Problem solved.

You were right about the Played # column. The Zen does update this field when I synchronize after playing the songs on it.

So I just rewind and hit play a couple more times on songs I want to delete when listening to the Zen, synchronize, go to the playlist and sort by this column in MM, and voila! The tunes I can delete are on top of the list having been played 3 times. After I delete them they will also be deleted from the player when I re-sync.

In Auto-sync options you have to make sure the option to "Delete Tracks that aren't on the auto-sync list from device" is checked. Then use auto-sync to synchronize rather than manually syncing the playlists.

Thanks for the help!

Uh, never mind about the drive letter. See below.... I'm so frustrated that I'm getting obsessed with this!

From Nomadness.net regarding MTP players:
"Note, there are no 3rd party firmware or hacks that will allow the drive letter and/or driverless functionality.

Also note that if drive letter functionality were added it would fundamentally change how the player works. If the Music Library based on tag data were to remain it would necessitate that everytime files were added a scan of the disk would be required taking a relatively large amount of time to check what files were present and to add the tag data. If the Music Library were to be removed then the device it would have to be navigated by folders and files instead, which some users do not like."

Since MM's playlists are not .m3u files, maybe I can try exporting my playlists to .m3u, copying them to the Zen via Explorer, auto-syncing MM's playlists as usual, then modify only the .m3u's on my player and visually comparing them with multiple instances of MM?

I hope that wasn't confusing, but I'll try it and post back.

I guess what is really driving me nuts is that Creative gave me the idea that the Zen could be used like a mass storage device with it's own drive letter, but not true. So I can't use a file comparison program to delete the files from my computer. Grrrrrr!

I am also going to try uninstalling the Zen software and see if my PC will give it a drive letter.... Maybe there's a hack for this on the Net?

...From a location.

gggirlgeek wrote:So far I have tried auto-synchronizing playlists, deleting the song on my device, then synchronizing again. It just copies the song back onto my player. *Sigh!*

If you have that playlist in your sync options deleting the songs on the device won't help. MM checks, the tracks is not the same (is missing) and updates (copies).

gggirlgeek wrote:I also tried auto-syncing from a path. Same result.

What do you mean "from a path"?

That's a good idea but MM doesn't seem to be able to search both the player and the Library at the same time. If it could do this my problems would be solved.

So far I have tried auto-synchronizing playlists, deleting the song on my device, then synchronizing again. It just copies the song back onto my player. *Sigh!*

I also tried auto-syncing from a path. Same result.

The main problem seems to be that I can't get MM to accept changes from the device.

...I wonder if I could open two instances of MM and search the Zen in one, and compare the same search in the Library in the other (before syncing.) This is still a bit tedious and involves manual comparison, but it's better than writing each song down and deleting them one by one.

Hmmm. I wonder if a script could tell MM to accept changes from the player. I know this is dangerous but if I'm careful it could work. Any script writers want to help?

gggirlgeek wrote:I need to sort through 2000 songs that I've never listened to and delete the ones that I don't want to keep (from both my PC and my device.) I only listen to music on my device and don't want to be tethered to my computer.

I have a new Zen 16Gb and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way mark tunes so that I can easily find and delete them on my PC once I've chosen which ones I don't want on my device.

Has anyone tried sorting through huge lists like this and filtering out the unwanted stuff with their player?

I need your ideas please.

You can try to sort them by Played# and delete the 0s and 1s. It's risky, I see.

I need to sort through 2000 songs that I've never listened to and delete the ones that I don't want to keep (from both my PC and my device.) I only listen to music on my device and don't want to be tethered to my computer.

I have a new Zen 16Gb and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way mark tunes so that I can easily find and delete them on my PC once I've chosen which ones I don't want on my device.

Has anyone tried sorting through huge lists like this and filtering out the unwanted stuff with their player?

I need your ideas please.