.m3u playlist creates extra files on sansa clip+

Hey everyone, I’m hoping you can help me with a problem I’m having syncing playlists to my clip+.

I have a Mac running 10.5.6, and a script that lets me sync playlists to the Clip+ via the latest version of iTunes.  However, when I do this, it creates extra files on the Clip+, whether I sync to the root folder or to the Music one.  For instance, if I have a playlist entitled Broadway, once I sync it, I will have both Broadway and ._broadway on my Clip+.  Of course, when I click on the ._broadway file, nothing happens.  I cannot figure out how to delete this file (showing hidden files and folders doesn’t reveal it), or how to prevent the duplicate “file” from occurring when I sync.

Any suggestions? BTW, the firmware on my Clip+ is the latest 01.01.05A.

It’s the Mac creating the ‘dupes’. You’ll have to go through and delete the ._files; they’re empty.

Yeah, I knew that it was Mac creating dupes, I just didn’t know how to delete them.  I found a program that will let me do it.  Now I have to figure out why when I try to “sync” a playlist, Sansa will take all the songs, but only a few will show up on the playlist.

thanks for your response :slight_smile:

What program is it that you use.  I also have a mac, and am also experiencing dupes.

sheuneumus wrote:
What program is it that you use.  I also have a mac, and am also experiencing dupes.

SEARCH

This is a long post, but I have a workaround for this issue. So take a deep breath and follow me.

I am a Mac user and experienced this annoying issue as well. If it were just a matter of these “._xxx” files being listed without any effect then I would have let it slide. What really annoyed me was that they were counted as actual files, which meant that the player would spend a few seconds reading through them before getting to the real music files. If I had my player set to “Repeat Folder” there would be a looooong silence as the invisible files were scanned when the player finished the final track and returned to the first one. Or if I wanted to skip backwards from the first track to the last one in a folder, I’d have to rapidly jump over these annoying no-see-ums. Pretty ridiculous as I never experienced this with other brands of PMPs.

Anyway…

The only workaround I have found involves the use of a PC. If you can plug your Clip+ into a PC at work, or one belonging to a friend, it takes only a few seconds to eliminate the problem:

  1. Plug Clip+ into PC

  2. Go to “My Computer > Clip+ (appears as “D:” drive) > MUSIC”

  3. Browse through a couple of your music folders to confirm that the “._xxx” files show up (by default, they should be visible on a PC)

  4. If these “._xxx” files do show, click on the “Search” button in the menu at the top of the window

  5. In the panel that opens on the left-hand side of the window, click “All files and folders”

  6. Type “._” into the first text field that asks for all or part of a file name, leave the second text field blank

  7. Use the pull-down menu below the text fields and browse to the MUSIC folder on your Clip+

  8. Hit the “Search” button and all the invisble “._xxx” files will show up in the results window (only these pesky invisible files should show in the search results, but scroll through and verify this before proceeding)

  9. Select all these files and go to “File > Delete” or right-click and select “Delete”

  10. Et voila! That’s it, they’re history. You don’t even need to empty the Recycle Bin, they’ll just be gone.

  11. Eject your Clip+ and you’re good to go.

This took only a few seconds to do and completely worked for me. I hope it does for you.

(I tried doing this on a Mac by using applications like Houdini and Show Hide Invisibles, but even those didn’t reveal the “._xxx” files. I guess they’re really, really invisible!)


P.S. I found what appear to be other workarounds for this issue: http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/macosx10\_4\_2/topic3705.html

Message Edited by Paulie on 01-23-2010 03:54 PM

Here is a simpler solution for all you Mac users out there (does not require a PC).

  1. Open up Terminal on your Mac.  (Use Spotlight and type Terminal, or find it under the Application folder).

  2. Type this into the Terminal window:

     cd /Volumes/{Name Of Device}/MUSIC

     where {Name of Device} is the name that shows up in Finder.

  1. Type this into the window:

     rm ._*

If you created sub-directories for files, you will need to clean them out, too.  Simply cd to each directory and run the rm command.

By the way, if you don’t know much about Terminal on a Mac, and you want to become a power user, go read about it!

Hope this is useful!