Folders suddenly empty. Says "No song" but memory still filled up

I had 3 GB of songs on my 4 gig Sansa Clip, and twice now I’ve had the same problem. After some period of inactivity, I turn on the player and try to listen to music, but there is no way to get to any songs. If I try Play All or any other option, it says “No Song.” If I look at the system info, it shows that I have over 3 gigs on the device, but there’s no way to get to it. Even if I plug it into my computer, the files aren’t there to be seen.

The first time I just formatted and reloaded everything. A day later it happened again. I have just now formatted and updated the firmware, and I’ll try putting songs on here again, but I’m wondering if there is some other solution I can try so it doesn’t go nuts a third time.

I have similar problem , all songs have gone from my Sansa Clip. Why?

The same thing happened to me with my 8 gig clip.   I have 2.1 gig of “used space” that I can’t use.  I only had it about a week when this happened.  I see from the forum that other people are having this same issue.  Has anyone checked with Sandisk/Sansa to get “professional” advice?

Anyone have an update for this?  I have exactly the same issue, firmware v 2.01.32

When your folders suddenly show empty, has your Clip been plugged into the computer for charging, or have you transferred any music?

We will need to isolate whether anything is happening in terms of file transfer.

If teh Clip is operating “solo”, without any activity on the data bus, this is a different situation.

Let me know, for these cases.

Bob  :wink:

No connections to the computer, or any charging medium, prior to the error.

Last time around, I turned it on to listen, but got a phone call, so it auto-powered off.  When I turned it on, the flower icon stayed on a bit longer than normal, and when attempting to resume listening (or even choose anything else, after that failed), navigating to any option off the Music option, showed “Empty”.

Going to properties showed the space still in use by the clip, but they were unviewable.  Soft reset did not resolve the issue.  Connecting to a PC showed the directories to be empty as well, but the space in “Properties” showed in use.  I had about 3Gb on a 4Gb clip.

Connect in MSC mode, then delete the file mtable.sys from the root directory.  Unplug, and see if your music returns after the database refresh.

Bob  :dizzy_face:

Now, that’s the problem… it requires use of a PC to correct.  If I have use of a PC, I can just “nuke & pave”, reformatting and reloading the music.

What needs to be resolved is how to fix this “in the field.”  The last two times that this has happened, I’ve been an hour or more from a PC, and in order to resolve the issue, but getting back to a PC, was not an option.  (Once was out fishing, in the middle of a lake, the other driving to work… work PCs are blocked from connecting to USB devices, so the clip was out of use for the day).

This is my second sandisk and I have really liked it but after about 6 months with this one I took it to the gym turned it on and it says empty . I looked at the forum and found that someone recomended going into the sandisk and changing the USB mode to MSC and then connecting to your computer and deleting a file. I am not sure if it worked for the person having the issue but it did not work for mine. I have tried all usb modes with no change. When I plug into my computer it still says 1.19 GB free of 3.65 GB. Any advice?

If you don’t mind losing your content, you could reformat under the Clip’s settings and then start anew (hopefully). 

I had this problem after unplugging before fully recharged all I did to fix my 4gb Sansa Clip+ was replug it in and emptied it then refilled it with my music and it is fixed