You can use a 64 GB MicroSD card with many 1000's of songs on the Clip Sport

Much of the discussion here seems to be about the database limits that are now 2000.

It sounds like many people may not be aware of how the folder icon works.

I am using a 64GB card with well over 10,000 songs on the clip sport.

How?

Ignore the database.

Format your card inside the sport

Connect to computer

When the external card mounts create a music folder

Inside the Music folder add folders with artist names or whatever you want.

Add your songs - thats it

When you boot the clip select the “Folder” icon

Select “External” to browse the card - It works great.

Probably will work with 128 GB cards but I havent tried it.

In the settings select customise and turn off sdcard, music, and any others you don’t need. I just use Folder, Radio and Settings - very simple.

This may not be everyones ideal but it works well.

NYC2

1 Like

hi!

thanks for the tip!

Q: are file/folder names truncated in “Folder” mode? Could you upload a picture of it, maybe?

tia!

Not Truncated - The folder and song name automatically scroll when they are longer than the screen space.  Unless you have very long folder names - it’s not a problem.

On the card just use any hierarchical folder structure you like - you are just browsing the card. 

why is this step needed (or maybe not)? “Format your card inside the sport”

You don’t have to - you can format it in an external program - (FAT32)

Thanks for the info. and testing–there’s been question as to whether the 2000 + 2000 limit also affects folder browsing.  From your experience, it doesn’t–great to hear!

My guess is that the split database was designed so that the internal 4 or 8 gig partition can be used with the database features for sports workouts. You get a few thousand songs with fast indexing. The external card is for browsing large number of folders and files.  

I think that you are giving lots of credit.  I think that, in the end, it may be due to the engineering restrictions of the parts put in the player, different from those used earlier.

You are probably right - credit withdrawn.

Did some more tests based on your earlier post

> … there’s been question as to whether the 2000 + 2000 limit also affects folder browsing.  From your experience, it doesn’t …

I have about 170 folders inside the MicroSD “Music” folder and many times that nested within those.  For the last month everything has worked fine with lots of use.

Just did a couple of edits and name changes to a few folder names. 

When the Clip Sport was disconnected it reindexed. 

Now there are 4 folders that are sorted wrong (alphabetically) in the folder listing on the Sport. 

One of the mis-sorted folders is from another level down (nested inside).

Not sure if this is related - There were a few posts that mentioned file sorting weirdness. 

I can still see and play everything on the MicroSD card.

 At the risk of asking a stupid question, what then does the database limit do?

 I assume that it does not effect the number of playlists I can have nor does it effect the maximum number of songs which a playlist can list (999 I believe). And if it does not effect folder browsing, then what exactly does the database limit actually limit?

Guessing, I would assume that the majority of people play music by database listings–album, aritst, title–rather than by folder view.  And the database limitations affect that.

I am unaware of any specific documentation about the Sport’s database - the manual only mentions the word database once. 

But it does this type of stuff (from the rockbox manual) 

“This chapter describes the Rockbox music database system. Using the information contained in the tags (ID3v1, ID3v2, Vorbis Comments, Apev2, etc.) in your audio files, Rockbox builds and maintains a database of the music files on your player and allows you to browse them by Artist, Album, Genre, Song Name, etc.”

>Just did a couple of edits and name changes to a few folder names. 

>When the Clip Sport was disconnected it reindexed. 

>Now there are 4 folders that are sorted wrong (alphabetically) in the folder listing on >the Sport. 

>One of the mis-sorted folders is from another level down (nested inside).

>Not sure if this is related - There were a few posts that mentioned file sorting >weirdness. 

>I can still see and play everything on the MicroSD card.

Reformatted the MicroSD card  (using Sport internal format)

Re-copied all folders into the “music” folder.

After the reindex, everything is now sorting fine

Full browsing of the card is still working. 

 

At some point I will try editing folder names and see if it causes sorting issues again.

Thanks for your idea! – Under this circumstance I may give the Sport a chance. But what about shuffle play? Does it work in the folder mode, within the external card?

Can anybody confirm that shuffle play works in folder mode – no matter if SDHC or SDXC card?

Just did a test 

  1. Put shuffle play on under settings

  2. Began playing first song in a folder on a 64GB SDXC card

  3. When the song completed it went to a non sequential song within the folder after each song finished

  4.  Tried this with several other folders and it did the same thing.

It doesn’t seem to jump from folder to folder - only within the folder you are in.

Used manual folder browsing - no artist, album or song sorting.

Thank you! – That’s no good news. :cry:

Does that mean you can’t choose «play all» in folder mode – you have to begin with a manually chosen song?

@nyc2 wrote:

Just did a test 

  1. Put shuffle play on under settings

  2. Began playing first song in a folder on a 64GB SDXC card

  3. When the song completed it went to a non sequential song within the folder after each song finished

  4.  Tried this with several other folders and it did the same thing.

It doesn’t seem to jump from folder to folder - only within the folder you are in.

Used manual folder browsing - no artist, album or song sorting.

@jazz wrote:

Does that mean you can’t choose «play all» in folder mode – you have to begin with a manually chosen song?

Yes, that’s the way it works in Folder mode.

I see. – So it’s different than with Clip+ and Zip. It’s probably not the same kind of «folder mode» there, as the database is still in play (song infos are still displayed).