I had a 1 GB Sandisk player for a number of years that I could drag and drop numbered folders containing numbered files into, and it would play the folders and the files therein in the order in which they were numbered. Unfortunately, it finally packed up on me so I replaced it with a 4 GB Sansa Clip, and I have tried every possible way to get this player to do the same thing. I have scanned this forum and attempted to follow the incomplete instructions of some of the experts here to no avail. It does not seem to me to be too much to ask this player to do that simple task that a player manufactured 5 years or more ago could do, without hassling with a Windows Media Player or some other program. I would be grateful if someone here could provide detailed instructions, or point me to a post or thread in this board, that would enable me to do that. Failing that, does anyone know of any player at any price that has that capability?
@miikerman wrote:
Since the Clip generally organizes and plays by tags, have you filled in the file tags? If not, you likely can use a batch tag program that would fill in the file album and title tag fields using your file name and folder information. You may wish to check out MP3Tag, as a possibility.
I had filled in the file tags in the Library of WMP, if that is what you meant, without success. However, while fiddling with the player some more, instead of using the “Play all” button that appears first, I scrolled on to “Albums,” then to “Play all,” and they seem to be in order there. Don’t quite understand it, because I had intentionally taken the files out of the folders before loading them, but that’s nothing new (me not understanding, that is). I guess, in order to avoid manually numbering hundreds of files every time I load this player, I’ll install the program you recommended, which I’ve already downloaded. I guess I’ll keep using this player, if indeed I can sort this situation out, until I can find one that better fits my needs. It would have been helpful if Sandisk had included this information in their instruction manual, but if it’s there I couldn’t find it. Another reason to search for another player, one that provides adequate instructions.
Thanks for your suggestion.
@miikerman wrote:
(By the way, tags are discussed at p. 20 of the manual, although briefly.
HaHa, very briefly, like an afterthought. And page 20 of the manual is page 22 of the PDF. Just another little quirk. It is beyond me that the manufacturers of these devices seem to be unaware that there are people who want to play their files in a particular order. I guess they don’t think people who like classical music and opera will be using their players. I would think they would at least include a file-numbering program such as MP3Tag and full instructions for using it instead of letting their customers have to seek out third party software and depend on forums like this for information. Well, anyway somebody in tech support will be seeing an e-mail from me with some good advice on this subject, but like most good advice I’m sure it will be ignored. If I ever find a player that performs the way I want it to I’ll certainly snap it up, even if it costs 2 or 3 times as much as this one.
Well, I just got back from my daily fitness walk with the player, and the tracks seem to have played in the order in which I manually tagged them. I’ve experimented with the MP3Tag program a little bit without much success so far, as the instructions on that one are also a bit beyond my comprehension. For instance, I see nothing that says “batch file naming” or anything similar. I think I’ll wait until I find out if I’m able to decipher those instructions and actually batch name my files before sending the author a donation.
It’s a good idea to get your tags straightened out in any case, but playlists might be another option depending on your needs. With a playlist you can playback files in any arbitrary order you want, regardless of tags or filenames.
Skinjob wrote:
… depending on your needs.
Thanks for your reply.
My needs are simple. I wish to load folders on this player and have them playback in the proper order. I foolishly thought this would be fairly simple, and I am continually told that it is, but I have yet to discern any method of doing this other than laboriously tagging each file individually. For example a folder named:
2007-08-18_Program 47-Podunk Symphony Orchestra
The files inside these folders are named such as:
01_Schnickeldorf-Symphony No. 10 in E minor, etc.
I wish to tag these files so that they will play in sequence, i. e.; the files in the Folder “2007-08-18_Program 47”, then the files in the folder “2007-08-19_Program 48”, and so on. I thought that the MP3Tag program would enable me to do that, but I have yet to decipher the instructions. A clear explanation of how to do that from anyone would be appreciated.
Although I am not the World’s Foremost computer expert, I get along pretty well, running a couple of web sites, using Photoshop to edit the digital photos I shoot with my Canon 5D, recording and converting music files with Nero, etc., but this little task has me stumped so far.
creating a playlist would probably be the easiest way for you to do what you want to do.
@drlucky wrote:
creating a playlist would probably be the easiest way for you to do what you want to do.
If I knew how to do that I wouldn’t be wasting my time here trying to find out. If someone could describe the process I would be grateful. Just saying, “creating a playlist” does not help at all.
@billyr wrote:
@drlucky wrote:
creating a playlist would probably be the easiest way for you to do what you want to do.
If I knew how to do that I wouldn’t be wasting my time here trying to find out. If someone could describe the process I would be grateful. Just saying, “creating a playlist” does not help at all.
Wow, a simple Google search about how to create playlists would have been much faster, instead of coming here and yelling at people who have already answered the same question 2,456,786 time.
Here, let me help you by doing the research for you. And there is a lot of other “how do i do it” at the link, too. So click the following link:
@billyr wrote:
I wish to tag these files so that they will play in sequence, i. e.; the files in the Folder “2007-08-18_Program 47”, then the files in the folder “2007-08-19_Program 48”, and so on. I thought that the MP3Tag program would enable me to do that, but I have yet to decipher the instructions. A clear explanation of how to do that from anyone would be appreciated.
There are a multitude of tools that can create playlists, but it’s pretty easy to do with Notepad. A m3u format playlist is just a text file containing a list of files to play back. The files will play in the order they are listed in the playlist.
In your example, you could use Notepad to create a file called “2007-08-18_Program 47.m3u” in the 2007-08-18_Program 47 folder with the following contents:
#EXTM3U
01_Schnickeldorf-Symphony No. 10 in E minor.mp3
02_Some other symphony.mp3
03_Yet another one.mp3
04_Not another synphony.mp3
If you wanted to use Tags to do this you would need to make sure the following tags are correct:
Artist
Album
Title
Track
The Artist and Album tags are obviously used to group the files in the Artist and Album lists on the Clip. Within an album, the songs will be sorted by Track and then Title.
In your example, with MP3Tag (I don’t have MP3Tag in front of me right now, so I’m going from memory):
-
Open the 2007-08-18_Program 47 folder
-
Select all the files on the right side of the main window
-
Set values on the left side of the main window that apply globally to all the tracks and Save:
Artist=Podunk Symphony Orchestra
Album=Program 47 (you could include the date also if you like)
Genere=Classical
Year=2007
- Then select each file one at a time and set the information specific to each track:
Track=1
Title=Schnickeldorf-Symphony No. 10 in E minor
(Save and select the next file)
Track=2
Title=Some other symphony
(Repeat for all files in folder)
MP3Tag can also try to pull the track information from freedb based on the Artist and Album info. So if you’re lucky it can do Genere, Year and all the Track/Title info for you automatically. I’m guessing based on your example that you’ll probably have to do it manually.
@sansamaster wrote:
Wow, a simple Google search about how to create playlists would have been much faster, instead of coming here and yelling at people who have already answered the same question 2,456,786 time.
Here, let me help you by doing the research for you. And there is a lot of other “how do i do it” at the link, too. So click the following link:
I wasn’t aware that I was yelling, and I was under the impression that this group was here to help users who are having difficulty persuading this equipment to do what it was designed to do. That is, if it is capable of performing this simple task. I have gone to the link, and watched 3 videos that describe how to load files onto the player, which I already knew. What I need to do is what I described in the OP, and which I can’t seem to find clear and written instructions that I can follow along to do this. I would have hoped that these instructions would be available in the PDF User Guide, but not so. That is why I am here. If such instructions exist I would be grateful to know where they are.
try watching the “adding a playlist” video. there is one for WMP 10 and another for WMP 11. i would suggest using WMP 11. I am sure this question has been ask and answered several times so you could also try searching this forum for “playlist”.
edit: surprisingly instructions for creating and adding a playlist are in the UM where one would think they should be. try looking on page 10 under “creating playlist”
Message Edited by drlucky on 05-27-2008 01:52 PM
If you want drag and drop playlists, and you are using Windows XP or Vista and Windows Media Player 11, it isn’t too hard to do, in MTP mode.
Open the Music folder on the Clip, then open whichever folder contains the music you want to access. You can make this folder by drag and drop from Explorer.
Select one or more songs you want to be in your playlist. Right click on a song, then select “Create Playlist”. Rename the newly made playlist to something useful. You may add songs or rearrange the order in the playlist if you wish. This creates a .pla playlist file, whose content only exists on the clip (you can’t copy it to your PC).
Do this for however many folders/sets you wish to work with.
Bonus over the play as folder method is that you can make however many playlists you want, which can play any songs from one or more folders. You can copy your playlist file from the folder you make it in to the playlists folder (or anywhere else), and edit it to your heart’s content.
Play them by selecting playlists.
@drlucky wrote:
edit: surprisingly instructions for creating and adding a playlist are in the UM where one would think they should be. try looking on page 10 under “creating playlist”
I am aware of those instructions (which, by the way, to get to page 10 on the PDF you have to click on page 12 in the Page panel, another annoying quirk), and they don’t work for me. First, when the files are imported into the WMP library sometimes some of them are missing. Other times files are in different folders [“albums”] than I had originally put them. And when they are imported into the library they are in random order, although they are numbered consecutively, and manually sorting out a couple of hundred files in the Playlist pane is a long process. And the file numbers that I had originally assigned don’t show. There are a lot more deficiencies, but you get the idea. Also, before starting this search you have to put your files in a certain folder, such as C/Users/owner/Music. So far as I can tell, you can’t designate a folder of your choice for WMP to copy the files from. Finally, why the hell should one have to use a program like WMP to load these files in the first place? That’s why I sent my iPod back when I got one a couple of years ago, when I found out it needed a total of 3 programs to work.
But never mind, I think I finally figured out a way to do this, and although it requires a lot more manual numbering than I think necessary it will have to do until something better comes along. So far as I’m concerned, this new generation of players is far inferior to the ones I had previously, into which numbered folders could be dragged and dropped and they would play in the correct order. I’m certain that there is a player somewhere that will perform as I wish, and one of these days I’ll unearth it. Until then, I’ll make do.
Thanks to you all who have tried to help.
Message Edited by BillyR on 05-28-2008 06:13 AM
Lots of good suggestions here, all around.
Is it just me, or did this thread suddenly bloom horizontally? Every now and again, a thread will spread horizontally, requiring a constant scroll right and left to follow the text.
I haven’t located a user preference for this width limit. The only time it needs to expand is if a user has submitted an image format that’s BIG, or if the post was formatted in the widescreen format.
What was the difference between m3u and pla for playlists?
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
yea this thread for some reason went wide. It’s might be someon’s copy and past. the forum now forces a limit for image size, can’t be bigger than 640x480 now.
anyways. difference between m3u and pla:
m3u : simple text file that display list of paths. can also display info about time and title that differs from the content’s original. m3u is supported in both MSC and MTP mode. you can create this with notepad or any text editor, and save it as a text file with extension m3u. can be transferred via dragged. also many applications can make and support m3u files.
pla: I believe its an xml, but I’m not too quite sure. pla is only supported in MTP mode. pla can only be created on the device. when WMP11 syncs a playlist in MTP it creates a pla file on the go, straight on the player. you can also create pla file using MTP (wmp11 drivers) by right clicking on the music that has already been transferred on the device and choosing create playlist. pla gets voided if you drag this file out of the player. just doesn’t work when you drag back in.
pla is very limited but easy to use. m3u can get confusing if paths are not done correctly.
I think you’re missing the point of what everyone has been trying to tell you. In the past people may have used file and directory names to organize music files but nowadays it’s pretty much assumed your files have proper tags. Yes, in your situation it may cause you some amount of pain to tag everything (although the programs people have mentioned can automate some or all of the process) and create playlists, but once it’s done you’ll have a lot more flexibility and it will work with any player.
@billyr wrote:
But never mind, I think I finally figured out a way to do this, and although it requires a lot more manual numbering than I think necessary it will have to do until something better comes along. So far as I’m concerned, this new generation of players is far inferior to the ones I had previously, into which numbered folders could be dragged and dropped and they would play in the correct order. I’m certain that there is a player somewhere that will perform as I wish, and one of these days I’ll unearth it. Until then, I’ll make do.
@tjderr wrote:
I think you’re missing the point of what everyone has been trying to tell you. In the past people may have used file and directory names to organize music files but nowadays it’s pretty much assumed your files have proper tags.
Well, you know what they say about assumptions.
If that is the case, I would expect manufacturers to include software and / or instructions to tag these files with the player. Instead, the only reference I can see to tags is in the UM on the bottom of page 20, which includes instructions to laboriously edit individual tracks. I use a lot of software, including Nero, Photoshop, and various others, and the instructions and software for everything else I use is vastly superior to this. As another poster said in another reply, it appears that SanDisk relies on forums like this to provide information about using their products that they should provide themselves. Nevertheless, it appears that I have finally figured out how to get this device to perform somewhat as I wish despite the manufacturer’s laxity and the vagueness of the information I’ve received on this forum and others, and I’ll make do until I find a satisfactory player.
Miikerman wrote:
(By the way, Nero support? LOL–the program that assumes control over the user and user system, IMHO, with the manufacturer saying that nothing can be done. My Clip lets me be in charge.)
Yeah, Nero can be a pain. # 6 was the last version I really liked. Nero 7 and 8 were a lot slower on my XP system, although # 8 runs better on my new Vista computer. Once my XP computer slowed to a crawl and I couldn’t do anything with it, and found out that a part of Nero 8 I never used called “Nero Scout” was consuming about 98% of my resources. I disabled it pronto, and sent a message to Nero Support. As I recall, they responded fairly soon, with advice to do what I had already done.
Actually, I hardly ever use Nero for burning any more, as the XP (and I guess Vista now, although I haven’t used it yet) burning feature can do most of what I want to do. Still use the Nero Wave Editor for editing music I’ve recorded myself and converting it to MP3 to use in this wonderful player. Matter of fact, I have about 3 GB of files that I hope I’ve tagged correctly using MP3Tag, and plan to load into it after another fitness walk when I expect to have depleted the music I have in it now. Hopefully I’ll reach my goal of being able to load this player with my music files, starting the player when I leave, having the player play them in proper sequence, shutting off the player when I return home and having it start at the same place the next day. That’s all I want a player for, the rest of the time I’m occupied with other things.
BillyR, I can’t believe someone has not actually given a full answer for the quick(-ish) was to do this with MP3Tag, so here goes…
Assuming a set-up like yours:
Right-click on the album folder and open it with MP3Tag.
If you haven’t already done so, go to Tools->Options->Tags->Mpeg and select “ID3v2.3 ISO-88589-1” formatting. (Only neeeds to be done once).
You may already have some tag info filled in, but for this example I’ll assume starting from scratch with no tag info. Select all of the files (Ctl-A), then fill in the “album”, “artist”, “genre” and any other fields which apply to all of the tracks in the left window. Then click the save icon (or Ctl-S).
Now you’ll see all those fields filled in for each track. We’re half-way there!
Next either select Convert->“Filename - Tag” or click the icon for it along the top row.
This will bring up a dialog which tells MP3Tag how to “parse” the filename.
The items within the ‘%’ are names of ID3 fields to be pulled from the filename. In your case, use “%track%_%title” (no spaces, and don’t enter the quotes). The ‘_’ is important, otherwise MP3Tag doesn’t know where to split the track/title. If you had used a blank or dash separator, then that character would be used instead of ‘_’. If you have the format string right, you’ll see the “track” and “title” items listed below the input box with proper values, like track 01 and title Nocturne. Otherwise, those fields will either not appear, or contain incorrect info. Click “OK”.
Now you should see the proper info for each file in the right window. Hit Save again (Ctl-S) to write out the results.
If you were doing this on the PC copy of the files (good place to practice on a copy), you will need to re-sync with the Sansa. You may also need to have your PC player re-sync its database (if you’re using one like WinAmp or WMP).
Hope this helps.
Message Edited by resnbl on 06-15-2008 04:02 PM
to add, then fix, alleged “artwork”.
Message Edited by resnbl on 06-15-2008 04:16 PM
Moved screen shots to new server
Message Edited by resnbl on 10-01-2008 10:11 PM
