Issue with an mp3 player with additional stoarge

[dunlopj]

A friend has a Sansa Clip mp3 player with music on the original internal 4gb drive AND music on a micro SD card.

The display appears to show ALL the music when scrolling the genres, artists and albums, but he thinks it does not play all the songs.

A Sansa forum mentioned this:

The frustrating thing with the Sansa clip is that it isn't compatible with NTFS, and it doesn't combine the internal memory with the external memory.

So you can't put it on shuffle to play all songs on both internal and external memory. It's one or the other.

Does this make sense to you?

 

[steve149]

Yes ...

First, FAT32 is the typical format option for flash. It works on volumes up to 2Tb in size and files up to 4Gb in size, so unless one is putting uncompressed video on it, there is no reason to need NTFS on the flash drive .. plus FAT32 is more portable.

As to internal/external .. that would be an issue with the way the firmware was coded. I assume the Sansa sees the 2 as separate drives and whoever coded the random feature (and probably to save space in the firmware) decided that spanning one "drive" was sufficient.

 

[dunlopj]

Thanks for the response Steve. I'll look at Sansa forums as well and read the manual I found on line.

I do see mentioned "MSC mode". What's that?

 

[steve149]

There are 2 main protocols used to hook up a MP3 player to a computer to transfer data (and songs). The best way is MTP (Media Transfer Protocol), which provides a higher level of content sharing, including playlists and DRM management .. basically, the computer talks to the Sansa as a MP3 player and knows what it can do and files of different types are handled appropriately and placed appropriately. In MSC (Mass Storage Class) mode, the computer treats the Sansa purely as a flash drive and everything moved looks a file. In that mode, the Sansa can be connected to devices that don't have their version of iTunes, so files can be moved, but you need to know where everything goes. It's mainly used for troubleshooting or using it in ways that the software doesn't expect.

 

[Dan The Man]

Yes ...

First, FAT32 is the typical format option for flash. It works on volumes up to 2Tb in size and files up to 4Gb in size, so unless one is putting uncompressed video on it, there is no reason to need NTFS on the flash drive .. plus FAT32 is more portable.

As to internal/external .. that would be an issue with the way the firmware was coded. I assume the Sansa sees the 2 as separate drives and whoever coded the random feature (and probably to save space in the firmware) decided that spanning one "drive" was sufficient.

+1 I have the Zip Clip+ and utilize the MicroSD card with it. It has to be formatted as FAT32.

When displaying the song list, all songs on the SD card will display a little memory card next to their title. Songs both on the player and SD card show up with the list feature and play via the shuffle function.

You can select songs only off the SD card by using the play by folder feature. I find this useful when I dump new music or a podcast onto the card.

As an aside you may want to use the Sansa Updater on their website to be sure he has the latest Firmware. Older Firmware iterations didn't span both drives as Steve mentioned.

--
I've had 3 or 4 of these little gems. My current one I've had for a little over a year and am already getting the dying screen issue. The contact between the screen and board don't seem to be soldiered well enough. After a while the screen is very dim. You fix it temporarily by flicking it with your finger right above the navi-square. That returns the screen to full brightness until the connection is lost completely.

They're really nice, versatile little players. It sounds silly but the best thing about them is they're cheap enough that they're practically disposable. I'm not afraid to have it out in the weather with me or whatever.

 

[ahoustondj]

Have anyone ever considered using an Old Cell Phone? They all have MP3 Players and SD Cards. You can Make Playlists, play by songs or artists or albums etc. They work just as well as these iPods. A great way to re purpose an old device.