I don’t know if it was fluke or what, but for a week or so, the player seemed to be working great. It was the same stinking fixed random order (?) but when I’d turn it back on, it would pick up where it left off instead of going back to the beginning of the list. Why oh why didn’t I leave well enough alone!
As for the random order order… just today, I finally tired of the first randomization order… it got to the point where I had to hit FF too many times to be practical, and so I did the shuffle on/off technique ala inkadinkadoo and then turned it off when I got to work. When I turned it back on when I was headed home… it fell back to the original randomization order. ARGH!!! I am driving (it’s playing through my car radio) and I can’t readily do all the button pushing involved to get it to do a new order
In general, I’ve found that the easiest way to deal with this, is to delete the first song or one close to the beginning (think alphabetical). The relief is temporary, but it beats swearing, crashing into other cars on the freeway and getting killed.
I am relieved that this thread seems to describe the problem I am having. I take my Sansa Express to the indoor track for a daily workout. With several CDs loaded in the player and randomizing selected in order to get a good variety of music, I was surprised to get the same set of songs played in the same order each time I turn on the player. It does seem to resume at the last song when the player was turned off, but then goes to the very first song in some fixed randomized list.
Has there been any response from Sansa support regarding this annoying bug?
In contacting Sansa support, I’m probably just repeating what others have already done. But, here is the response I received from Sansa. Looks like they don’t even regard it as a bug.
Thank you for contacting SanDisk Technical Support.
At this time there are no plans on changing the algorithm that dictates the randomness of the tracks. We will however pass on your concerns to the development team for them to take a look at.
If you should come upon any additional issues please feel free to call us 4am-10pm PST 7 days a week @ 1-866-SANDISK.
It’s not the algorithm that’s screwed up, it’s the fact that the player can’t remember where you left off and proceed from there instead of starting over at the beginning ever freaking time you turn it on.
First of all, the thechniques with pressing backwards or shuffle on/off don`t work to much for me. It seems to be a list within a list within a list (as it was said before).
But this is the technique I discovered to get new, random playlists:
When playing music, with shuffle on, from the “genres” submenu, I go and choose a song from the “songs” submenu, leaving the suffle on. Then I get new songs in a random order. So, everytime I turn my player on, and I want to listen a shuffle list, I go to the “genre” submenu, choose one song (it seems that it doesnt work with "play all") and than quickly I go and choose one from the "songs" submenu. So its only a couple of seconds…
So far it`s ok, but it needs more testing. In hope this will help you, I wait your feed-back.
The algorithm could use some improvement as well. How difficult could it be to use the value of an internal count-up timer as a randomizing seed? In that way, you could easily re-randomize the list of songs.
But, I agree the real problem is that the Play All begins at the very start of the random list each time the player is turned on. Oh, it continues with the song which was being played when the player was turned off. But, the very NEXT song goes to top of the list once again.
I have noticed that whenever I change any music on the player(add and/or delete songs), whether or not I have shuffle set to on or not, the player tends to begin playing alphabetically from the beginning. So this morning after deleting some songs and adding a few others, instead of turning shuffle on and off as I usually do when it plays alphabetically, I thought, “What the hell!”, alphabetical is fairly random so I let it go as I drove to work and I heard the A’s and the beginning of the B’s and when I got to work, turned it off. When I turned it back on 9 hours later to drive home, it finished the current song and then jumped forward to H’s. I stopped for an errand and instead of leaving it running as I usually do, I switched it off and then on again when I got back into the car. Lo and behold, it finished the song and then started repeating some of the pre-errand songs, but when I ff’d a few, it was in new territory. I turned it off when I got home and had the same experience when I turned it back on a few minutes ago… a couple of replays and then a whole new set. Hopefully this is not just a fluke.
I did notice that with shuffle turned off, it does remember where it left off, so while it is playing alphabetically by title (hardly ranodm), at least it doesn’t start over at the beginning every time you turn it on. Better than nothin’.
The problem is not the randomizing algorithm which seems adequate. Its that its only done one time. The randomizing seed is constant so the order is always the same for a given play list And the worst problem is that the player restarts from the top of the randomized list, so every time you turn on the player you get the songs in the exact same order. I have an nonfunctioning iAudio G2. Seems to me it would go thru the entire playlist in random order and then automagically generate a whole new random order on the second time through. This is not rocket science here. How difficult could it be to use the clock or a countup timer as the seed for randomizing? The programming is trivial. Getting SanDisk to fix it is the difficult part.
Having tried the whole variety os methods suggested to deceive (most appropriate word I believe) the SE random generator. came to cinclusion the best one is to have as many next or previous track clicks as possible. being enough persistent allows to generate a “new” algorythm.
another mean is to have a long-range shuffle on/off clicking procedure but it requires entering menu, thus it’s a little bit too power-consuming=).
how do u think? or would u prefer sth else instead? let’s form a certain conclusion
A long time ago I bought a TV pc card to watch tv on my computer. It had lots of bugs I kept trying to avoid and make the thing work. It was a constant battle.
Later on I bought another brand - it worked perfectly. Just plugged it in and never looked back.
If this thing has constant problems, I’ll go for the refund or trash can & avoid aggravation & wasting time.
Perhaps its a case of getting what you pay for. The Sansa Express is very reasonably priced. Easily one-third the cost of my functionally similar iAudio G2. The iAudio performs admirably but the POWER button wears out requiring all too frequent repair. Once out of warranty, the repair costs start to mount up. The problems with the Sansa Express are design flaws inherent in both the hardware and the firmware.
If you can suggest other inexpensive MP3 players with functionality similar to the Sansa Express, I would be grateful. Important to me are the convenient size and the USB rechargeable lithium battery.
Yeah this shuffle problem is so frustrating. What’s also frustrating is the fact that the Sansa Express is so close to being an excellent product. If it weren’t for this shuffle bug, I think this player would be an excellent alternative to an iPod Shuffle–all the functionality (and more with the radio and voice recorder) at 1/3 or less of the price.
Doesn’t SanDisk understand that fixing this one minor issue would make the SE a dangerous competitor to the iPod shuffle!?!? The price of the Sansa Express is great, the size is excellent, and if it shuffled correctly it would have all the functionality of a well-made iPod. Neglecting to fix a problem that would require such a small initial investment yet would provide a potentially enormous return is pure stupidity on SanDisk’s part.
Maybe if we all repeatedly contacted customer support with this problem, it might get on a meeting agenda or something. I’m sending my email right now. Hope you all will join me.
Maybe if we all repeatedly contacted customer support with this problem, it might get on a meeting agenda or something. I’m sending my email right now. Hope you all will join me.
I just bought an Express a couple of days ago and am already disgusted by the Nonshuffle feature. What’s the email for customer support?
