Before I buy, need folder use explanation

So currently I broke the button on my clip zip after a few years of using it now and I am looking to replace it. The way I organize my songs is that I have a folders that go like

Arist > Album > Songs labeled 01 - Title1.mp3 , 02 - Title2.mp3 etc

I am the kind of person who doesn’t use shuffle and listens to an entire album folder and I go choose a new album after.

I am using a 64GB Lexar Class 10 SDHC on my Clip Zip at the moment. I intend to only store music on the sd card.

I have read about the 2000 file limit but some people have said using folder navigation is quite slow, is this true? Once I play the first file in the folder, will the whole album folder be added to the playlist automatically? Are there any other problems I will encounter using folder view?

The Clip Sport is likely to have problems with class 10 cards. To use your 64GB class 10 card, I suggest that you use a Sandisk clip Zip or Clip+ with Rockbox installed. Rockbox handles class 10 cards just fine. I guess your Clip Zip was probably using Rockbox. There is no Rockbox available for the Clip Sport. The Clip Sport is also limited to 2,000 songs in card memory, and 2,000 songs in main memory. These are kept as two separate databases, and not integrated as in the Clip+ and Clip Zip. The Clip Zip is hard to find now and expensive, however the Clip+ is available easily from Amazon or B&H.

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@jk98 wrote:

The Clip Zip is hard to find now and expensive, however the Clip+ is available easily from Amazon or B&H.

The SanDisk store has plenty:

Clip Zip

As well as Clip+'s:

Clip+

@zeddokun wrote:

I have read about the 2000 file limit but some people have said using folder navigation is quite slow, is this true? Once I play the first file in the folder, will the whole album folder be added to the playlist automatically? Are there any other problems I will encounter using folder view?

Folder navigation is only slow with all music in one folder (as in one of my two Sports, necessary for the «shuffle all» function). With a normal folder structure it is almost as fast as Clip+ and Clip Zip. It will play all albums of a folder (in order of file date!) and then stop, unless you have set it to repeat. There are no problems that come to mind in folder view, except for the fact that database is out of play, and so is the 2000 file limit – but you may know that already.

On a side note: The Sport is a somewhat limited player compared to Clip+ and Zip, on the other hand it has the most powerful headphone output and – to my ears – the highest sound quality of all Clips.

So folder view does not play in order of file name? That is not good for me, in that case I’ll get another clip zip and rock box it like the current one I have now.

@zeddokun wrote:

So folder view does not play in order of file name? That is not good for me, in that case I’ll get another clip zip and rock box it like the current one I have now.

When you load the Sport’s memory the first time, the file creation dates will most likely correspond to the file names. So you’d just have to care for future uploads, if at all.

I don’t quite understand why I have to care for future uploads.

Can anyone confirm the behavior? I.e. uploading files labeled 01 - title.mp3 , 02 - title.mp3  etc and inside folder it is displayed in that order starting from 01

@zeddokun wrote:

I don’t quite understand why I have to care for future uploads.

Sorry, I don’t use folder view these days, and I have mixed it up. The order of the files within folders is in fact alphabetic, but if you add new folders, they will be sorted at the end of the list, irrespective of their names.

In folder view, the Clip Sport simply reads the FAT file system and lists all files in the order they where added to the device by your computer (which usually is alphabetically). No internal sorting is applied. If you later add new content to an existing directory it will be appended at the end of the list.

It is however possible to rearrange the content with third-party software like FAT Sorter (Windows) or FATSort (OS X, Linux) if needed.

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/SanDisk-Clip-Sport/GUIDE-How-to-organize-your-2000-song-library/m-p/329899/highlight/true#M908

http://fenux.net/story/fatsorteroneohfour

I just tested my two players again. They showed some slightly confusing results, that’s why I got confused. I have to withdraw above statement and confirm my original statement – as well as robert_a’s. The Sport indeed shows files and folders in the order of their creation date.

As mentioned, when you copy your whole music collection at once the first time, it will be sorted alphabetically on the Sport. After that, every added folder or file will be sorted at the end of the corresponding list. After all you could still make for alphabetical folder content by replacing all files in it at once (by deleting and recreating).

@jazz wrote:

After all you could still make for alphabetical folder content by replacing all files in it at once (by deleting and recreating).

And that’s what FATSorter, mentioned above, effectively does, easily.

Ah I see, I think I would be ok using FATsorter assuming it takes a few minutes. Does the file or folder name scroll in folder view when it does not fit the view of the screen?

It scrolls and as a positive sidenote, there is no truncation of folder- or file names in folder view.

Although I use the Clip Sport a lot and is quite happy with it, it’s a limited player and you will have to use workarounds like FAT Sorter to make it really usable. For this reason I would recommend buying a full featured player like the Clip+ or Clip Zip instead. They are easier to live with and as a previous Zip owner chances are you might be disappointed with the Sport.

But then again, the better sound from the Sport…  :neutral_face:

I can live with limitations as a trade off for better battery life as long as I can access all my music. I just might have to buy both. Thanks :smiley:

@robert_a wrote:

In folder view, the Clip Sport simply reads the FAT file system and lists all files in the order they where added to the device by your computer (which usually is alphabetically).  

 

Thats so sloppy/lazy its almost funny.

Looks like I will not be buying the clip zip or sport yet as I got extremely lucky a grabbed a new sansa fuze (non plus). Maybe I will wait a bit longer and see if sansa will cripple or improve the player more. I am still curious about its sound as I read about it here.; Previous clips have the same dac as the fuze and it seems to measure better than the sport.

https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/digital/digital-audio-players/

Questionable if SanDisk will offer further enhancements/fixes to what’s already out.  Hasn’t done so in years . . . .