Transferring radio programmes

How do I transfer radio programmes which I have downloaded from the BBC, to my sansa clip+?

An idiots guide would be appreciated.

I know this looks long and involved but you wanted step-by-step. Once you’ve done it a few times it’s just a handful of clicks.

You need to find out what kind of file they are: .mp3, .m4a, .wma etc.

If you are using Windows, you may need to go to Folder Options (look in your Help file) and uncheck “Hide extension for known filetypes.”

If they are mp3 files then life is good.   You just need to make sure it has ID3 tags–little electronic labels in the file–so the Clip can list the programs.

This is a little geeky but you just have to do it once to set it up. Download the free program mp3tag from  http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

Install it, and when you install it allow it to add itself to context menus.

Open it, go to Tools/Options/Tags/Mpeg and set Write to ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1. Save that. That will make the tags easy for the Sansa to read. (I actually run all my albums through mp3tag as well–it straightens out little glitches.)

Find the BBC show you downloaded, right-click on it, choose mp3tag from the menu and it will open the file.

Highlight the file and make sure it has info that will allow you to find it on the Clip–Artist, Title, etc.  The BBC may already have done this, but you should check.

If you want the radio show  to be treated as a podcast, so it doesn’t get shuffled in with your music, then look at the Genre field on the left and make that Podcasts. Go to File (upper left) and Save Tags.

If they are other filetypes, you should convert them to .mp3. Apple’s m4a files can be converted by iTunes. Open the file in iTunes, highlight it,  Advanced (up top) and Create mp3 version.  You can tag it in iTunes (Get Info) or use mp3tag.

So now you have a tidy tagged mp3 file. Go to Settings/System Settings/USB Mode on your player, change it to MSC, connect to the computer and copy them over–maybe to the Podcasts folder if you want.

If they are other filetypes, there are converters like Media Coder, but let’s hope you don’t have to go there.

http://www.mediacoderhq.com/

Thanks a million, will try tomorrow.

Thanks for your help. All went well and the first programme appeared to have transferred OK but I can’t locate it on the MP3 player.

Any idea where it might be hiding?

Can’t locate it on the player display? Then it needs different tags.

Look under Artist in Unknown (which is how the player displays files with tags it can’t figure out) or  Recently Added. Or go all the way down the Music list (or up from the bottom of the Music list)  to Folders, which is more like Windows Explorer,  and find it there.  

Using mp3tag with the correct settings (ID3v2.3 and ISO-8859-1) is the way to make tags the unit can read. There are other ID3 versions, like ID3v1, that the Sansa can’t read at all. That’s why you want to save any tags with the defaults you set, even if the tags look correct.  Mp3tag does show you the tag version if you’re curious. 

I’m in the USA, so I can’t download a BBC show to see how they tag them. 

Can’t locate it from your computer?  Your computer can only see one mode at a time, MSC or MTP.  If you transferred it in MSC, make sure the mode isn’t Auto Detect, which will go to MTP if Windows Media Player is on your computer. 

Also, there’s one more possibility. If you have a big microSD card and a huge number of files–like thousands–there is a limit to the total number of items the Clip will display. The Clip works by putting all those ID3 tags in a big database file–basically an index, sorting by Album, Artist, etc… If that file gets too big it can’t index everything. But you would need many, many files for that to happen. 

1 Like

Thaks, hope I don’t have to bother you again.

At Last!!! Got it.

Many thanks.