ClipSport/ClipSportPlus: CSP-specs and CSP-bluetooth-chapter-4 are garbage

Ok, I used my ClipSport for at least six-months, and now I’ve used my ClipSportPlus for about one-month.

Both of these products, and their respective user manuals, are mediocre.  (And that is being kind.)

The products themselves are hap-hazard.  They do work.  But, they can behave differently each day

that you use them, thus putting the owner into ‘mumble mode’.

[ Hmm…they’re sort of “Donald Trump-ian”…unpredictable, but they work well enough, that the average

person continues to find them ‘acceptable’. ]

Ok, some specifics:  This is my CSP, containing 2.13B firmware update

The ‘specs’ webpage for ClipSportPlus mentions NOTHING about which of the bluetooth standards

(generations) are applicable.  (e.g. 1.0, 1.1,1.2,2.0, 3.0 or whatever).  So, to call that webpage heading

‘specifications’ is a total misnomer.

The ‘user-manual’ PDF has a chapter 4 labeled Bluetooth, that is only HALF a page long.  Containing

some basic sentences on pairing.  But, what about UN-PAIRING???  How to do that? No mention.

(After some googling and head-scratching, in desperation I finally found, and tried ‘Restore’ under system-settings.)

Going down that path reveals that it indeed means ‘restore to factory settings’.  So, the TWO devices that were paired

finally were un-paired and forgotten, which was what needed.)

So,. I had paired previously TWO separate devices:  (1) a bluetooth speaker that I have at home, and that

proved successful.  But my real goal was to pair my BT-headset, for my day-to-day use.

WARNING:  I don’t recommend pairing TWO listening BT-devices, unless the one you really want/need is the

FIRST of the two paired devices.  Because, my experience so far indicates that the CSP will only RELIABLY

auto-connect with the first device in the list.  On any given day, when I power-up the CSP (after first turning on

the headset), it may or may not auto-connect to the 2nd BT-device in the list (the headset), which is the same

device that I’ve been using each day.  In other words, tho, I never tried to use the BT-speaker again, I was

often having to go into Bluetooth menu on any given day. And, when I went into the BT-menu, there was never

a ‘check-mark’ next to either entry, so I’d have to scroll down to the 2nd entry, hit select-button, and after 4 or

5 seconds, it would say ‘connected’.

So, TODAY, after doing the factory-reset, I FIRST paired ONLY the headset, and tested power-down and power-back-up

sequences, and pairing was AUTOMATIC and INSTANTEOUS each time.  So far, so good.

So, then I paired the BT-speaker, into the SECOND device-slot, and the BT-speaker can be chosen and it works.

Then I powered-down the speaker, powered-up the BT-headset, and then powered up CSP.  Multiple times!

Each time, now it always auto-connected to the headset…and instantaneously!

So, consider this a bug-report.  Hey, SanDisk corp:  You need to have your engineers run TESTS with multiple–paired

devices, before you release the product!!!

And, you need to MENTION whether multiple devices is even supposed to be possible, in the USER MANUAL.

And, how to un-pair a BT-device.  (Or, explain the factory-reset is the only way to accomplish this.)

A related confusion:  One might THINK that a factory-reset would also erase one’s downloaded music files.  But

you’d be incorrect, because it does NOT erase any music-related files!  SO, YOU NEED TO TEACH IT TO ASK

whether or not to erase the files…otherwise, calling it ‘factory reset’ is a complete mis-nomer.

Ok, that’s enough ranting for today.  (Geez…it’s a lot of work just trying to accurately DESCRIBE these various issues.)

Bottom-line…I’m gonna keep using my BT-headset and the ClipSportPlus.  The bug isn’t a showstopper, and now that

I"ve found a ‘workaround’, I think I’m good to go.

But, I DO expect your engineers to find and fix the problem (and deliver a firmware update when it’s ready).

1 Like

Thank you for providing a thoughtful and useful analysis of the Clip Sport Plus.Your discussion of bluetooth pairing priority is very helpful. 

I look forward to reading more of your comments and the replies from CS+ owners. 

   I continue to enjoy using my original Clip Sport (CS- ) players. I really think the CS-  is a good value compared to players costing $100 more. I have not experienced mediocre, unpredictable, fake-news behavior of my Clip Sports. Maybe that puts me the in the “average user” demographic?

      And last week Apple decided to terminate sales of all their small iPod players (Nano and Shuffle).  The consumer base for these small portable players is rapidly shrinking due to increasing popularity of streaming music services.

>>>The consumer base for these small portable players is rapidly shrinking due to increasing popularity of streaming music services.

Yeah, makes sense.  At Planet Fitness, it appears that the majority of listeners are using their smartphones, and

probably also using up cell-carrier data-plan, to listen to their music (or podcast or whatever).  (It’s probably a more

‘advanced move’ to learn how to move tracks from their fav music-CDs onto their phones, and a Pandora subscription

or whatever would no doubt give them a wider variety of content to listen to.)

Wow…I hadn’t heard about Apple’s retirement of Nano and Shuffle…I don’t get out much. ;^)  Thanks for that info.