SanDisk 8GB Clip Jam MP3 Player

I just bought a SanDisk 8GB Clip Jam MP3 Player and added a 32 gig sd card to it.

I added a bunch of music (all mp3 files) to the SD card and when I go to the “Music” section on the Sandisk menu, none of the music shows up. However, when I add mp3 files to the internal drive, it shows up just fine on the “Music” menu.

What gives?

Second, and most important, When I go to the “Card” menu on the Sandisk player (because that is the only way I can get to my music), and select “Artists”, some of the artists are listed twice, AND it stops the listing after 34 entries. I have substantially more than 34 artists in the collection.

The same thing happens when I select “Albums”, only it stops after 31 entries.

I have formatted the SD card from the Sandisk menu,

What am I missing?

There is a separate forum for the Jam and you should ask there. 

Apparently there is a 2000-file limit for the internal memory and the external card. Beyond 2000 it will stop showing the files.  I don’t (and won’t) have a Clip Jam, so there may be other quirks as well. 

But all Sansa firmware gets information like Artist from the ID3 tags within the mp3 files. There are some tag formats it doesn’t read, so depending on the ID3 tag format you could have some files that turn up blank. 

Sansas can only handle ID3v2.2 and ID3v2.3 . You can change your tag formats in bulk with  mp3tag, a free program.

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

If you don’t have popups blocked, you may see some junkware download buttons all around the real mp3tag program,. The file to download is mp3tagv(version number)setup.exe

When you install it allow itself to be added to context menus.

Under Tools set its Write to ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1. The ISO is how Windows displays the alphabet, as opposed to UTF on Apples.

Open a problem album with right-click and mp3tag. 

Highlight all the files and (under Files) just Save them, which will convert them to ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1.  Takes a few seconds. 

Mp3tag will show you what version the existing tags are, if you’re curious.

I like to change the copy of the album on my computer, delete the one on the Sansa and send a copy of the fixed one over, but you can fix  the one on the unit if you prefer. The database will refresh when you unplug, which will take a while, but it’s probably worth trying with one album first. If that works, then run all the others through the same process. 

Going forward, I’d just run every album through mp3tag upon arrival. I open the album folder in mp3tag. Making sure the tracks are displayed top to bottom in playing order, hit CTRL-A (Select All), and use Tools/Auto-Numbering Wizard with the Leading Zeros option, which numbers tracks 01, 02, 03, etc., and saves them as ID3v2.3 in  ISO-8859-1.  If the tracks are numbered without leading zeros the Sansa will play tracks, 1, 11, 12, 13 etc. before it plays track 2.  

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OK, I have 3800+ files on the External SD card.

What do you suggest for a MP3 Player in the same price range?

I downloaded MP3tag as you suggested. I was usign TagScanner. Either way, all my mp3 files are 2.3, o that should not be the issue. I checked my lists and it seems that the problem is that it is only showing 2000 songs.

So, you are right.

However, when I go to “Folder” view, it shows everything, but I can only select one song to play from there.

After chating with Sansa support, I found out that unless I purchase the more expensive Clip +, I am going to be facing this limit.

So, the solution to this problem is to return this useless device to Amazon, and buy a AGPtEK 2015 Latest Version 8GB & 70 Hours Playback MP3 Lossless Sound Music Player (Supports up to 64GB).

The reviews on this one seem more favorable to me.

I could not agree more that the 2000 file limit is ridiculous/crazy/nonsensical on a player that supports a 32GB card. Your option with the Clip Jam is to go to the Folder selection  and deal with it that way. Or ask on that forum and see if someone has another workaround. 

anythingbutipod.com keeps up more or less with new players. Personally I have high hopes for the upcoming FiiO M3 player, $55,  supposedly about to appear very soon. FiiO comes up with high-fidelity stuff at very low prices and they are probably smart enough to figure out how to support larger storage. Their interface will probably be clunky, especially in the first release, but it will be updated.