Express = quirky file structure

Anyone have any help w. this pls?

I have a 1 gig Express w. a 4 gig MicroSD.  My problem is maddening.  I have the latest firmware and am using WMP11.

This was all working fine…Can transfer playlists, load music and audible books into the Express etc and the Express keeps everything straight.

THEN:  After everything is fine for a while, after I add more music to the Memory card, the Exporess database corrupts and only properly reads the stuff in Internal Memory.  Everything on the memory card is lumped together as ‘Unknown Artist’.  It recognizes the song name but no longer archives them by Artist.  if I open the device using a File Manager, the database structure is intact and it has everything in folders by Artist. 

The resets, removing and reinserting the card, etc dont fix the problem.  I’ve reloaded the memory card 3x now and dont feel like doing it again…advice?

I would like to use this player as I really think it sounds better than my e260 and it sure is convenient…thanks…what a quirky little thing

Answering my own question here, but I think this is working.

Reformatted the memory card using the Express to format.

Copied music file folders from my hard drive to the Express using Windows Explorer keeping a consistent format.

The Sansa reads the card quickly and accurately.

Will use the Internal Memory for Audible Books and Playlists and the memory card for regular Albums

Gotta be MacGiver for these things :wink:

This database issue is due to inconsistency in the ID3 file tags, not with the SE. This was also a major source of frustration for me at first.  If you download a single song, it may have any combination of (or missing) ID3 tags depending on the source.  If you rip an entire album (say with Windows Media Player 11), then the ID3 tags will be consistent and the SE database information for that album will work fine.  Ripping songs of the same artist from two different CDs can also produce inconsistent ID3 tag information.  If you have songs or albums that appear on the SE as “Unknown …” (album, artist, song), then edit the MP3 file properties on your PC and then copy the file to the SE.  To edit the ID3 tags, right click on the MP3 file (on the PC, not the SE) and select Properties.  Then select the Summary Tab.  You will then see the eight ID3 tags that you can edit.  Edit them so that they are consistent with the categories and titles that you want the SE database to reflect.

Hope this helps.

@bthompson40207 wrote:

This database issue is due to inconsistency in the ID3 file tags, not with the SE. This was also a major source of frustration for me at first.  If you download a single song, it may have any combination of (or missing) ID3 tags depending on the source.  If you rip an entire album (say with Windows Media Player 11), then the ID3 tags will be consistent and the SE database information for that album will work fine.  Ripping songs of the same artist from two different CDs can also produce inconsistent ID3 tag information.  If you have songs or albums that appear on the SE as “Unknown …” (album, artist, song), then edit the MP3 file properties on your PC and then copy the file to the SE.  To edit the ID3 tags, right click on the MP3 file (on the PC, not the SE) and select Properties.  Then select the Summary Tab.  You will then see the eight ID3 tags that you can edit.  Edit them so that they are consistent with the categories and titles that you want the SE database to reflect.

 

Hope this helps.

makes sense thanks.  many of my songs came from different sources, and many have been converted to mp3 192kbs from other formats.  but…odd that i was only having a problem w. files stored on the memory card.  not on the internal memory

as an update thinking this may help someone else, my theory didnt work and i started having the same problems again, so this time i formatted the memory card using Vista rather than the formatter in the SE.  this seems to be wroking fine as i keep putting more music in the SE thru Vista by drag and dropping and so far so good…havent had to change any ID tags.  to me, if it all works fine for a while, it shouldnt be faulty ID tags