Creating playlists on the Sansa Clip

[Route44]

mkduffer, just wanted you to know you are not alone. My son and I have used WMP and we have created his playlist and dragged and dropped to his new 4GB clip but we can't find the list anywhere. We know they installed by the decrease in usuable free space on his player but, again, we can't find the list to play.

Well try using Dilfer's latest advice with Winamp and see what happens.

[CrowdAds]

[mkduffer]

Thanks for your sympathetic thoughts, Route44. I finally managed to get my Clip to take play lists. First of all, I started clean, reformatted it and set it in MTP mode, not MSC mode. Reformatting is probably not necessary, I'm just being overly cautious. Using either WinAmp or MediaMonkey, I was then able to create working play lists. Assuming that you already have music in your library, following are the steps I took:

WinAmp

1. Make sure that your Media Library is open. To do this, click on the "ML" button located in near the bottom right corner of the player, right above the orange lightning bolt.
2. From the left side of the library window, select "Local Media". A list of your media will appear in the right Window.
3. Select the tracks you wish to transfer, then right click on them, pick "Send to", then "SanDisk Sansa Clip"
4. The files will be sent to your clip. When it is finished, choose "Portables" and "SanDisk Sansa Clip" from the left side of the "Media Library" Window.
5. The bottom right Window should show the media files on your Clip. Select the ones you want to add to your play list, then right click on them, select "Send to playlist:", choose "New playlist" and name your new playlist. When you hit "OK", your new playlist will be created and populated.
6. It is possible to send files directly from your library to a playlist on your Clip, but often it will cause WinAmp to crash. Not really sure why.

Media Monkey

1. For MediaMonkey, you need to first create a Playlist on your computer, then sync that playlist to your Clip.
2. Open Media Monkey and select the tracks you want to add to your playlist. You can select either from your local library or from your Clip.
3. Right Click on the selected tracks and choose "Send to...", "New Playlist", and then name your new playlist and select "OK".
4. Now that your playlist is created, choose it from the library, right click on it, and then choose "Send to...", then "Sync to SanDisk Sansa Clip". If you've choosen files already on your Clip, then the playlist will simply be created. If the files have not been previously transfered, then MM will transfer the files, then create the playlist.

Hope that helps!

[d_headshot]

Originally Posted by Defiler

What he said.

Media Monkey is a very nice all in one but I prefer separate apps for my MP3 work. WinAMP for playback and playlist creation, Tag & Rename for tags, and EAC for ripping. Call me old fashioned I guess...

I think that's a smart way to do things. Using some of the best programs for seperate things is what I do, but I use mp3tag for editing tags in mass amounts.

[mkduffer]

Originally Posted by d_headshot

I think that's a smart way to do things. Using some of the best programs for seperate things is what I do, but I use mp3tag for editing tags in mass amounts.

I also concur. One thing I really like about Media Monkey is the auto-filing system. Over the years, I've accumulated many copies of the same songs. What's nice in MM is you can go through, rename the files in your library, then once that is done, hit Ctrl-R and it will automatically file your media according to the hierarchy that you've predetermined. Duplicates are easily identified and can be automatically deleted. Personally, I setup my directory structure by \Artist\Album\Artist - Track - Title.mp3, but there's no right or wrong way. My way doesn't handle compilations (discs with multiple artists), but I don't mind.

[Skinjob]

Originally Posted by Defiler

Media Monkey is a very nice all in one but I prefer separate apps for my MP3 work. WinAMP for playback and playlist creation, Tag & Rename for tags, and EAC for ripping.

That's exactly my main toolset as well. None of the all-in-one's provide accurate ripping (EAC & dbPoweramp are the only choices). And I like to keep my files names in sync with the tag info, which is also something that none of the all-in-one's handle (AFAIK).

As to the main question of creating playlists on the Clip, here's the easiest method I know (I use MSC mode, not sure if it's the same for MTP):

1. Use Windows Explorer to drag files from the Clip into Winamp's playlist editor.
2. Arrange files in playlist as desired.
3. Save the playlist to the Clip's Music folder.
4. If you later want to edit the playlist, just drag the m3u file from the Clip into Winamp's playlist editor and repeat steps 1-3.

Couldn't be simpler.

[Route44]

Thanks mkduffer for the indepth response and the very, very helpful information you spelled out. Thanks to d_headshot and Skinjob for further info on Winamp.

I don't want to hijack this thread but what is the difference between MTP and MSC modes and how do I tell which mode the Clip is set at?

Also, my son's music lists are under Creative Media Source. He should be able to transfer to WinAmp, correct?

Thanks!

[mkduffer]

To quote member Shiltz, from the following thread: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ewreply&p=3788

Originally Posted by shiltz

In MSC mode the player is a USB mass storage device and shows up under my computer as a drive letter and can be used just like any drive can be, and you can stick music anywhere you want on it and the player will play it, however everytime you unplug the player from the computer it reads everything on the player too recreate it's database of music.

In MTP mode it shows up as what looks like a little mp3 player icon called Sansa e2x0, you can still drag and drop music but only into the media\music folder, but it automaticaly updates the database realtime as you add or remove stuff so you can unplug and use it right away without the database refresh which can get very long with lots of stuff on the player. MTP mode is I belive also needed for transfering using media player and for putting on any DRM "infected" mp3's from the online places you can buy them from.

Sorry, but I don't know anything about Media Source. As for knowing which mode you are in, simply press the "Home" button (looks like a house in the upper right corner), choose "Settings", then USB Mode. There are three choices, "Auto Detect", MSC, and MTP. Being the control freak that I am, I like to manually choose. That way, I KNOW what mode I'm in. And in case you are in "Auto Detect" and you're wondering what mode your computer has chosen for you, simply open Windows Explorer and check your drives. If the clip shows up as an additional drive (ie with a drive letter assign to it), then Windows is using it as a mass storage device (like a flash drive). This means it's in MSC mode. I used to use MSC mode, however when you add tracks or update playlists, it tends to take a very long time, so now I'm using MTP. Well, that and the fact that I couldn't get MSC to work with playlists.. ; )

How that helps!

[Skinjob]

Originally Posted by mkduffer

I used to use MSC mode, however when you add tracks or update playlists, it tends to take a very long time, so now I'm using MTP. Well, that and the fact that I couldn't get MSC to work with playlists

MTP and MSC actually take about the same time to transfer/refresh. MTP is rebuilding the internal database as each file is transferred, so the transfer takes longer, but the refresh is quick. MSC doesn't touch the DB during transfers, so the transfers are much faster, but then the refresh takes longer. When you count transfer+refresh time, it's pretty much the same for both.

Also, playlists work fine in MSC mode. It's the main way I use the player.

[RickH57]

Hello all, brand new member here, first-time post. Nice forum here and a lot of helpful folks. I have a 2gb Clip (the blue one) and have recently had the same headaches as mkduffer was having - glad to see you got it worked out. I finally figured out how to create & transfer playlists using WMP11 after nearly giving up from frustration. Anyway, in case anyone wants to know, here's the method I'm using:

1. Player in MTP mode.
2. Before connecting your player, create playlist in WMP11 just exactly as the video tutorial shows. Save playlist.
3. Now, hook up your Clip to the computer.
4. Click on Synch tab at top.
5. Send your newly-created playlist to the Synchlist pane on the right.
6. Click Synch at the bottom right-hand side. The WMP screen will change to a screen showing you the synch process.
7. When it's done, that screen will go away and you'll see the message "You can disconnect your Sansa player"

I was never able to transfer a playlist in MSC mode using WMP, so I'll stick with what's working. I was able to use Winamp and get playlists on my Clip but by dragging songs already on the Clip over to the Winamp player and then exporting back as an .M3U playlist.

[Urgentsee]

^ after much frustration and after downloading different players I returned to WMP to finally get a playlist onto the darn player - I just kept thinking "this cannot be so difficult" as I clocked up another hour.
What I learned through trial and error was that even though I created a playlist and transfered it over to the player it would not show up under the Playlists on the player after I disconnected. What I did differently and which proved successful was on the right-side pane I displayed the playlist name but this time I did not go into the playlist by clicking on it so that I was synching one item - the Playlist title only -then WMP drilled down and got the songs. This worked. Earlier when I was playing some of the songs in the playlist and I told it to synch it dutifully transfered the songs but omitted putting the playlist entry onto the player which was the whole point of the exercise.
Hope this is helpful to others so that you don't have the same head-scratching experience. I was about to start my own web-site "Anything but Sansa" but now all is forgiven as I can look forward to running with my tidy clip companion.

[mala25]

Here is an easier way to get your music files to show up as playlists on your sansa clip. Connect your Clip via USB to your computer. Drag and drop files you want included in your playlist into the "Music" folder of your Clip. When you have all the music you want included in your playlist on your Clip in the Music folder, choose the songs you want for the playlist (hold down CTRL key while selecting) when you're all done choosing, then right click and select Create playlist...then name it...make sure it ends in .pla...then drag that file to your "playlists" folder inside the Sansa folder. That's it.

[leanmushroom]

I Found the easiest way to create a playlist on Sansa Clip, was select the songs you want to create it from (these have to be loaded on to the player), right click & select 'create playlist'.

Hope this helps.

[daveyh]

I've tried that right click idea and it doesn't show "create playlist". I have xp2. Is this a Vista thing or what?

[leanmushroom]

I was using XP 2.

I put my music here "My Computer\Sansa Clip 2GB\Internal Memory\Music"

Then opened the folder that I wanted to make the playlist from selected & 'Create playlist' was the top bold option.

[skip252]

Originally Posted by daveyh

I've tried that right click idea and it doesn't show "create playlist". I have xp2. Is this a Vista thing or what?

I don't think it's a Vista or XP thing. When I used MTP to transfer my music I had the 'Create Playlist' option when I right clicked. When I switched to using MSC that option wasn't available.

[daveyh]

This is driving me nuts! I have an 8g clip and when I click on the sansa icon there is no "internal memory". Instead it has "media and data". Click on media and get the music file. Inside that is my songs. If I right click inside or outside the music file or on the songs, there is no "create playlist". I right clicked all over the place. Guess I have to keep using mediamonkey.

[Mikerman]

Would changing your USB connection mode change/fix this? On the Clip, Settings/USB.

[daveyh]

Nay...I tried both settings and got ziltch. Thanks anyway to all you guys who tried to help. Mediamonkey isn't bad...hoped I could do make a playlist from the songs in the clip. I could do that with a program made for my e260. Funny...I used to love my e260, but now I use my clip all the time instead.

[jeffrok]

Daveyh, have you tried upgrading the firmware? In MSC mode, the internal memory should show up as a drive letter.. And in MTP I'm not 100% but it shouldn't say "media and data".

What OS are you using, and are you SURE you have a Sansa clip? This doesn't even sound like something a Clip would do.

[Chili]

In MTP, the Clip should show up as an mp3 player, labeled as a "Sansa Clip" in Windows operating systems.