Sansa Clip Zip: I've Given Up on MSC Mode Due To PlayList Problems

[Jucius Maximus]

The Sansa Clip Zip: I purchased it with high expectations of it becoming my new gym music player. It has actually succeeded in that capacity, but not in the way that I expected.

I am very disappointed that I have not been able to get PlayLists working properly on MSC mode with the Sansa Zip Clip. From reading these forums, I see that nobody has a clear answer on this issue. I have been going back and forth with Sandisk support, simply asking them for an example playlist format and the directory in which it should be stored. Each time, they came back with more and more idiotic and nonsensical questions. As far as I can tell, there is NO way to use multiple playlists on the Sansa Zip using MSC Mode.

By the way, I am a techie. I use 2-3 programming languages in a normal work day. I have tried a lot of things to get this working.

After the most recent nonsensical e-mails from Sandisk support, I finally gave up on MSC mode. The Clip Zip actually works quite well on MTP mode with Windows Media Player. I have numerous playlists, and they WORK. Of course, not everyone uses WMP and some people do not use Windows at all! This is quite a disappointing development, and I suspect that Sandisk never actually developed proper playlist support on the Clip Zip for MSC mode.

[CrowdAds]

[steinburger1109]

Isn't that a limitation of MSC, not necessarily Sansa or the Clip Zip? IIRC, isn't that pretty much one of the two advantages of MTP? That it works with playlists and database refreshes are faster?

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by steinburger1109

Isn't that a limitation of MSC, not necessarily Sansa or the Clip Zip? IIRC, isn't that pretty much one of the two advantages of MTP? That it works with playlists and database refreshes are faster?

To my knowledge, yes, yes, and yes. Good thing for me I don't do playlists, 'cause I like MSC.

[skip252]

If .m3u playlists aren't working on the Clip Zip it's a screw up on the part of Sandisk, not a limitation of MSC. Every other Sandisk I have, Fuze, Clip, Clip+ and E200 series work with playlists created in MSC just fine. They may be restricted to the files on either the internal or external memory, but they work.

The only playlists that Rockbox uses are .m3u playlists created from files transferred in MSC. Those can come from the internal and external memories. On the Rockbox ports that have USB support the refresh time is effectively zero. The player can be used as the database refreshes. If there's a problem with the CZ it's Sandisk's implementation that's the issue, not the USB mode.

[Jucius Maximus]

Originally Posted by skip252

If .m3u playlists aren't working on the Clip Zip it's a screw up on the part of Sandisk, not a limitation of MSC. Every other Sandisk I have, Fuze, Clip, Clip+ and E200 series work with playlists created in MSC just fine. They may be restricted to the files on either the internal or external memory, but they work.

Exactly. Sandisk does have an article on their site explaining the format of the M3U playlists, and their support did link me to that article when I e-mailed them.

M3U playlists should work, but they don't. Even on Sandisk's own forums, there is no resolution.

[musichound]

Skip is correct on this. When I was using my iRIver H320 on a regular bases, I stored many.m3u playlists which originated from either WinAmp or another application dedicated app specifically for playlist creaton on the H300 series. All playlists worked flawlessly. The issue with the Zip is definitely with the player itself, or how it interprets playlists in MSC mode. MSC mode is not the culprit here,

[skip252]

I experimented some with this and it seems the firmwares past 01.01.12 break all playlists that aren't created with files transferred in MTP. They just get ignored during the database refresh. Maybe there's something obvious I'm missing but with it working with one firmware and not the next I don't believe I am.

The same playlists that work in 01.01.12 break after a firmware update. Recreating the playlists with files transferred in MSC after the firmware update doesn't help. I've no idea if this is expected behavior or an unintended side effect of fixing some other issue.

I can't say I care very much because Rockbox handles .m3u playlists in the same excellent way as always. For someone trying to use MSC and have playlists in the OF this would seem to be a deal breaker. I wonder how the heck the Mac and Linux users are going to have full functionality if this is what it seems to be.

I'll experiment around if I get interested in this again but from what I see so far it seems the fix would need to come from a firmware update.

[bkdotcom]

I can confirm that I CAN NOT create a playlist with 01.01.18
I can confirm that I CAN create a playlist with 01.01.12

Explaining this simple fact to SanDisk is another matter.

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by bkdotcom

I can confirm that I CAN NOT create a playlist with 01.01.18
I can confirm that I CAN create a playlist with 01.01.12

Explaining this simple fact to SanDisk is another matter.

Your wording is a bit wrong here. The Clip Zip firmware has nothing to do with creating a playlist (unless we're talking the "Go List").
Firmware 01.01.15 and 01.01.18 will not read a valid m3u playlist file.
Firmware 01.01.12 will read a valid m3u playlist file.

A playlist created on a Zip running 01.01.15 and stored on a micro card, will work just fine when the micro card is transferred to a Fuze.

Steve

[Jucius Maximus]

Bump...

Hm, The 01.01.20 firmware's release notes claims to have improved M3U support.
Some other comments suggest that this issue is fixed. Maybe I should test this out.

[FreeZ5]

MSC M3U playlists are working for me on the Zip with 01.01.20.

Steve