I put my podcasts in a separate folder. My old player would let me start at the first podcast and it would play them sequentially. The clip doesn’t seem to honor the folder structure. The podcasts end up all mixed up with other files. This is totally unacceptable. Another posting seems to imply I am stuck with this behavior, is this true?? If so, why are there folders at all?
henry wants folders!
The Clip recognizes and plays files by their ID3 tags, a norm for the majority of DAPs. Your podcasts will play fine and in order if their tags are filled in and in a consistent manner.
Many of us would like a folder view, but it just isn’t there now. SanDisk hasn’t said if it will be one day, with a firmware upgrade.
With the next upgrade in about 2 weeks, there will be a podcasts improvement–you can search for it here. It will allow podcasts to be dropped into a Podcasts folder on the Clip and then, when the play of a podcast is resumed, for the podcast to be resumed where it was left off. If I recall correctly, a Podcasts category under the Music option will show the files in the Podcasts folder.
The Clip recognizes and plays files by their ID3 tags, a norm for the majority of DAPs. Your podcasts will play fine and in order if their tags are filled in and in a consistent manner. Perhaps try “Podcast” for the genre field and the name of the podcast for the album field.
Many of us would like a folder view, but it just isn’t there now. SanDisk hasn’t said if it will be one day, with a firmware upgrade.
With the next upgrade in about 2 weeks, there will be a podcasts improvement–you can search for it here. It will allow podcasts to be dropped into a Podcasts folder on the Clip and then, when the play of a podcast is resumed, for the podcast to be resumed where it was left off. If I recall correctly, a Podcasts category under the Music option will show the files in the Podcasts folder.
Some of that already exists. When I turn off the clip before the end of a podcast, it picks up right where I left off the next time I turn it on.
Ed
Right–it will do that for any file. But my understanding is that this will be possible with each podcast and audiobook, and not just the last file listened to, the current situation. (In other words, you could have a bookmark for each one, not currently possible.)
The easiest way I’ve found to manage my podcasts is to just rename the files (right click->rename) before adding them to the Clip, then search for them under “songs.” This way’s easier than changing the genre tag or syncing to create a podcast playlist, but it’s still a hassle since I add and delete podcasts all the time. Hopefully the new firmware will allow us to drag and drop podcast files to the podcast folder, then access them from there (without having to change the genre to podcast or something lame/time-consuming like that). The sansa guy on here made it sound like the new firmware will have this new feature, but wasn’t too clear about it.
Message Edited by Jay_Dee63 on 03-30-2008 03:23 AM
I agree with you–podcasts can be a bit of a pain, as they sometimes aren’t tagged, or are tagged poorly, to begin with, and they can have a such a short lifespan that it seems a pain to have to (re-)tag them. The firmware upgrade should help, but it remains to be seen how well it handles the tag issue.
Thanks for the clarification. That would be a nice feature.
I desperately want the option of folder play. It’s allows me to throw a bunch of mp3s in a folder and go running without having to make sure they’re properly tagged or playlisted.
@meerkat9090 wrote:
I desperately want the option of folder play. It’s allows me to throw a bunch of mp3s in a folder and go running without having to make sure they’re properly tagged or playlisted.
I wish there was too. Have you tried the “go to list?” It works like a folder, and is quick and easy to use, but there’s only one of them. It would be nice if there were multiple go to lists.
This is the biggest drawback of Sandisk players. I want to be able to play different types of music in different settings, and no - I don’t care to edit the tags
of hundreds of songs. Neither do I want to run to classical music.
Is there a workarond to this huge drawback? The go list is definitely not it.
If you want to get over the issue with the Clip, you really have no other choice. id3 tags have been around a long long time and aren’t going away. Many of us have learned to just bite the bullet, set up the tagging, and moved on.
You DON’T have to hand-edit your files’ tags, if you already have them in a logical folder structure and the files already have the song/selection names, tagging utils like mp3tag can use this existing information to create the tags en masse. This is easy fast and simple enough and does not interfere with folder browsing on another device.
Genre and any other tag info can be mass-encoded also just by dragging and dropping files into the tagging util and smashing the GO button, the pain isn’t as bad as some perceive it to be…
Message Edited by Click on 06-19-2008 08:58 AM
@bob_rocks wrote:
Is there a workarond to this huge drawback? The go list is definitely not it.
There are always playlists.
Like Click said, there are a lot of good freeware ID3 tag editing programs that will let you batch edit the tags.
Message Edited by cydewaze on 06-19-2008 11:52 AM
Thanks a lot Click and cydewaze,
I will take your advice and start editing tags - for lack of a better alternative.
The point is, I still have an old Sandisk 1Gb from way back (the armband type), which played folders without any problems. They know very well how to do it. At least we should have the choice to switch between playlists (which are a pain) and folders, the way we can switch to MSC.
Bob
@cydewaze wrote:
Like Click said, there are a lot of good freeware ID3 tag editing programs that will let you batch edit the tags.
Sure. That’s what I’ll tell my mother, to whom I wanted to offer a new player: just use an ID3 tag editing software, mum! 
She’s not computer illiterate, not by a long stretch, but she won’t be interested in using yet another piece of software when other players don’t require her to.
As it stands, I’ve been offering several mp3 players to friends along the years, most of whom aren’t the kind to spend more time with their computer as their work requires. Remember that people posting on this forum are more “geeky” than average: among the customers for mp3 players are many people who only know enough about computers to use Gmail and post on Facebook.
As for me, I’m a geezer already: I converted most of my CD collection before 1996, the year when ID3v1 was introduced, and I don’t really feel like transfering it all back onto my computer, add tags and burn everything again. Also, my needs can change, and it’s plain easier to add a “boxing” folder to my player (if I ever resume boxing) and drop appropriate mp3 files into it than add a “boxing” tag each time I feel like adding a new song I hadn’t thought about.
The bottom line is – to echo what several people have said already – that adding a folder view really is a no-brainer. Not only are there situations when folders are plain better/simpler than ID3 tags, but a folder view simply doesn’t have to replace the ID3 tag view. Just add a folder view to the current list and everyone will be happy.
Oh, and a non-silver 4Gb player would be welcome too. I do use my player outside.
Message Edited by Sinocelt on 06-24-2008 09:37 AM
@sinocelt wrote:
Sure. That’s what I’ll tell my mother, to whom I wanted to offer a new player: just use an ID3 tag editing software, mum!
Hey, I’m on your side in this! I’d love folder view too, but it’s been requested so much that I think if they haven’t implemented it by now, they probably aren’t going to.
The problem is, there really aren’t any alternatives, so if you get a Clip for your mom, she’s probably going to have to live with having the music in whatever order the Clip wants to play it in. Sorry.
Message Edited by cydewaze on 06-24-2008 02:22 PM
@cydewaze wrote:
Hey, I’m on your side in this! I’d love folder view too, but it’s been requested so much that I think if they haven’t implemented it by now, they probably aren’t going to.
The problem is, there really aren’t any alternatives, so if you get a Clip for your mom, she’s probably going to have to live with having the music in whatever order the Clip wants to play it in. Sorry.
There are lots of alternatives, actually: the market is saturated with them. I can get another kind of mp3 player for my mother, as I’ve done three times in less than a year for friends here. The Clip’s sound quality may beat everything else in that size and price range, but it won’t count for much if the people to whom I give it find it a pain to use and discard it.
But, sorry if I sounded adversarial in my first post. 
Message Edited by Sinocelt on 06-25-2008 01:48 AM
Message Edited by Sinocelt on 06-25-2008 01:49 AM
i’m with Sinocelt. black 4GB clip + folder view and it would be perfect for me. yes, my entire collection has ID3 tags, but I arrange mixes for long distance running on a whim. It’s great to drag songs to one “running” folder, unplug, and go.
ah well, maybe someday…
I agree that adding folder view to the Clip would make it a perfect player. I hope SanDisk fulfills our wish for this new feature someday… In the meantime I think there’s a defect with the current firmware. If the track order is supposed to be based on the ID tags, why doesn’t it read the Disc tag?
