Annoying Little Ad-Ons When I Transfer Music to my Sansa Clip from iTunes

Hello,

I am wondering if anyone can help me.  I recently acquired a Sansa Clip+ and it took me a while to figure out how to transfer songs from iTunes to my Sansa since this device was probably made with a PC in mind, not a Mac.   Since all songs in iTunes are in .m4a format, I changed each song that I wished to transfer into .mp3 by the equivalent of right clicking on the song.  You then get a drop down menu where one of the options says “convert to MP3”.  Clicked on that, and another version of the song magically appears above the .m4a version.  I then drag it to my desktop, clean up the name of the song a little, and then into the MUSIC folder of the Sansa.  Sounds good so far? 

I have found that this works, however, I am getting a little junk file that looks like this.  Assuming I download the song Imagine by John Lennon, another file will appear that looks like this:  ._ Imagine.  It has a period and an underscore before the song.  This will not play, but it occupies space in the Sansa.  It even affects the counter showing how many songs I have transferred.  I can’t seem to get rid of this annoying little junk file.  Can anyone tell me how to do it?  Has anyone had the same experience?  I would call the toll free help line, however the agents are in India and their English is not good enough for me to understand them.

Thanks in advance,

Jimmy

By the way, I own a Sansa Clip +

@biscotti54 wrote:

 

I have found that this works, however, I am getting a little junk file that looks like this.  Assuming I download the song Imagine by John Lennon, another file will appear that looks like this:  ._ Imagine.  It has a period and an underscore before the song.  This will not play, but it occupies space in the Sansa.  It even affects the counter showing how many songs I have transferred. 

This is a “Finder” file. You can (and should) delete them. There are a couple Apple apps/programs that will do this en masse, but I can’t remember the name of them at the moment. Not enough coffee yet, I guess. I’m sure someone else will chime in and provide you with the names if you haven’t already Googled it and found the answer. :smiley:

As Tapeworm said, those are Finder files that the Mac system uses.  They all start with ._ (period underscore) and are 0kb in size.  Your Mac needs them, so don’t take them off your computer.

Because in its wisdom Apple decided to give the finder files the same extension (mp3) as the actual files, the Sansa counts up the number of mp3 files and thinks they are songs.

One way to deal with them is, after you’ve transferred everything, search the Sansa (or microSD card) for ._ and delete them all. Or sort the files by size and all the little 0kb files should come up together, and you could delete them from the Sansa.

There are probably automated programs that do the same thing if you want to Google around.

The name of the program I referred to earlier is Hidden Cleaner. I also posted this link in a reply to your other post.

Btw, I found this by googling in about 3 minutes. I’m happy to do it but truthfully, you could have found it on your own doing the smae thing, and wouldn’t have had to wait for a reply here. :wink:

Thanks everyone.  I tried to delete these finder files, but couldn’t.  They won’t stay on the screen when you hit the down button to delete them.  I will try this Hidden Cleaner if I can figure it out.  Does everyone have this problem when transferring from iTunes to the Sansa Clip+? 

Also, assuming I am finished transferring songs,  how do I do a search?  I see no search feature.  Please advise. 

Dear Tapeworm,

That program looks like it is exactly what I need.  Eliminates hidden ._ files from MP3 Players.  You are da MAN!!!

I am at work now so I can’t test it out.  If this works, you are a genius!!!

Thanks,

Jimmy

I just tried deleting the finder files manually, however, they won’t stay on the screen long enough for me to do anything.  They jump out of the screen after a nano second.  Guess I will have to use the software Tapeworm sent me. 

Jimmy

While I am not home in front of my iMac, I do not know how to sort to find these.  I assume you do it in the Sansa MUSIC folder but I have no idea how to sort anything.  I will experiment when I get home today.  

Thanks Black-Rectangle,

I am going to be trying all options this weekend.  I hope I can do what you mentioned, and just do a search and delete them.   I was told on the toll free line by a guy in INDIA that songs purchased in the ITunes store will not work on a Sansa Clip+.  That is incorrect.  They work fine.  I have not found a song yet that will not work on a Sansa in my library of songs. 

What the customer service guy meant was that m4a files, which are sold in the iTunes store, will not work on most of the Sansa Clip units. (I think the Clip Zip finally enabled m4a playback; the Clip+ doesn’t have it.)  

If you convert songs to mp3 in iTunes,  or download mp3 files from other sources, they will play of course.

You might as well use Hidden Cleaner and not bother trying it manually. I don’t use a Mac. Still, it seems there must be some way to search and sort files in folders by name, size, format, etc. 

I am not sure how to use the Hidden Cleaner, as there are no instructions.  Can you help?  Thanks.

I think I get it now.  Instead of ejecting the Sansa Clip icon via the Trash Can, I should eject it via the Hidden Cleaner icon?  Is this correct?  Thanks,

Jimmy

Well, I figured out how to use the HIDDEN CLEANER that TAPEWORM suggested and VOILA,  those finder files are magically gone!!!    This is awesome!!!    Now I just have the songs on there, exactly as I want it!!!

To TAPEWORM:  Thank you so much.   Your suggestion did the trick.  So easy.   Much appreciated!!!

I will close this thread now.  

Jimmy