Absolutely terribly awful that you cannot search or play music by folder and filename on this device. This is an industry standard! How can you possibly justify giving us the ability to index and play according to the OPTIONAL ID3 tags “artist”, “album”, title", and “genre”, but NOT allow indexing and searching by STANDARD folders and filenames? This is a terrible oversignt. This is simply an awful player for podcasters and audiobook listeners like me.
Please fix this in a future firmware release very soon.
I completely agree with this statement 100%. How is it possible that you can create such a wonderful MP3 player and leave this feature out. All I wanted to do was load 50 mp3’s, then have the player play them in order. My files are:
001_song1.mp3
002_song2.mp3
003_song3.mp3
etc…
I don’t want to mess with playlists, I don’t want to mess with Windows Media Player (I use Linux sometimes anyway). I just want the player to play files in order of their filename. How difficult is that? Well, I suppose I could answer my own question since this feature isn’t present in the Sansa Express.
I’ll be returning this player unfortunately and looking for something simple that can deliver this basic option.
Look for a 1GB Zen Nano Plus. Awesome player for those who organize by files & folders, and it runs for 18 hours on a single standard AAA. Can’t believe Creative appears to be discontinuing it. I would have expected to see at least a 2GB model come out using the same form factor first. Bad move if you ask me.
Which brings me to my question - why do companies like SanDisk & Creative discontinue tried & true, bombproof products in favor of the latest fashion, form over function, and inherantly buggy new products? This whole “planned obsolescence” trip the electronics world is on is highly destructive to the planet. And frustrating to the consumer who values function most.
Well I actually decided to keep the Sansa Express in the hopes that a firmware update in the future will add the ability to play by filename.
In the meantime, I’m using MediaMonkey (http://www.download.com/MediaMonkey-Standard/3000-2141\_4-10651290.html?tag=lst-0-1) to alter the ID3 tags to equal the filename. Thank god for that atleast. It has an option under the Tools menu at the top to mass modify the ID3 tags in any way you like. I’m using <Title>-<Album> for those that care to know.
Still though, it ties me to Windows to do this, but it’s still a workaround.
I’ve also put my player into MSC mode (just like a regular flash drive). Thats a lot easier to work with compared with the MTP mode which is just garbage.
Hopefully Sandisk will listen to their customers and add file-tree playback support - soon.
Absolutely and totally agree that sorting and navigating by folders is a MUST!
I’ve got Sansa e140 and I am completely disappointed with it, I would return it if I didn’t throw away the package too soon. I already put my negative review of e140 in Amazon.
If it is possible to add folder sorting capability by firmware, Sandisk people should do it ASAP.
the industry standard for MP3 players is to organize files by ID3 tags. if the ID3 tag is not present the player will organize alpha numerically by file name. i have found that this this is the case in all modern devices regardless what manufaturer.
Absolutely terribly awful that you cannot search or play music by folder and filename on this device. This is an industry standard!
I do not believe that is an industry standard. As far as I know, almost every device now sorts by ID3 tags rather than file name. Apple has the largest share of the portable player market, with SanDisk at #2. Apple’s iPod line sorts by ID3 tag, and SanDisk’s Sansa series also sorts by ID3 tag. Those two companies alone are at least 80% of the market share.
That said, an option to “switch” between ID3 Tags and File Browsing would indeed be nice.
The standard has been ID3 tags for quite some time now. I honestly do not even know of a modern player that does folder. I ended up just tagging my music a couple years ago.
You want ID3 have at it. But eliminating folder/filename is a mistake. The filetree structure is the most intuitive form of organization for computer users. And unlike ID3 tags, all MP3’s already have filenames. No Media Monkey & and hours patching holes required. It’s a no brainer to include this in the firmware.
But it’s a mute point now anyway for me, because after 2 days my brand new Sansa Express emitted a high pitched whine, shut down and never came back on. Hard reset didn’t work. Both computers failed to recongize it. The firmware updater crashed, then insisted on MSC which the Express doesn’t do. Back to Amazon for a refund. Not a replacement. A refund.
SanDisk your memory cards have proven bombproof. But your MP3 players have been crossed off my list. The failures are piling up for the Express awfully fast. Sorry I got caught up in it.
If being in order according to file name is so important, why not just delete the ID3 tag info? I’ve got the 01.01.01A firmware and when I delete the tag info, my Express just goes by file name.
I kinda like the ID3 tags, though. It’s nice to have the option to go through my music based on Artist, Album, Genre… But then, that’s just my opinion…
Can someone please tell me how to delete the ID3 tags? I listen mainly to educational audio files and its a nightmare trying to get them in the right order - I thought I was just being dumb and not operating the player correctly - glad I found you guys - I feel so much better
Unfortunetely deleting tags is not a good solution either. If you use a 2 GB SD acrd, you’ll have 3 GB data - that’s quite a lot of files (unless yours are really large). If it is music, I’d say it is about 600 files - just imagine a nightmare of navigating through them if they all sit in one folder.
Now, how can I create the playlists in Sansa e140? Thank you.
Yes! Count me in on the list of those who also want this feature! Someone from Sandisk should really check out the reviews on Amazon.com or Newegg.com on the Sandisk Express. There’s a lot people who are complaining about the lack Folder view in the Express. Help us out, Sandisk!
@ic144 wrote:
Yes! Count me in on the list of those who also want this feature! Someone from Sandisk should really check out the reviews on Amazon.com or Newegg.com on the Sandisk Express. There’s a lot people who are complaining about the lack Folder view in the Express. Help us out, Sandisk!
I checked the customer reviews for the Sansa express on the websites mentioned.
The Results
1 GB express - 2/54 reviews mentioned disliking not having file/folder view.
2 GB express - 0/3 reviews on file/folder view
Newegg.com
The express could not be found anywhere listed on newegg.com as being sold or reviewed.
One fix that could help you out is when you put all of your music inside of a folder you’ve created select all of the tracks, right-click on a track and select properties. Next click on Summary and click on advanced summary. Tag the genre of the music as the folder name that you wish to use. This will tag all of the tracks selected with that genre. So when you put the tracks on your Sansa Express and search by genre it would be like you were searching through your folders.
Actually, if you happen to have a Sansa e200 series, you CAN search by filename/folder…you have to run alternate firmware, which works beautifully on my e250. Do a Google search for “Rockbox firmware” - it actually supports a good number of other players as well. I’ll be happy as a pig in $h!t if they port it to the Sansa Clip…
That said…file and folder browsing on the Clip(because rockbox support may never happen for the Clip)! As it happens, I only bought the Clip because I couldn’t find a cheap player I liked that does this. While I am totally happy about the purchase, browsing by filename would make this thing *perfect* in just about every way. This would be a good feature to advertise also as there are many out there who would buy this player for that feature alone.
THAT said…buy a Sansa Clip! It costs half as much as a Crapple !pod $huffle, sounds better(it’s gotten a lot of positive attention from the audiophile scene), looks better, and has an FM radio that actually receives stations, which is amazing for something of this size…and it has MSC mode (this allows for simple drag&drop operation without having to use crappy software).
The standard has been ID3 tags for quite some time now. I honestly do not even know of a modern player that does folder. I ended up just tagging my music a couple years ago.
Mpio, Cowon, and I think there was a couple of other good companies too.
