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Author Topic: Playlist does not sync with MP3 player  (Read 997 times)

Isaacc7

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Playlist does not sync with MP3 player
« on: November 12, 2023, 07:39:42 pm »

This is probably a super niche issue at this point so I understand if it can't be addressed in software but maybe someone could give me a workaround for the problem? I have a Sandisk Clipjam MP3 player. When I export a playlist to it the playlist is "empty" on the player. The music comes over no problem but the playlist doesn't work.

It looks like others have figured out the problem. Looking at the support forum for Sandisk I see:

"The problem seems to be that the ClipJam expects a DOS format text file (with 2 characters that mark the end of a line), and rejects any in UNIX format text file (where there is only one character at the end of a line).

You need to look for a tool that can change the format of the playlist file.  On Cygwin and Linux (and I assume a Mac) you can use the unix2dos tool from the command line - which you would use like this:
unix2dos PLAYLIST.M3U"

It would be really cool if this could be implemented as an option in MC because I don't know what the solution means lol. If that's not possible does anyone know how I could fix it myself? Thanks.
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bob

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Re: Playlist does not sync with MP3 player
« Reply #1 on: November 14, 2023, 07:15:50 pm »

This is probably a super niche issue at this point so I understand if it can't be addressed in software but maybe someone could give me a workaround for the problem? I have a Sandisk Clipjam MP3 player. When I export a playlist to it the playlist is "empty" on the player. The music comes over no problem but the playlist doesn't work.

It looks like others have figured out the problem. Looking at the support forum for Sandisk I see:

"The problem seems to be that the ClipJam expects a DOS format text file (with 2 characters that mark the end of a line), and rejects any in UNIX format text file (where there is only one character at the end of a line).

You need to look for a tool that can change the format of the playlist file.  On Cygwin and Linux (and I assume a Mac) you can use the unix2dos tool from the command line - which you would use like this:
unix2dos PLAYLIST.M3U"

It would be really cool if this could be implemented as an option in MC because I don't know what the solution means lol. If that's not possible does anyone know how I could fix it myself? Thanks.
MC probably should write DOS style terminators in playlists to the player.
I'm just not sure about android players since android is a unix based OS. I'd guess that they'd be expecting DOS style terminators though.
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Isaacc7

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Re: Playlist does not sync with MP3 player
« Reply #2 on: November 14, 2023, 09:07:23 pm »

That’s a good point. It would be great to have the option to pick version gets written. It seems that both the source OS and the destination OS matter.
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leezer3

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Re: Playlist does not sync with MP3 player
« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2023, 11:45:51 am »

MC probably should write DOS style terminators in playlists to the player.
I'm just not sure about android players since android is a unix based OS. I'd guess that they'd be expecting DOS style terminators though.

Most Android based players I've ever come across expect DOS style terminators.
Presumably because they're designed to be used / synced with Windows machines.
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Isaacc7

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Re: Playlist does not sync with MP3 player
« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2023, 02:03:01 pm »

The clipjam is an old school MP3 player, it can’t do anything other than play audio. There is some sort of OS on it but I don’t know if it is Android. In any case, it was also made with the assumption of using Windows. I guess Apple crowded out other MP3 players for people with Macs.
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bob

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Re: Playlist does not sync with MP3 player
« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2023, 10:38:44 am »

I can't duplicate this at all.
Every M3U playlist I generate has full CRLF terminators.
What exact M3U playlist format are you using in MC's handheld options?
Can you attach one (zipped) here?
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Isaacc7

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Re: Playlist does not sync with MP3 player
« Reply #6 on: November 16, 2023, 10:39:17 pm »

"What exact M3U playlist format are you using in MC's handheld options?"

Huh, I should have known after all this time that there are options. There are always options with MC lol.  I didn't even check. Much to my relief/disappointment none of the M3U options worked. Here is a playlist made with M3U (relative Paths). Like all of the other options, the playlist shows up in the playlist section of the player but when I click on it, it just says Empty.

Maybe the post I found doesn't apply to Media Center and there's some other problem?
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blgentry

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Re: Playlist does not sync with MP3 player
« Reply #7 on: November 17, 2023, 07:08:43 am »

It looks like the Clip Jam wants playlists in the same folder as the files.  Or it wants them in the central Playlists folder on the Clip Jam.  This thread seems to outline the paths required:

https://forums.sandisk.com/t/properly-creating-playlists/71506/2

I would play around manually with the playlist file unit you get it to work on the clip jam.  Then you can pick the correct MC playlist format and put it in the proper folder.

Finally, I notice that your example M3U file contains music with "?" characters in the file and directory path names.  That may or may not make the Clip Jam angry or confused.  It might be instructive to start with some really simple file names like "1.mp3" and a very simple playlist referencing those file names.

Just some ideas for you.

Brian.
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Isaacc7

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Re: Playlist does not sync with MP3 player
« Reply #8 on: November 17, 2023, 09:00:53 am »

It looks like the Clip Jam wants playlists in the same folder as the files.  Or it wants them in the central Playlists folder on the Clip Jam.  This thread seems to outline the paths required:

https://forums.sandisk.com/t/properly-creating-playlists/71506/2

I would play around manually with the playlist file unit you get it to work on the clip jam.  Then you can pick the correct MC playlist format and put it in the proper folder.

Finally, I notice that your example M3U file contains music with "?" characters in the file and directory path names.  That may or may not make the Clip Jam angry or confused.  It might be instructive to start with some really simple file names like "1.mp3" and a very simple playlist referencing those file names.

Just some ideas for you.

Brian.

I appreciate the response. I’m afraid I don’t really know what “… play around with the playlist file manually..” means:( I see that MC has various options for paths for the files being written to the player. I assume that I can assign the playlist file to be written to any folder but I don’t know how to manipulate the M3U file directly or even what I would do to it.
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blgentry

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Re: Playlist does not sync with MP3 player
« Reply #9 on: November 17, 2023, 09:15:18 am »

My "play around with" suggestion means for you to edit the file directly with a text editor.  If that isn't something you will be comfortable with, then adjusting MC's options and trying each different M3U type might be the best thing to do.

Best of luck,
Brian.
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Isaacc7

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Re: Playlist does not sync with MP3 player
« Reply #10 on: November 17, 2023, 10:58:31 pm »

I seem to have cracked it. I dug up the detail that the playlist needs to be in the same folder as the music. The default settings were saving the playlist in the playlist folder, which makes plenty of sense. Reconfigured MC to save the playlist in the Music folder.  I then had to experiment with the different kinds of M3U formats and the M3U relative paths, forward slashes seems to do the trick. I can now open up a playlist on the Clipjam and play it. Curiously, one song will not show up or be playable in the playlist despite being part of it in MC and it transferring to the Clipjam.

So I'm glad to have gotten it working but it does leave me wondering what the default folder "Playlists" on the Clipjam is for since the only playlists that seem to work won't be in there. The Clipjam can still sort by artist and album as well even though all the music is just dumped into the main music folder. Thanks for helping out!
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