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At this point I might start to do a few things with a single non-behaving MP3. a. does it play (and does it play without getting modified) in normal players other than SS? b. can you install another SS on another PC and import that one file there? I realise that's a problem for many people. c. Have you checked that the library is stored on a medium where there is lots of WRITEABLE storage before doing the import? The fact you have several "optimized files" folders suggests to me that you have stored the db under a single user (and maybe for several users). Consequently it will be inaccessible to other users through Windows AC lists. I would consider carefully the benefits of having only a single place for SS database, NOT under your My Documents tree. Did you upgrade to SP3? Rumour has it that some of the Vista UAL stuff got snuck in there in the interests of "security". Sony has always insisted you have to be more than a plain-joe user when running SS. Perhaps you got away with it but now restrictions on access are being enforced. Yup, time to start looking at ACL's. Sorry. oh yes, one more thing. Time to talk to the resident genius Avrin. The db is a real Microsoft Access db. Somehow maybe the permissions got munged?

Summary: your database is messed up. As long as these are MP3 files (or WAV) ie not copy-protected ATRAC, you haven't done anything wrong. Note that PLAYING some MP3 files in some players will modify the file (I seem to recall Real Player might do this), so any file that got changed will no longer be recognised by SS. If they were ATRAC files to begin with, you're screwed unless you can go back (via System Restore) to an earlier point in time. This means you lose any uploads since that point, forever. Don't try any of this (trying to get ATRAC files back) unless you need to. Next, find where Sonic Stage puts your optimized files (my guess is some directory called "Optimized Files" somewhere near where SS keeps your imported files). Delete all the files there. Also there's a couple of things in the "Options" section of SS - delete the temporary files (probably the same as what you just did), and optimize the database (nothing to do with optimized files!). Stop SS, reboot Windows (just for the heck of it), and try again. I'm assuming NONE of this helped. If it did, then Hallelujah. Now you have a tedious job. You have to delete all the songs that won't transfer (finding out is tedious too!) FROM SonicStage (make sure you never check the box telling you to delete the music file from the computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Now re-import them (the file menu) and all will (I hope) be well. That's the tedious part, re-sorting them. You might do well to keep one song in each album (say the first or the last) and do it after you have imported all the others. That way you don't lose the folder and artist information. Sometimes SS also gets confused if you had ATRAC and converted to MP3 and both files are showing in the SS display. But what typically leads to the above scenario is that an ATRAC file is generated (in Optimized Files) from your MP3 (or WAV) and then it gets deleted or goes out of date (see the comment about realplayer above, though it's not exactly applicable, I speak in generalities) and now the database says "the right file ain't there". I hope this helps. And yes, as long as you don't have any files terminally protected with Sony digital paranoia, SS4.3 (especially Avrin's nice updated version "Ultimate") is much better. I believe there might be some weird data rates that I have never used in the earlier versions but unless you know you need them, fuhgeddaboutit If you do have ATRAC files after all this that are protected, you should remove the copy protection. I suspect in 3.4 this means converting them to 4.3 (SOMEONE PLEASE CONFIRM THIS, I DON'T WANT TO MESS THIS POOR CHAP UP). In 4.3 it's a simple matter of running the File Conversion Tool and unchecking the Copy Protect dialog checkbox. You should always do that with your precious recordings anyway. Good luck Stephen