Can't find music files

I have a 4GB clip, and have been dragging and dropping music files from my pc for over a year now with no problems. Today, when I hooked up

to my pc, it says that there are no music files on the clip, even though there ARE about 2GB of mp3 files on it. So now I cannot remove any of those file from the clip. Hopefully someone can tell me what’s wrong.

Could this explain matters?

When your player is connected to your computer under USB MSC mode (set under the player’s Settings/USB Mode), your computer only sees the files that had been transferred to the player when the player was connected under MSC mode.  Likewise as to MTP mode.  Regardless, all the files show up and are playable on your player, under whatever USB mode setting.

A good reason why some people prefer to set the USB Mode on their player to either MSC or MTP:  on the Auto setting, the player tries to connect under MTP mode but then will fall back to MSC mode if the MTP connection does not work; the result being, you may have a mix of MSC and MTP mode transferred files on your player, making some of them not visible on your computer without switching to the other USB mode. 

Because MSC mode is more universal (playing with a broader range of operating systems, including Linux and on Macs, and without a need for Windows Media Player on the computer), some people prefer MSC mode.  However, note that DRM (digital rights management) files need MTP mode–they will not transfer sufficiently (the DRM license will not transfer) under MSC mode.

Bottom line:  will the “missing” files show on your computer if you change the USB setting on the Clip to the other USB mode? 

Sometimes, my players (clip fuze & view) seem to change modes on their own.  It’s probably the computer.  The weird thing is that the computer seems to be able to see files installed in both modes at the same time.  I haven’t been able to sort it all out and it may be my imagination but the change in behavior seemed to correspond to a windows update.

I’ve been able to drag/drop and load with MediaMonkey and WMP all at the same time so I haven’t had a reason to dig into it to figure out what’s really going on.  As long as everything works, I’m happy.

When I plug one of my devices in the computer, I get the usual 1 or 2 autoplay windows.  I get one window when I use the clip or when the computer seems to recognize the fuze/view in MTP mode.  I get two windows, one for the internal memory one for the miniSD card, when the fuze/view comes up in MSC mode.  In both cases, I’m able to launch MM or WMP and manage my video and audio files as well.  Weird.

Anyone else seeing this?  Like I said before, could be wishful thinking on my part since I believe my clip/fuze/view have cured my male pattern baldness and made me lose 20 lbs in a week.

This happens to me every 2 weeks or so.  I’m listening fine to my music.  I can see it from my PC.  I hit pause and it auto shuts off.  Next time I turn it on it stated that its refreshing the database and takes me to the main menu.  I can browse to the music on the clip and try to play it but there is nothing there.  It says its playing yet the timer doesn’t move and there is no audio output.  I plug it into the PC and nothing shows up yet it tells me that I have over 3GB of data on the devices.  I change modes and still nothing.  I’m amazed not everyone has this issue since this is my second clip and its happened with both.  The only answer I get is that I need to re-format.  You know how inconvient that is?  I seriously have to do it every 2-3 weeks.  There has to be an answer other than the usual change the mode.  Firmware updates being re-applied does nothing.  I do it every few weeks when this happens and it keep happening.  “Support” telling me to re-format and live with it is a terrible answer.

This seems to be a recurring theme in numerous threads. I suggest everyone having this problem before they post check the usb setting on the device. Avoid auto, that will switch modes depending on the ability of the host, the preference being for MTP mode where that will work. Presumably, if one is always using the same computer the device should always connect in the same mode. The other possible pitfall is the mode changing due to some other action such as firmware update. Format shouldn’t change the mode but check anyway. Needless to point out that files loaded in one mode cannot be seen in the alternate mode. Another possible problem can arise if using protected music.

If none of this explains or helps, then it would have to be a defective unit.