loading cd content

I just got a sansa clip+. I must be really stupid! I do not understand the instructions at all! Any easy way to do this. My brain is old, please help! I want to download my music cd’s to it. Thank you

Loading your music to the player is easy.

1.  Open the folder on your computer holding the music you want to put on your player.

2.  Copy that music:  select it (as much as you want) and then either right click on it and choose copy, or click on edit in tne menu at the top of the folder window and choose copy.

3.  Connect the Clip to the computer and open it up on your computer.  Yoi should see a bunch of pre-existing folders which you then can choose to hold your music and other files.  Note:  you don’t have to use the pre-existing folders–you also can use your own; the folders really are there for your own organization.  Open the folder where you want to store your files–e.g. the Music folder. 

4.  Paste your music:  right click on an empty space in the folder and choose paste, or click on edit in tne menu at the top of the folder window and choose paste.

Voila!  You’ve done it.

Perhaps also of help:  the Clip+ manual – http://mp3support.sandisk.com/downloads/um/clip±en-um.pdf

But before you follow Miikerman's excellent and detailed step-by-step directions you must first convert, or ‘rip’ (as it’s known by) the CDs to a format the player can read, like .mp3. These things are after all called .mp3 players, aren’t they? :stuck_out_tongue:

Your player cannot read the .cda format that the music is in on the CD’s as is. Luckily, you probably already have software on your computer that will convert the CD’s to the desired format, Window Media Player. WMP is a little quirky at times and there’s a couple of settings you need to change first to avoid these pitfalls.

First, WMP by default rips to .wma format. This format will work on your player, but .mp3 is more universal and trouble-free. So, what you need to do is change the default Rip settings in WMP to .mp3 format. Then you need to decide what bit-rate you want. The bit-rate controls the amount of digital information that is cut out of this ‘lossy’ format. 320kbps is the highest quality, but also results (obviously) in the largest file size. I use 256kbps as a good balance between sound quality and file size. You can go down to 128kbps (or even lower) but the results are going to sound nothing like your CD’s. Yet this is good enough for some people when listening on these portable devices with less than stellar earphones.

There’s a lot of information, advice and opinions both here on the forum and across the web if you want to poke around or search to learn more about this subject. Feel free to ask any questions you have; there’s a lot of helpful people here. :wink:

But before you follow Miikerman's excellent and detailed step-by-step directions you must first convert, or ‘rip’ (as it’s known by) the CDs to a format the player can read, like mp3. These things are after all called .mp3 players, aren’t they?

Your player cannot read the .cda format that the music is in on the CD’s as is. Luckily, you probably already have software on your computer that will convert the CD’s to the desired format, Window Media Player. WMP is a little quirky at times and there’s a couple of settings you need to change first to avoid these pitfalls.

First, WMP by default rips to .wma format. This format will work on your player, but .mp3 is more universal and trouble-free. So, what you need to do is change the default Rip settings in WMP to .mp3 format. Then you need to decide what bit-rate you want. The bit-rate controls the amount of digital information that is cut out of this ‘lossy’ format. 320kbps is the highest quality, but also results (obviously) in the largest file size. I use 256kbps as a good balance between sound quality and file size. You can go down to 128kbps (or even lower) but the results are going to sound nothing like your CD’s. Yet this is good enough for some people when listening on these portable devices with less than stellar earphones.

There’s a lot of information, advice and opinions both here on the forum and across the web if you want to poke around or search to learn more about this subject. Here are some discussions you may find useful:

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?filter=location&location=Board%3Aclipplusclip&q=converting+CD#/?location=Category%253Amp3&q=converting+CD&search_type=thread&filter=location

But feel free to ask any questions you have; there’s a lot of helpful people here.

Please elaborate on changing the WMP settings to mp3 and to 256kps.  I am old and can’t figure out what commands make this happen.  I went to the discussion board link you suggested but found nothing to help with this basic issue.

You do not need to convert to mp3 format if you find it difficult.  You can just use your wmp ( Windows Media Player version 10 or above) to edit a playlist and sync with your Clip+.

Have you ever done this procedure before?  Have you ripped music from CDs to the wmp so that you can play music on your computer?  You open the wmp, then insert a CD to your computer.  Click on Rip Music.  It will do it for you and use the wma format.  If you want to switch formats (such as mp3), do this:

Select tools at the top of the screen where File, View, Play Tools, Help are listed.

After clicking Tools, select options.

Click Rip Music tab, then look down the page for Format.  You have windows media audio (3 kinds) and mp3 format.

Below format is a sliding bar that you can change to 256 kpbs.

Hope that doesn’t confuse you more.  I’m old too but learned how to do this on my own after some prompting from my sis.

And as RoseP showed, it really is that simple!   :)