Wow, it’s all quiet on the Western Front! I was sure that some of the regulars would have a nibble at this one. Sorry it’s been a few days overall, I’ve been working with file types and details for the Fuze and µSD card.
Let’s attack the WiMP issue first, and see if everything on the PC end is happy before synchronizing with the Sansa. Does everything appear normal on the Sansa, meaning that all of the listed songs will play? Leave the Sansa unplugged.
Open WiMP11, and have a look at the music library. Click the Library tab and navigate through the albums or songs in there. Double click on a few tracks and see that they play normally. You can also right click on a track and pull up the “advanced tag editor” to see if the album art and track information is visible.
Now, let’s have a look at the mp3 files that cannot be accessed. Where on the hard drive are they hiding? Are the files transferred from another PC (as from a memory stick) by direct transfer, or are the files via the Internet (download), or p2p / filesharing like Limewire and all?
The file’s ID3 data (metadata for the WiMP application) may be gnarled up or missing altogether. Download MP3Tag, and have a look at the file with this application. After using WiMPs so-called “advanced” tag editor, MP3Tag will blow you away; I think of MP3Tag as more worthy of the term “advanced”.
Files from p2p are a hazardous animal, as the metadata can easily be blotzed from the start; you have no idea where those files come from. The Sansa wants ID3v2.3 ISO data to catalog your music properly. Try looking at a file that WiMP and the Sansa both play correctly to see what the tag is supposed to look like.
Once the WiMP application is working properly, you can play it safe and synchronize WiMP with your Sansa. As long as all of your music is on the PC first, it’s safest to format the device, clearing out any cobwebs, and then synchronize using WiMP.
Your other options are to use drag and drop (but remember that files transferred in MSC vs MTP are visible only in the respective mode used for the transfer), or an application like Media Monkey to handle the transfers.
Let us know how the process goes!
Bob