M3U playlist support (in MSC mode)

I’ve only managed to get one playlist working with this device.

  1. I have an AutoPlaylist in foobar2000 called “Top Rated”
  2. Saved that playlist as an M3U8 file (some tracks have non-ANSI characters in them)
  3. Opened in Notepad and replaced the full path names to relative ones (e.g. “C:\User\Music” became "MUSIC")
  4. Placed the newly created file “toprated.m3u8” in the root of the Clip Zip drive

It worked! Alas, it was the only playlist that would work. I couldn’t add any more. I’ve tried:

  • Renaming the playlist file extension to .m3u
  • Changing the text encoding to ANSI or UTF8 (with and without the signature)
  • Using Mp3Tag or Notepad to create playlist
  • Placing the playlist files in various folders (notably the MUSIC folder)
  • Reflashing and formatting the player

None of those options worked. Even stranger if I replaced contents of “toprated.m3u8” with the contents of a different playlist it disappear off the menu; but it’s duplicate “toprated2.m3u8” would instead show up.

Anyone have any insight? I rather not use WMP or the funky Explorer mode support for MTP mode and have two seperate libraries to keep this device synced.

I’d hate to bump my own thread but I thought I would add some more information:

I tried making a playlist by hand and using Mp3Tag

#EXTM3U #EXTINF:225,Poets Of The Fall - Late Goodbye music\000 - Late Goodbye.mp3 #EXTINF:486,Macross Plus - Information High music\000 - Information High.mp3 #EXTINF:537,Hatsune Miku - Unfragment music\Hatsune Miku - Unfragment.mp3

 This playlist, with and without the “#EXT” portions just refused to show up. I’ve tried encoding it in ANSI and UTF8, placing in a “Playlist” folder, removing the "music" portions, none of those methods worked…

I’ve tried MTP mode with Windows explorer and was able to create playlist in the end, but this kind of messes with my syncing method… I have to be able to convert FLAC->MP3 on the fly and only when it’s needed. Of course using MTP mode doesn’t present a normal drive by its nature so I can’t always drag&drop to this faux Windows Explorer window from other programs. It seems like a waste to only partially support such a simple feature…

@wakaba23 wrote:

I’d hate to bump my own thread but I thought I would add some more information:

 

I tried making a playlist by hand and using Mp3Tag

#EXTM3U #EXTINF:225,Poets Of The Fall - Late Goodbye music\000 - Late Goodbye.mp3 #EXTINF:486,Macross Plus - Information High music\000 - Information High.mp3 #EXTINF:537,Hatsune Miku - Unfragment music\Hatsune Miku - Unfragment.mp3

 This playlist, with and without the “#EXT” portions just refused to show up. I’ve tried encoding it in ANSI and UTF8, placing in a “Playlist” folder , removing the "music" portions, none of those methods worked…

 

I’ve tried MTP mode with Windows explorer and was able to create playlist in the end, but this kind of messes with my syncing method… I have to be able to convert FLAC->MP3 on the fly and only when it’s needed. Of course using MTP mode doesn’t present a normal drive by its nature so I can’t always drag&drop to this faux Windows Explorer window from other programs. It seems like a waste to only partially support such a simple feature…

Placing .m3u playlists in the Playlists folder will not work. They must be in the Music folder with your music files. Also the music (and playlist file) must be loaded iin MSC mode, not MTP.

@tapeworm wrote:

Placing .m3u playlists in the Playlists folder will not work. They must be in the Music folder will your music files. Also the music (and playlist file) must be loaded iin MSC mode, not MTP.

I think that you didn’t read my first post or at the very least misunderstood me…

I’m not mixing the two modes up nor have I attempted to copy M3U playlists over in MTP mode. I’ve already tried placing my playlists in the MUSIC folder. Also in regards to my last post: all I attempted to do was imitate the folder structure I saw in MTP mode by creating a “Playlist” folder while in MSC mode and placing M3U files in there. And of course the files (MP3s) were transfered in MSC mode first it otherwise how would I test my playlists at all to troubleshoot that they were even vaild in the first place!

I’m sorry if I appear fustrated, I’ve typed various attempts I’ve made to get this working and no one seems to have any idea on how to fix it.

Again, to clarify: if I transfer my files in MTP mode and create a playlist using Windows Explorer, I can get playlists working (of course those only reference MTP transfered files). The problem is: I can’t sync properly using MTP mode without having to switch media managers and I’m not sure I can do that given other needs. MSC mode is needed, not only for playlists, but for everything else too.

Hi Wakaba23 - Have you had any luck sorting out this problem?

I seem to be travelling down the same path.

I have what seems to be a well formed m3u playlist and

no matter where I stick it, the clip zip just doesn’t see it

Hi, +1 on this problem

I live in the UK and have just received my Clip Zip and have been playing with it for a few days now. I use Linux [Debian] and therefore copy music, podcasts etc to it using the MSC mode drag and drop but so far have not managed to get a playlist to show up in the playlist menu let alone play the listed songs. I have tried using a text editor and copying across playlists from rhythmbox after running them through sed to replace / with \ and fromdos to convert all LFs to CRLFs and I also used easytag as per http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Clip-Clip/HOWTO-Creating-m3u-Playlists-using-easyTAG-on-Linux/td-p/33500

this thread all with no luck so far.

Creating playlists in MSC mode works with the older (original?) firmware:

http://mp3support.sandisk.com/firmware/clipzip/clipzip01.01.12.zip

here’s hoping they’ll fix it in an upcoming version

@bkdotcom wrote:

Creating playlists in MSC mode works with the older (original?) firmware:

http://mp3support.sandisk.com/firmware/clipzip/clipzip01.01.12.zip

 

here’s hoping they’ll fix it in an upcoming version

 

It works with this firmware too. I have Zero (0) problems with playlists, whether they be on my e200 v1 or v2 players, Fuze, Clip+ or Clip Zip. And I always use MSC mode.

There’s nothing to fix on SanDisk’s end.

@bkdotcom wrote:

Creating playlists in MSC mode works with the older (original?) firmware:

http://mp3support.sandisk.com/firmware/clipzip/clipzip01.01.12.zip

 

here’s hoping they’ll fix it in an upcoming version

 

I’m sure it did not work for me using the original firmware and for that matter the horrible click between tracks was reason enough to upgrade and not go back to that firmware.

Now working with firmware v20