I’ve recently had my Clip+ not syncing correctly. When the files are synced, either in Media Player or copy and pasted, the files have all their tags until I disconnect the unit form the pc. after it the “refreshing Media” message the some fields are changed to Unknown, such as Artist and Album. I’ve tried using Mp3tag but it won’t read from my player, although it works fine as it always has. I can’t find any way to get it to sync properly or allow me to change tags and fields after it’s synced. Help!!
You need to check the id3 tags here. Some download mp3s don’t have those and you need to edit it manually. 
All the songs are ripped from my cd collection onto my pc, running Windows 7, then stored as wma files. None of the songs are downloaded, they’re all from legit original cds. They look fine on the Clip when I check their properties after the sync when it’s still connected, all the fields are correct but then they seem to be deleted as soon as I disconnect. Once they’re on there I can’t do anything to them, apart from delete them and try again.
I’ve checked the files before disconnecting and they’re fine, but once I disconnect it changes Artist and Album to Unknown. Does the same if I copy and paste the files too.
First of all, what version is your WMP? You should be using version 10 or above. That might solve the problem right there for ripping new albums.
Meanwhile, it sounds to me like a problem with the version of the tags.
Here’s what I think is happening. Your computer and Windows Media Player can read a lot of tag versions, so when you’re connected you can read the tags. But the Sansa, with its itty-bitty brain, can’t read every version. So when you’re just relying on the Sansa, it reads Unknown.
With mp3 files, for instance, ID3v2.1 always comes up Unknown–it needs ID3v2 or ID3v3.
I’d suggest you get the free software mp3tag.
http://mp3tag.de/en/download.html
(Don’t click on Download buttons if you see them, get the mp3tag(Version)setup.exe file in the middle of the page, right above History of Changes.)
When installing, allow it to add itself to context menus. Open mp3tag, and under Tools/Options/Tags/Mpeg go to Write and make the version ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1. That’s the tag version for mp3 files that the Sansa likes.
Unfortunately, you’re not using mp3 and I’m not familiar with .wma tagging–I don’t use .wma. But mp3tag says it does handle wma, and fixing the version should involve the same thing–fixing the default setting for the tag version the Sansa likes.
If you have an album that IS visible on the Clip, navigate to that folder, right-click to open it with mp3tag, look at the tag version column and see if you can go into Write and set that version. You only have to do it once as long as you save that setting.
Then you can do a bulk retagging. Click on an album folder–or, if you have all your albums in a Music folder, that Music folder . (Mp3tag can find music files inside subfolders.) Right click, choose mp3tag from the Open With menu, highlight all the files and Save them.
The explanation is much more complicated than actually using mp3tag. As you’ll see, open-highlight-Save takes only a few seconds. I just run everything through mp3tag before I send it over.
You might also consider changing your default settings on WMP to rip mp3s instead of .wma files. Then if you ever get an Apple gizmo–not that I ever would–you won’t have to convert them again. And mp3 files are a lot less temperamental.
ISO and ID3 version can be changed all at once, and should.
ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1 for mp3. Maybe they are the same in .wma. Regardless, mp3tag will let you look at the tag version, so all that’s needed is one song that does not come up Unknown on the unit.
I’m using Media Player 12.
MP3tag won’t read folders from my clip, whatever folder I pick it gives the error “folder must contain audio files”, and it doesn’t make a difference if they’re MP3 or WMA, or if they work properly or not.
After I disconnect the player from the pc it changes the folder name of the album, in the case of the last one I tried it added CA5D0200_ to the start of the album name. (I copy and pasted it, with the songs in MP3 format, all copied from files on my pc with ID3v2.3 tags, converted from tracks ripped from the original cd)
I’ve been checking the file infomation in Properties from the left click menu on the files in Windows, (not in Media Player but in the folder),before and after disconnection, it’s fine until I disconnect.
Tried changing it to MTP mode, it copied them and they came up in the proper folder but wouldn’t play them now, just skiped through all the tracks. Copied an album across as MP3 files then tried to alter the tags in MP3tag, but it won’t let me click on anything in the “tag” column so I can’t alter it.
It’s been fine until the last few albums I’ve tried to sync, I’ve had it for over 2 years with no problems.
@mark5150 wrote:
_ Tried changing it to MTP mode _, it copied them and they came up in the proper folder but wouldn’t play them now, just skiped through all the tracks.
Is this a typo, or did you mis-understand Miikermans’ suggestion?
@miikerman wrote:
_ I’m going to guess that the player’s USB mode, under System settings, is set to MTP mode. MTP mode, unlike MSC mode, can do some odd things, including adding things to folder names. _
_ At this point, I would recommend: _
_ – Reformat the player _, under its System settings. This will erase the user content on the player–transfer anything you want to save to your computer first.
_ – Set the player to USB MSC mode. _
– Edit the music files, now on your computer, as discussed above.
– Transfer the music files back to the Clip.
Hopefully, with this fresh start, you’ll have smooth sailing.
yeah it was a typo, I meant MSC. I’m reluctant to format it player as it’s full of music that I’m I’m not 100% sure I can put back on it after formatting if this problem’s not sorted out. I may just buy something new if I can’t add new albums to it and just use the new player for new albums
Can’t you just copy the music from it back onto your computer or hard drive, and then format?
I don’t understand why you think your music couldn’t be re-transferred after formatting. If it’s copy-protected .wma, then the rights to it should still be in the copies on your computer. But if it is copy-protected, you were probably using MTP to transfer it.
If you were ripping CDs on the old default settings of Windows Media Player, then you may well have been tricked into copy-protecting the albums. In that case, better to rip them again in .mp3 and be done with that nonsense.
Really, this shouldn’t be that difficult. If you had your folder names changed, then you were in MTP and Windows Media Player did that–it does that to make its indexing faster. It should not happen in MSC.
Connect in MSC, get the files off. Then connect in MTP, and get THOSE files off. And then Format, put it in MSC and you shouldn’t have any more problems. If you’re really feeling frisky you could reload the firmware (using the manual method from the sticky thread near the top of the page) before putting music back on.
It IS happening in MSC, hence my problem, The music is all original as I’ve stated previously and ripped from the original cds, without copy protection. This is a problem that’s only manifested in the last couple of weeks after over 2 years of use. The firmware is also up to date.
Obvously I can copy the music back to the player, all the music was synced from my hard drive in the first place, the problem with that is that I have no guarantee that I won’t end up with it all in the Unkown folder as none of the suggestions have solved the problem. All the3se fixes seem to assume that WMP is at fault, when the changes are actually happening when the unit is disconnected, it’s fine until I unplug it.
I appreciate the help, but I need to find out why the player is doing it all of a sudden and fix that, so I can return it to the way it’s always worked rather than roundabout fixes for 16gb of music.
Thanks.
Already fixed it, changed the region from Europe to Rest of the World, works perfectly now. Must have been chaged last time I updated the firmware.
