Hi - I am having trouble with artwork on my Sansa Clip Zip. Artwork doesn’t show for every song. For songs ripped in Zune software the artwork will show. However, for songs ripped in iTunes the artwork doesn’t show. I’ve tried to place .jpg files in the folders with the songs, make sure they are sized to under 100 kb and even tried to resize one to 200 x 200 pixels (though that size was too big by pizels the overall size was fine). Any ideas? Thanks.
What are you naming the .jpg image file? Are they regular .jpg? Progressive won’t work. You mention iTunes. Are these .aac files? You could probably embed the images into each file’s ID3 tags, like they are with the ones ripped with the Zune software with MP3Tag.
Hi - Thanks for your reply. I’ve tried to name the files ZuneAlbumArt and AlbumArt. I don’t know how to tell if the .jpg’s are progressive or regular. The files ripped from iTunes are .m4a files. How would I imbed the images into each files ID3 tags? Thanks.
Use “album art.jpg” (without quotes and with the space, not an underscore), or “folder.jpg” (again, without quotes).
I’m not 100% sure, but I believe .m4a are the ‘protected’ Apple files. The Zip will not play these. They would need to be converted to a supported file type like .aac (DRM-free Apple format) or .mp3 (universal format).
You can use the afore-mentioned MP3Tagsoftware (free for download) to embed cover art images in the “extended” tag portion. Note you will have to do this for every file (time-consuming) rather than the one (album art.jpg) image for all files in the same folder the other way.
Thanks for your help. It worked naming the jpg “folder.jpg”. The .m4a were generated by iTunes but they play fine on the Clip Zip.
I had another quick question. My husband also has a Clip Zip and when I am ready to remove his player from the computer there is no option to safely remove it like there is for mine. Is there a way to fix that or will it still be ok that way as long as I’m not transfering things to/from the player when I disconnect it? Thanks again.
Good, I must’ve been wrong about the drm thing and the .m4a files. Glad they are working for you.
The “Safely Remove” option in the Windows Tray is only available if the player is in MSC mode. Your husband’s must be set to MTP or the dreaded Auto Defect mode (which defaults to MTP). Just make sure there is no transferring (Reading or Writing) going on when you pull the plug.
Hi - Thanks for the help. Now I’m having trouble with the artwork on my husband’s Clip Zip. I’m going to fiddle around with it and see what I can do. I’ve downloaded that program that you mentioned but don’t have a clue how to use it. I did switch his player to MSC mode so I’m hoping that the artwork being visible has something to do with the switch (like I might need to reformat and put the songs on again). This time it’s the songs ripped from the Zune player that are having a problem. Thanks again.
@tapeworm wrote:
Use “album art.jpg” (without quotes and with the space, not an underscore), or “folder.jpg” (again, without quotes).
I’m not 100% sure, but I believe .m4a are the ‘protected’ Apple files. The Zip will not play these. They would need to be converted to a supported file type like .aac (DRM-free Apple format) or .mp3 (universal format).
You can use the afore-mentioned MP3Tagsoftware (free for download) to embed cover art images in the “extended” tag portion. Note you will have to do this for every file (time-consuming) rather than the one (album art.jpg) image for all files in the same folder the other way.
Actually, .m4a are not the protected ones. The DRM one are .m4p. :wink:
Thanks for the clarification, Marvin. I’m sure I’ll remember it for next time . . . yeah, right! 
I believe that Apple no longer encrypts music, at least not in America although I’m sure there are other DRM-free countries as well. If the music is protected, it will probably have the *m4p extension. I could be wrong, though since I don’t use iTunes.
