In my Clip (R1) I accidentally selected the Format option under settings. It asked me to confirm, and I said No, which I thought cancelled it. However, all my songs are gone! Plus, not only can’t I see the songs, but my 1 GB player shows only 65 MB free. I looked at the player’s files under Windows Explorer, looking in all subdirectories – even turning on Show Hidden Files and Folders, and turning off Hide protected operating system files. Still, I don’t see 935 MB worth of files. The total size of files shown is 693 KB.
So I have to assume that, though I can’t see them, my songs are still on the player, taking up 934 MB worth of space, but that the Format command – even though I didn’t confirm – wiped out the file needed to reference them. (Sounds like this needs to be a bug fix!)
Is there any way to restore these files so I can see my songs again?
Hey, my son’s sansa is experiencing the same problem. I don’t know if he tried to format but He can only see the last 2 songs that he transfered. I don’t think he has tried to format his sansa clip. He has a 2gb clib and it shows that 1.8 gb are used but I can not see any songs, albums, or recordings on his clip.
Is there any way to see the files that are taking up this space? Some restore process?
Huh. All my songs are back. I didn’t do anything. Last night, when I went to Play All, it said “no song” (or something); and when I went to artists, there was nothing in the list. This morning, all the songs are there!
Here are all the things I did last night.
Tried to install firmware installer on my PC, but it said my Clip had to be connected. But when I connected the Clip, Windows didn’t see it.
Went to change mode from Auto to MSC, but then accidentally went into Format, and then selected No when it asked me for confirmation.
Changed mode to MSC; Windows recognized Clip; finished installing firmware installer and updating Clip firmware.
Noticed that there were no songs in my playlist. Connected Clip to PC and looked at storage contents in Windows Explorer. Nothing there either. Posted this thread.
Connected Clip to firmware installer one more time, just to make sure that the firmware installation had taken and that I had the latest version (I did; it didn’t recognize that an upgrade was needed).
As my Clip battery was only half full, I left the Clip connected to my PC overnight to charge the battery.
Disconnected Clip from PC and looked at list, and all songs are there!
Connected Clip to PC and looked at storage contents in Windows Explorer. Still nothing there.
That’s all I did. What could have made my song list return?..
Huh. All my songs are back. I didn’t do anything. Last night, when I went to Play All, it said “no song” (or something); and when I went to artists, there was nothing in the list. This morning, all the songs are there!
Here are all the things I did last night.
Changed mode to MSC
That’s all I did. What could have made my song list return?..
Neil
My guess is #3
Don’t use the auto mode ever. Choose either MTP or MSC, but never Auto- Defect (as Tapeworm would say)
The thing is, though, is that the songs were missing AFTER I switched to MSC. Only after I switched to MSC did I finish the installation of the autoupdate software, and then saw that the songs were missing, and confirmed though Windows Explorer (not possible without MSC).
The only thing I did after I saw that the songs were missing was reconnect to the autoinstaller (to make sure that the latest firmware had been installed), and left it connected all night to my PC to charge the battery.
That’s the way MSC and MTP modes work. For whatever reason, files transferred in one mode can’t be seen by your PC if you switch to the other mode. But the player sees all files transferred in either mode.
If your songs are “missing” when trying to navigate on the Clip, the cause may be a corrupted music database file. This file is generated, or appended, when you see the “refreshing database” mask on the display.
If a new firmware is installed, after loading the firmware binary, the device will build a new music database.
If your files are “missing” on the player, when trying to navigate, you can force the player to build a completely new database index file by connecting in MSC mode, then deleting the file mtable.sys from the root directory. When you unplug, the Sansa will rebuild the file automatically, based upon the ID3 tags in your loaded music files.
µsansa
Message Edited by microsansa on 05-31-2009 08:26 PM
