fewer MP3-320 - you get over 12000 songs

SO:

Uncompressed FLAC files - which are big but sound amazing - take up a LOT of space!!

Compressed MP3 files - which are smaller and sound OK - take up a LOT LESS space than FLAC files

if I then add together those two song counts

26115

12561

That is a grand total of 38,676 songs - stored across two 400 GB cards on two players.

Given that Player 1 is basically full, and Player 2 has 81 GB free still - I would say with this pretty random mix of different sized MP3 and FLAC files...that if I crammed both devices to overflowing, I think I could easily get 45,000 songs or more.

As I am now getting rid of MP3 and replacing all MP3 (where possible) with newly ripped from CD FLAC...the number of songs I can fit will start to reduce. I reckon I can get between 12000 and 15000 FLACs...maybe...once all MP3 are removed and it’s all FLAC...but that is still a LOT of songs.

and if I can find a 1TB micro SD card and it actually works...then that will more than DOUBLE the very approximate, very much estimated counts of songs that will fit “guesses” above.

so - very arbitrary - your results WILL DIFFER!!

if you have all MP3 files at 128 Kbps - you will fit A LOT MORE files than this on a 400GB card

if you have all MP3 files at 320 Kbps - you will fit not quite as many as above

if you have all FLAC files - uncompressed audio files - you will fit far fewer files than above

And ... if you have a mixture of types and sizes - as I do at the moment - then your results MIGHT be sort of, very vaguely, slightly, somewhat like my two examples above...but there is really NO METHOD to determine “how many songs will fit” .....you just have to do it until the device is full...THEN...you know 🙂

I also suggest, ignoring any advert or website advertising players that says “limit 15,000 songs” or “fits 20,000 songs”...what I describe above is how it REALLY works. In practice. In the real examples based on real experience outlined above.

So.....forget about “song limits”, forget about “how many will fit”...just get yourself a bigger card and have room to grow!

I hope this is helpful.Edited

pureambient dot bandcamp dot com

Re: Walkman NW-A45 Song Limit - hopefully useful answers here....

Relayerman — Sun, 09 May 2021 02:51:12 GMT

I have used a 512GB SanDisk card with no problems, but yes, there is a song limit for the NW-A45. I have all MP3s and still have about 190GB free on the card, but the NW-A45 stops at 45,478 songs give or take a couple. When I first loaded the card and then turned off USB Mass Storage it went ahead and built the database. When done I scrolled thru the artists and noticed that a few were missing alphabetically at the bottom of the list (Who, Yardbirds, ZZ Top). I went into Settings, Device Setting, Reset/Reformat and selected Rebuild Database and when done all my artists and albums were there.

Recently however, I added a couple more albums under Various Artists (as the artist) and went thru the same steps. This time, even after doing a Rebuild Database I was missing all ZZ Top. All other artists and their albums were there. Tried a few times to Rebuild and still the song number came up 45,478. The only thing I did not try was to unmount (which takes a tremendously long time to do by creating database; not sure why it would do that on an unmount) and then remounting and going thru the Create Database and possibly another Rebuild.

Just my 2 cents.