I love listening to music in my spare time. For that purpose, I find that an MP3 Player is very useful! My personal favorite MP3 player is the Cowon iAudio 5. However, that is not exactly what I am writing about in this article. I am actually writing about issues with the Sony Network Walkman, particularly model number NW-E002F. My wife decided to pick up this MP3 Player for her listening enjoyment, despite my advice to the contrary. Now, don’t get me wrong – I love Sony products. It’s just that the Sony Network Walkman products require you to install Sony’s “SonicStage” software if you want to load songs to the player – and I detest any device that requires the installation of proprietary software just to operate. (This is also why I won’t touch an iPod.)

After my wife received her new Sony Network Walkman, I set it up for her. I was annoyed by having to install the SonicStage software, but I did so anyway. The SonicStage software was very difficult to tame! As I didn’t want my wife to have any difficulties with her new MP3 player, I decided to do a little research into alternatives to SonicStage. I found some information scattered around the internet in bits and pieces.

As of this writing, there are still no official Sony alternatives to SonicStage for this particular model. (NW-E002F) Sony has released a standalone driver and a basic MP3 File Manager program for models NW-E103 / E105 / E107 / E403 / E405 / E407 / E503 / E505 / E507 – PA_Driver.exe and MP3FMv2_ENG.exe. (Found here and here , respectively.) It will probably work with other Sony Network Walkman models, but I have found that it definitely does NOT work with the NW-E002F – the software installs and transfers files, but the files will not play at all. Probably a different type of file encryption. So now what? I continued my search… apparently there are currently only third party solutions for this model…

The solution I found and am currently using for my wife’s Sony device is NW-E00x Mp3 File Manager, found here. It is a Java based solution for transferring music to the device. Since it is Java based, it will work on any platform with Java support. The only tricky part is installing it properly. First off, it must be installed the device itself! A step by step tutorial follows:

Before plugging the device into your system for this procedure, I usually initialize the device. WARNING! Initializing will delete any data you have on the device! Back up your data if it is important to you.

Delete any folders and/or files on your device using Windows explorer. (Never use the Windows format disk option for your Sony device, by the way!)

Download NW-E00X_MP3_File_Manager-0.13.jar, ffmpeg-win32.zip, and OMGAUDIO.zip from here. Unzip/extract the files from the zips.

Copy NW-E00X_MP3_File_Manager-0.13.jar, ffmpeg.exe, pthreadGC2.dll, and the OMGAUDIO folder to your device. Note: ffmpeg.exe and pthreadGC2.dll are optional, and may be skipped if desired.

Now, double click on NW-E00X_MP3_File_Manager-0.13.jar, and you will be presented with a file manager. Use this to copy your music files to the Sony device. Be sure to click on the button in the lower right corner (with the diskette icon) to write the files to your device when you are finished.

Alternatively, there are two other file managers for the NW-E00xx series that I have discovered:

SWEx_0032.zip is a Windows only MP3 file manager, which I have tested and found fully functional. It is installed in the same manner as NW-E00x Mp3 File Manager. Just copy the files from the zip (id3lib.dll and SWEx.exe) and use the OMGAUDIO directory from NW-E00x Mp3 File Manager. It can be found here. (Free registration required) I will also provide a direct download link to the file from this site soon, for your convenience. Update! File available here.

voidMP3FM from DrVoid.com is another Windows only MP3 file manager, which I have not tested. It appears to work just like the last two file managers, and is installed in the same manner. Get it here.

Well, I hope this article has been helpful to you. The software I mentioned in this article should work with Sony Network Walkman models NW-E002F, NW-E003F, NW-E005F, NW-E002, NW-E003, and NW-E005. I make no guarantees, however, and anything you do with the information I have provided is solely at your own risk. Enjoy your Sony Network Walkman without SonicStage!

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