In MTP mode my pc can transfer files to the player just like a flashdrive but the player just sees an empty folder. If I switch to MSC mode then the player just freezes and no files will transfer. I have a 32 G sd card which functions perfectly well outside the sansa player. Also the internal 4 G works fine in either mode.
It sounds like the unit is not seeing the card at all.
Are you sure the card is all the way in the slot? It clicks in with a spring, and you have to push it in further to pop it out.
Are you sure it’s formatted to FAT32? If you’ve been popping it in and out of other devices they may have formatted it differently.
Switching between MSC and MTP can sometimes have wacky effects as well. Take the card out, make sure you have copies of anything you want to keep that’s on the internal memory, and do Settings/System Settings/Format. I know it makes no sense but it sometimes fixes card slot problems.
I tried all of that and I still have the same problems… I can write files to the external sdcard with it in the sansa… the pc sees it just like it was a flash drive but the player only sees an Empty folder. very frustrating
Might be a tag issue then.
What kind of files are they?
If they are .flac, the only way to see them is to go via Music/Folders/External SD card and whatever subfolders they may be in and find them by filename.
For Album, Artist, etc. the Sansa reads the information in the ID3 tags of files. Flac files don’t have those, so the database from the tags would look empty.
Meanwhile, for more fun, tags are not standardized. If mp3 or wma files don’t have tags, or have ID3v1 tags rather than ID3v2.2 or 2.3, it won’t show those tags either. I’m not sure how the Clip handles ID3v2.4 since I always use mp3tag, free tag-editing software, http://www.mp3tag.de/en/ to save them as ID3v2.3.
And if you are putting m4a files from iTunes on there, I don’t think the Sansa shows them at all.
I don’t think its a tag issue… the same files work fine when I put them on the internal memory. The files I have been using are audiobooks in .mp3 format
Are you putting the files in an Audiobooks folder–you may have to create one–on the card?
What happens if you put the audiobook files on the card via another device–drag and drop them in a reader or whatever else you’re connecting to the computer.
Have you tried manually re-applying the firmware, just in case it’s a software glitch? See the firmware sticky thread above.
I have tried everything… I updated the firmware, I updated tags, I formatted the card and the device, I even copied the little files and directories from the internal memory onto the card… it just refuses to see anything on the card… when I look under folders it sees an empty folder with 0 bytes free
It’s been a while so I forget–have you tested the card itself with h2testw? Just to make sure it actually works.
Very good point!
I see in your 1st post you are using MTP mode. MSC really works better, even though you said you had problems with it. I would try formatting the player to clear everything and optimize the memory and then switch to MSC mode and try loading some content onto the card. It might just work. 
I gave up on getting the 32 G card to work in the Sansa. I removed the card and swapped it for the 8 G card that was in my phone, and the 8 G card works flawlessly. I don’t understand why the 32 G card just won’t work as it now works perfectly in my phone.
Well, I have a 32GB in mine that works with no problems. I’d still think it was a formatting problem, or some MTP weirdness.
@kengulnar wrote:
I gave up on getting the 32 G card to work in the Sansa. I removed the card and swapped it for the 8 G card that was in my phone, and the 8 G card works flawlessly. I don’t understand why the 32 G card just won’t work as it now works perfectly in my phone.
Is it a Class 10 card? There have been many various problems reported when usiing a Class 10 card. Class 4 is all you need and works the best.
I too, have several 32GB cards with nary an issue (in any of my Sansa players).
