Using a 128gb or larger card with sandisk clip

MP3 players Sansa Clip | Clip+
1

Hi guys,

My ipod classic has just died and im looking for an alternative.

Im considering the clip+ because i have read you can unofficially increase the storage to 128gb if you reformat a card to fat32. The problem is that i will be storing my music on a mac so fat32 wont work very well (if atall?). I have about 140gb of music and update my collection quite often so does anyone know what i should do?

If i buy a clip+ (is that the best model?) Which card will 100% work with the clip (above 100gb preferably) and how can i get it to work with my mac? Im really keen to buy a clip so if anyone can help me out here id be very grateful.

Thanks

James

4

thanks for the reply. 

I hope youre right about mac. 

so in theory is all of the following correct:

1- buy a clip+ 

2- install rockbox (using my mac as it is apparently available on osx)

3- buy a sandisk microSD card- a link to a good 128gb one would be really helpful if you have any specific reccomendations)

4- convert sd card to fat32 using my mac 

5-transfer music from mac harddrive onto memory card

5

First, Rockbox is something you install on the Sansa–not the Mac. It takes over for the operating system/firmware  built into the Sansa. (The original Sansa firmware is still there, but Rockbox boots up instead of the original firmware.) Go to rockbox.org and look around a bit.

You should check the file format of your music.The full filename of a song is usually something like 01-Artist-Song Title.mp3 or 01-Artist-Song Title.m4a. Your computer may hide file extensions (mp3, m4a) for “known” filetypes but there’s a way to reveal them–Google around with your operating system and “show file extensions.”

This is different from the formatting of the card. The file format is how the music is encoded, turned into numbers.

If it is .m4a or .aac or Apple Lossless–stuff bought in the iTunes Music store–then it will NOT play on the Clip+ without Rockbox. Rockbox should play most .m4a files but might choke on super-large ones. If you’re lucky enough to have all mp3 files then there’s no problem.

To play .m4a with Sandisk firmware–not installing Rockbox–you’d need the Clip Zip, which capitulated to Apple’s proprietary file types.

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4301/~/sansa-clip-zip-supported-audio%2Fmusic-formats

But Rockbox is still better if you want to deal with giant storage cards, because the Sansa firmware won’t list all the songs that the card can hold.

6

ok thanks for the help. 

pretty sure my whole library is mp3.

how difficult is it to put rockbox onto the clip?

also howcome sandisk only offer the ‘jam’ and the ‘sport’ currently. should i be going for one of those instead?

not bothered about fancy features just literally want to be able to stick a 128gb or 256gb card into it and have my music on it

cheers in advance

7

@jamesmajin wrote:

 

also howcome sandisk only offer the ‘jam’ and the ‘sport’ currently. should i be going for one of those instead?

 

 

 

 

No, and in fact you must have one of the older Clip or Fuze models if you want to use large SD cards.  Newer devices are limited to only a few thousand files.  

8

Unfortunately everything is downhill after the Clip + (and possibly the Zip, though I never had one). Fewer features, less capacity, no sonic improvement.

You can still find refurbished Clip+ on Amazon and eBay, though they are generally way overpriced–and new ones are so crazily overpriced you might as well get a high-resolution player like FiiO X3 for #200.

Just looking at Ebay now, though, I see refurbished 4GB Clip +  for $40. No idea about the seller, but there’s a lot of positive feedback. I have had good luck with refurbished Clip + from other high-volume sellers.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SanDisk-Sansa-Clip-4GB-MP3-Player-Black-SDMX18-/191131424048?hash=item2c80521530:g:T~oAAOSwY0lXTdFY

When you’re looking around, there’s no need to get the more expensive  8GB–might as well go for the cheaper 4GB and put all your music on the microSD card.

Or look beyond Sansa to Sony, FiiO or some of the other brands people are always touting on www.head-fi.org.  Sansa was great at their original low prices but now people are just greedy.

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