Format for Playlists

walt_n_florida · March 22, 2008, 4:54pm

Hello Sadsack

Here’s what I did. I put 2 playlists, “A” and “B” on the m240. Unplugged and made sure the playlists and songs were on the device. Removed playlist “B” and it’s songs from the computer. Re-connected the m240. Sync started automatically and removed playlist “B” and it’s songs from the m240.

Put playlist “B” back on, but before unplugging, clicked on “Set up Sync” and unchecked “Synchronize device automatically”. Unplugged and made sure the songs and playlists “A” and “B” were on the device. Removed playlist “B” and it’s songs from the computer. Re-connected the m240. Clicked on “Sync” and “Set up Sync” and de-selected all playlists but “C”. It added playlist “C” to the device, but deleted playlist “A” and “B”, leaving all the songs on the device.

I suggest leaving all your songs on the computer. This way you don’t have to worry about forgetting to uncheck “Synchronize device automatically” just once and wipe everything off. No matter which way you check or un-check it, you still lose the playlists. You can save the songs to CD or DVD and rotate what you want to play.

Now I’ll add this to my little list at:

http://www.tnni.net/~walterjmoore/m250/

sadsack · March 22, 2008, 8:23pm

So it looks like you can’t add a new playlist/files unless you have other ones still on your computer which let’s WMP know to skip them on the Sansa. Ugh.

Inre your 2nd example, I’m surprised the files remained. When I didn’t tick an old playlist when adding a new playlist/files, the Sansa files got removed.

It’s funny how the Sansa instructions proudly say you can load folders but the Sansa will ignore them in favor of id tag criteria, as if that’s a better solution.

I tried Ron_Nitro’s suggestion of using “Playlist Creator 3.” Put the Sansa in MSC mode. Apparently you make the Playlist after you’ve dragged your files onto the Sansa. Unfortunately, you can’t keep the files separated in folders in the Sansa because at most, the Playlist would only show the first file in the folder. Generally it shows “No files”.

Likewise, if you try to make a Playlist from a folder of files on your computer, then drag the folder and Playlist to the Sansa, that playlist will appear but say “No files” on the Sansa.

METHOD:

Load files onto Sansa. Keep the Sansa window open.

Open “Playlist Creator 3” on your computer.

Select whatever files on the Sansa you want for a playlist by highlighting them and dragging them to the Playlist Creator window; you can drag a whole bunch at once. All you’re dragging is their names, etc, so it loads immediately.

At the bottom of the Creator window, make sure the Sansa drive is set as the destination folder, with an appropriate Playlist name, and click to make the playlist; only takes a moment to process. After you disconnect the Sansa, it will take 10 seconds to update it’s library, then it should play normally.

The beauty of this is you can add files and playlists to the Sansa without effecting the other playlists, or having to keep old playlists/files on your computer for syncing purposes. This is a quicker, less complicated and less troublesome method than WMP (though for all I know, maybe this is a worse method in the long run, requiring more defragging, etc).

There’s also a program someone wrote for the Sansa e200 that makes a playlist from folder names. You need .NEt to run the program. I wonder if anyone’s tried it for m200? It’s listed under “Solution #1”:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Sandisk_Sansa_MP3_players/m200
Message Edited by sadsack on 03-22-2008 02:43 PM

Message Edited by sadsack on 03-22-2008 03:32 PM

Message Edited by sadsack on 03-22-2008 03:34 PM

Message Edited by sadsack on 03-22-2008 04:19 PM

Message Edited by sadsack on 03-22-2008 04:47 PM

Message Edited by sadsack on 03-22-2008 04:53 PM

sadsack · March 23, 2008, 12:03am

So it looks like you can’t add a new playlist/files unless you have other ones still on your computer which let’s WMP know to skip them on the Sansa. Ugh.

Inre your 2nd example, I’m surprised the files remained. When I didn’t tick an old playlist when adding a new playlist/files, the Sansa files got removed.

It’s funny how the Sansa instructions proudly say you can load folders but the Sansa will ignore them in favor of id tag criteria, as if that’s a better solution.

I tried Ron_Nitro’s suggestion of using “Playlist Creator 3”:

http://www.4shared.com/file/22345457/24907947/PlaylistCreator3_Setup.html

Apparently you make the Playlist after you’ve dragged your files onto the Sansa. Unfortunately, you can’t keep files separated in folders in the Sansa because at most, the Playlist would only show the first file in the folder. Generally it will show “No files”.