Clip Sport Songs Order & Album Mix-ups

I am considering purchasing a Sandisk Sansa Sport 8gb. However, whether you’re listening to a Paganini concerto or a Beatles album, song order is highly significant, and almost never, if ever, is supposed to go alphabetically. Unless of course, you’re on crack or act like it. So, I have to know beforehand whether the issue with playlist song order was fixed for these devices. Would someone here be so kind as to inform me about the status of the song order problem? Has there been a fix?

Thanks in advance!

I am sure a few SanDisk “guru” level forum members will provide better answers for your concerns.

First, make sure you install the latest FirmWare 1.28.

      http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/SanDisk-Clip-Sport/Clip-Sport-FW-1-28-4K-database-Beta/td-p/342560

For starters, use Win Explorer to copy one specific album of files into one specific subfolder inside the MUSIC folder on your Clip Sport (or the micro SD card)

MP3 Tag Method:

  1. Use mp3tag freeware software here:     http://download.mp3tag.de/mp3tagv272setup.exe

      AND, use tag type:  ID3v2 ISO-8859-1 (set under Tools -> Options)

  1. Use album and song titles that are 12 characters or less (?) that clearly define the identity of the music files

  2. Use 2 digit (3 if necessary) prefixes added to the song titles (include leading zeroes, 01-  etc)

     I think the hyphen helps too.

  1. Try a small test sample of files to learn what works best for you.

PLAYLIST Method:

An alternate approach is to create a unique playlist file (.m3u) for each subfolder.

The same software (mp3tag) can be used to create an ordered playlist for each sub-folder under the MUSIC folder.

Best Wishes !!!

I am sure a few SanDisk “guru” level forum members will provide better answers for your concerns.

First, make sure you install the latest FirmWare 1.28.

      http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/SanDisk-Clip-Sport/Clip-Sport-FW-1-28-4K-database-Beta/td-p/342560

For starters, use Win Explorer to copy one specific album of files into one specific subfolder inside the MUSIC folder on your Clip Sport (or the micro SD card)

MP3 Tag Method:

  1. Use mp3tag freeware software here:     http://download.mp3tag.de/mp3tagv272setup.exe

      AND, use tag type:  ID3v2 ISO-8859-1 (set under Tools -> Options)

  1. Use album and song titles that are 12 characters or less (?) that clearly define the identity of the music files

  2. Use 2 digit prefixes added to the song titles (include leading zeroes, 01 02  etc)

    (mp3tag software has some handy numbering commands)

  1. Try a small test sample of files to learn what works best for you.

PLAYLIST Method:

An alternate approach is to create a unique playlist file (.m3u) for each subfolder.

The same software (mp3tag) can be used to create an ordered playlist for each sub-folder under the MUSIC folder.

Best Wishes !!!

The track order was fixed long ago as far as those albums that have track numbers which contain leading zeros as needed, ie. 01, 02, …10, 11 , etc. 

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Hi all,

I recently purchased a Sandisk Sport Clip and uploaded Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile, which is a double album.

The player is not seperating the two disks, even though they are tagged both with disk number and track number.

My test workaround was to remove rename the files as tracks 1-23 (instead of CD1 1-12 and CD2 1-11) but this didn’t seem to work either.

Can anyone assist here? Also, what software are you using to retag, or can I just edit the file name directly? Thanks.

You are very close to your desired solution by using track numbers 1-23

  Using FOLDER play mode, change the filenames to start with 2-digit prefixes (01, 02, etc)

  Using MUSIC play mode, change the mp3 tags so the track numbers have 2-digit numbering (01, 02, etc)

      Best tagging results are obtained using “mp3tag” software from this url:

      http://download.mp3tag.de/mp3tagv273setup.exe

      Under Tools -> Options -> Tags -> Mpeg, select Write to ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1

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Perfect, it worked – thanks!

What an absolute load of ■■■■!

Given that the ID3 tag has been a completely standard thing since at least 1996 I find it incredulous that I’ve bought an Mp3 player that can’t actually deal with them properly.

Retagging all of our track names with 2 digit prefixes is a completely insane fix. Sandisk, please get your finger out and fix the apalling software for this player as soon as possible.

It feels like a product that’s someone travelled into the future from the crappy early 2000s.

Very disappointing, what a mess!

      Prior to my recent purchase of a SanDisk Clip Sport, I enjoyed using a few iPod & iPad devices from Apple along with music file management with iTunes software.  Even now, I continue to use iTunes to rip my CD collection into mp3 files for playback on my Clip Sport.  

      I always observed that iTunes automatically creates 2-digit prefixes to CD music filenames during the “ripping” process. These 2 digit prefix filenames are perfectly compatible with the FOLDER playback method of Clip Sport and Clip Jam.  

     Unfortunately, iTunes uses 1-digit track numbers in the ID3 tags for tracks 1-9 during the CD ripping process. The Clip Sport and Clip Jam will confuse the play order of music files using MUSIC playback method for 1-digit track numbers.  One easy fix for this confusing behavior is to create 2-digit track numbers in the ID3 tags for music files 1- 9 (01, 02, 03, etc).

     Once I decided I really enjoy using my cute little Clip Sport(s), using MUSIC playback mode, I decided I could easily resolve this minor nuisance using free mp3tag software. This software includes a command to change 1-digit track numbers to 2-digit numbers.   Here is a link to the latest version (Jan. 2016).

            http://download.mp3tag.de/mp3tagv273setup.exe

1 Like

So since buying this product a week ago I’ve basically taken up a 2nd job of attempting to tag and retag things and it still just seems to do what it likes.

Having just double checked a bunch of artist and album names in tags (id3 v1 and 2) using kid3 on OSx (I’ve also used iTunes for retagging with no dice) and guess what, still all over the place, one song in it’s own ‘folder’ when browsing, the rest in a different folder but out of order.

There is categorically no way that I will ever recommend this piece of trash, I’d probably advise people just to use their phones, or maybe listen out  the window to see if any passing cars are playing something they like as you’ve as good a chance of hearing it there than trying to navigate the Clip Sport.

I also love the clunky interface and the way that every single time I try to change the volume, it asks me if I’m sure that I want to do it.

head/brickwall/eyeroll

@stlaub wrote:

maybe listen out  the window to see if any passing cars are playing something they like as you’ve as good a chance of hearing it there than trying to navigate the Clip Sport.

 

Short version:

To make the player display your music in the correct (alphabetical) order in the FOLDER view, you need to properly sort the on-disk FAT filesystem structures, as the Clip Sport does seem to rely on them to be properly sorted. On Linux, you can use the fatsort utility for this; I have no idea if there are appropriate Windows tools around as well.

Long version:

For the FOLDER play mode, your solution unfortunately didn’t work for me - my files already have names that start with two-digit numbers (01 - xxx, 02 - xxx, …), but the player still showed them in a random order.

But:  When adding music from a new artist to the player, I noticed the artist’s name was not sorted alphabetically into the music that was already present, but appended to the folder list (my folder structure is \Music\artist\year - album\track - title.mp3). This led me to the assumption that the player does not do any alphabetical sorting by itself, but instead just dieplays the folders (and within a folder, all the files) in the order they were written to the player.

Short technical background: I have my music on a µSDHC, which is formatted as FAT32. FAT basically manages a list of files and folders that are stored within the root of the drive (e.g. G:). For each file/folder, the FAT entry contains information on ow to find the object on the drive (sector number), its size, modification date, and so on. If the object is a folder, it again contains a list of entries that word exacrly as for the filesystem root - with the only difference that for the root folder, the exact position of the luist on the drive is well-defined and identical for all drives. For any additional folder below the root, the position of the list on the drive is determined by the correcponding entry in the root list.

So FAT basically manages everything you put on the drive as a hieracrchical set of lists. You add a new entry to one of these lists (by creating a new file/folder), and this new entry is simply appended to the end of the list - no matter where it would fit in e.g. alphabetically. So if you have a list that contains (in “list order”) “artist A”, “artist D” and “artist X”, and you add a folder for “artist M”, the new list reads “artist A”, “artist D”, “artist X”, “artist M”.

However, Windows ignores the “natural” order of the list entries (the on-disk order), and displays the list entries using any sorting you choose (e.g. by name / modification date / …). But the Clip Sport does not re-sort the files for display & playback!

So how does this help us? Quite easy: All you have to do to have the files displayed and played in the correct order is to make sure that the list entries on disk are in the correct order (that is, for my naming scheme, sorted alphabvetically). Common operating systems don’t give you access to the raw on-disk lists (which is a good thing, as you should know very well what you are doing when you are messing with this kind of stuff), but there are tools available for this.

A short Google search did not find a Windows tool that has a working “recursive mode” (that would allow it to sort a whole folder tree at once), but on Liunx, you have the fatsort utility, which can do exactly this. Using this tool, sorting an almost full 32 GByte µSDHC took roughly 5 seconds… and all files are displayed and played in the correct order.

Again, this does only work for the FOLDER playback mode - it has no influence on the MUSIC playback mode, which does not work for me for some other reasin I don’t know yet (maybe non-alphanumerical characters in artist names, which can easily happen in certain areas of the music universe).

To resolve the file sorting confusion using FOLDER mode, try using this app (for Win PC)

      “Fat Sorter 1.0.4.0  from HolosTec”

     http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/sort-files-alphabetically-usb-stick-or-mp3-player.htm

If you will continue to prefer Folder mode, then you may decide to run the Fat Sorter program after each file copying session.

You will not need to use the Fat Sorter program if you use Music mode after carefully curating your ID3 tags using a program like Mp3Tag.

     http://www.mp3tag.de/en/dodownload.html

Maybe all this extra work will be too much hassle for some new Clip Sport users. But I think my patient efforts greatly enhance my enjoyment of this cute and economical little player.

Thanks for the FAT sorter recommendation–looks nice and easy. 

And another FAT sorter that I like (I think it’s the name–but it operates well, as well), Visual YAFS (Yet Another Fat Sorter):  http://www.luisrios.eti.br/public/en_us/projects/visual_yafs/.

Thanks for the FAT sorter recommendation–looks nice and easy. 

And another FAT sorter that I like (I think it’s the name–but it operates well, as well), Visual YAFS (Yet Another Fat Sorter):  http://www.luisrios.eti.br/public/en_us/projects/visual_yafs/.  For Windows, Linux and Mac OS.

@dfeld2005 wrote:

To resolve the file sorting confusion using FOLDER mode, try using this app (for Win PC)

      “Fat Sorter 1.0.4.0  from HolosTec”

     http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/sort-files-alphabetically-usb-stick-or-mp3-player.htm

 

Note that the above link for FAT Sorter info. leads to a nice article on the software, but the link there to the software is a dead link.

An active source for the FAT Sorter software:  http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/FAT-Sorter.shtml

Hello people

Instead of using some strange fat sorters just format you SD card with exFat. Of course it will only work in folder mode. One annoying thing of this mode is that the player won’t go to next folder when last song finishes, you have to do it manually.

@tkm wrote:

Hello people

Instead of using some strange fat sorters just format you SD card with exFat. Of course it will only work in folder mode. One annoying thing of this mode is that the player won’t go to next folder when last song finishes, you have to do it manually.

And formatting with exFat will erase all of one’s content, which is not the intent here.  Rather, using one of the FAT sorters above, each of which is well-regarded, will re-order one’s collection, alphabetically or otherwise, what people are trying to do.

Thanks for discovering that dead link in the article and finding a working link to the Fat Sorter 1.0.4 software for PC.

I never re-checked that site since I discovered it several months ago.   I need to be more careful like you !!!

@dfeld2005 wrote:

Thanks for discovering that dead link in the article and finding a working link to the Fat Sorter 1.0.4 software for PC.

I never re-checked that site since I discovered it several months ago.   I need to be more careful like you !!!

Thanks, but lol–just a “lucky” catch as I wanted to download the FAT sorter myself!   :wink: