Was playing a podcast on the card.
Podcast stopped.
Opened another file on the card. No response.
Did a soft reset.
Podcast played fine until it got to same place, then play stopped.
However, this time when I attempted to open other files on the card, it was the podcast file that opened up instead.
Removed card.
Downloaded same podcast onto the internal memory.
File plays fine
I hope you are inserting or removing a card only when the player is off. what format are these podcasts in? Look at the size of the podcast that only partially played. How large is it? If it is too small, you may have only downloaded it partially. Compare the size of the failed podcast on the player to the size of the new download of it on your pc. Try deleting the podcast on the player, and copying the new copy to the player and see if it plays completely.
The files are not erased. My guess is that your player is set to autodetect, and the files were transferred when it connected in mtp mode, but now for some reason the player is connecting in mec mode. Time to start from scratch. Turn on the player and choose settings, and set the USB mode to mtp. Connect the player, and you should see the podcasts on the player on your pc. I assume that you have copies of these on the pc itself, so delete them from the card in the player. Now that the card is empty, disconnect the player. Turn on the player, and set the USB mode to msc. connect the player to the pc again, and copy the podcasts to the card. Now you problems should be over. Using card memory when the player is in mtp mode can be a pain at times. Imo mtp mode(as well as autodetect) should be avoided if at all possible.