The eternal media refresh of Clip Zip

[Cantfightcityhall]

So I bought a Clip Zip, got a warranty just in case, and went ahead and got a 32gb microSD card. Can't beat that storage. I just wish I'd put a little more thought into how terrible media refreshes are.

I come from the old school of Creative and iRiver players that only did folder navigation. That's all I want. I don't want it indexing my ID3 tags and sorting by Artist, Album, or any junk like that. That's why I have it broken up by folder!

Well, I got it on, upgraded the firmware (still Sandisk), popped in the microSD card, and went crazy. Filled up almost all of the microSD card. Almost all of it. Thank goodness it let me disable MTP, MSC all the way! Although it took several hours to copy it all.

The only problem is now the dang thing can't seem to finish "Refreshing your media" has been running for over an hour, and it's stuck below the "d" in media.

Is it going to refresh every single time I turn it on, or every time I connect it to a computer? I don't need to computer it that often, I have an AC charger, planning on getting a car one.

If I turn it off and on, will it stop doing the media thing and just let me folder browse, which is what I really want to do?

Can media indexing and librarying be suppressed so I can just folder browse? I mean seriously this is not an Apple product. Lemme play my gosh durn music.

I realize Rockbox is still in an unstable state for the Clip Zip, but if I switch the firmware, will I be able to play music without worrying about the index?

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

[skip252]

Welcome to ABi

Why don't you take a look at this thread from earlier today. Wherever you see "Fuze" substitute "Clip Zip". The answers are the same.

There's no way to disable the database refresh except as outlined there. There's no USB support for the Zip in Rockbox so that won't help except it allows you to fill the internal memory so the database refresh can't happen.

Turning it off and on will just start the refresh over again. It takes just as long each time so I wouldn't do that.

A database refresh shouldn't take that long. You can follow the link in post #13. There's some tips on how to deal with your file/folder structure and tags to cut that down quite a bit.

[Cantfightcityhall]

Thanks for your quick reply. I did give MP3tag a shot last night, but my computer itself doesn't have an SD slot, so I was using someone else's laptop and there were issues. I hope to cut down the ID3v1 and APE tags today or soon (it's the big red X after you set the options correctly, right?). I'll be getting a reader in the mail soon, and a car charger, both incredibly inexpensive but good.

I did try installing the unstable Rockbox, and I couldn't get the dang thing to boot for whatever reason. Won't let me install the boot loader through the GUI version, that much I can see. I finally found the thread with the custom bootloader and have just tried installing. Survey says... Rockboxed. It's working so far. Might try filling internal memory. If I can at least listen to music in Rockbox while it updates the library, I don't care how long it takes. And according to Rockbox, the database isn't initialized. Heck, I don't want it to. This is glorious. Let's try the microSD card now...

[skip252]

You can't listen to anything in Rockbox during the database refresh. It's not like it's a separate app that runs independently of the Sandisk firmware. Either the Sandisk firmware will be updating it's database or Rockbox will be running. The two firmwares don't run at the same time.

Filling the internal memory to prevent the database refresh only happens once you've deleted the ' # " folders you see in the Rockbox file browser. You can't see them without Rockbox. Just filling the internal memory in Explorer won't do anything.

You may want to do further reading or ask more questions before you go any further. If you're not sure which settings work for cleaning your files it's possible to wipe the tags and create a lot of work fixing them.

Installing Rockbox without reading the manual at least through "Browsing And Playing" usually results in some frustrating moments. There's no Clip Zip manual yet but the Clip+ is close enough that most directions apply to the CZ.

[Cantfightcityhall]

I guess the real follow up question is, how do I get it back into Sansa mode? I'm pretty sure I've tried holding the vol-up button while booting, and plugging into the USB also sent me right to Rockbox mode. Sorry if I seem clueless, but I've seen the button for Sansa booting listed as 3 different things, and none of them seem to work.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Cantfightcityhall

I guess the real follow up question is, how do I get it back into Sansa mode? I'm pretty sure I've tried holding the vol-up button while booting, and plugging into the USB also sent me right to Rockbox mode. Sorry if I seem clueless, but I've seen the button for Sansa booting listed as 3 different things, and none of them seem to work.

Hold the volume down while powering on for Sansa mode.

[Cantfightcityhall]

Vol down? Crikey, well that worked perfectly. Not sure where I got vol up, Left, or Up from.

Looks like it's working just the way I want it! Still need to test if skipping songs causes a delay (I noticed that a bit on a few tracks), but other than that it works fine. And it doesn't take 1000 hours to boot up! Thank you all!

[Mikerman]

Just for comparison: my Clip Zip with a 32GB card takes 20-30 minutes to refresh (using a SanDisk 32GB Class 4 card); my card's contents are individual CDs, each in its own folder on the card.

A refresh only occurs when the card's contents are changed (or, I believe, if the card is ejected and put back in--although I haven't done that, and so don't know from experience).

I still find the whole refresh experience a pain in the backside, which SanDisk needs to eliminate. Especially frustrating if you have just loaded up some music and want to listen shortly thereafter--you have to remember to "load in advance."

[WalkGood]

I’m closing this thread because the topic is already discussed here (as skip previously pointed out) and in other threads. Derailing the thread into “rockbox help” doesn’t make it ok IMHO because the questions are all answered in other similar threads and the rockbox manual. If one could not find the answers then posting a new thread in the rockbox forum would be the way to go.