phantom files that won't play

I downloaded a number of songs from both my HP PC and my MacBook Air to my Sansa Clip.  When I listen to my Sansa Clip, I sometimes just play the “Recently Added” ones, and listen to them in alphabetical order.  There are a number of songs (currently 22 of them) that then cycle rapidly (and only momentarily) on the screen but won’t play, and I can’t stop the flow and play any of them. When the Sansa Clip comes to number 23, it plays the song, and behaves normally through the rest of the entire “Recently Added” songs.  Each of these phantom files starts with a dot and then an underline, followed by a two digit number and then the title of a song.  For example, “._03 Evileen Atlanta Rhythm Section”.  When I connect the Sansa Clip to either computer, and look at the files on it, these phantom files don’t show.  Does anyone have any idea what causes this?    Has anyone else experienced it?  

Those are index files from the Mac. When you copy files from your mac, you need to use a utility program that doesn’t copy the index files. There was an old program Kopymac? however there must be newer programs that do this. I don’t use a Mac though, so I don’t need to use this.

Thanks, JK98!  My computer knowledge level is really elementary so bear with me if this sounds too simple to answer:  when you say I need to use a “utility program that doesn’t copy the index files” I understand that to mean that I need to purchase a (or download a free) piece of software to my Mac.  Is there anything special I need to look for when I’m searching for such an item? 

You will probably be able to find a free utility program. Be careful that it is from a reliable source, so that it doesn’t contain viruses.

Another option is to transfer the files(or folders of files) from the mac to  a folder on your pc using a usb drive, set windows to show hidden files, then manually delete the index files. Then you could connect the player to your pc, and copy those files.

Thanks, JK98!

Thanks, Milkerman!   To both JK98 and to you, here’s another possible fix I found in another message stream:

Jamieson

SanDisk Professor 02-22-2011 11:01 PM - edited ‎02-24-2011 12:09 AM

I would suggest to try the dot_clean command for now to get read of those ._ files on your Sansa. I may be wrong on this, but this is what I have observed after using my friend’s MAC computer. It seems that those ._files are only generated after transferring a converted audio to mp3 to the Sansa. You can easily get rid of those ghost files by running the dot_clean command under terminal.

Launch Terminal (Applications > Utilities) and type dot_clean, making sure to include a space at the end and drag the icon of the Sansa to the terminal window and press on enter. Disconnect the Sansa and those ._ files should be gone.

for those who are comfortable using the Terminal on Mac

if you go to Finder, you’ll see whatever your music player is named

open Terminal and type: cd /Volumes/[music player’s name]/MUSIC

                                        rm -f ._*
                                        dot_clean .

Hooray~ Your problem is solved!
I will try to look into writing something that will perform this action everytime you add new songs to your clip+ player, because it’s really annoying otherwise T_T"