How do you synchronize a Sansa Clip player with Windows XP?

Question

I have connected a Sansa Clip player to my Windows XP desktop. I managed to copy mp3 files to the player, but could not get their meta data, specifically song and artist names in Hebrew.

How do you configure the player and operating system to synchronize well, including meta data?

Answer 1

The tags/metadata are on the files themselves. I'd check if they player has support for the language or unicode- maybe if it only supports latin scripts, your player wouln't be able to read them. Are they not there, or wierdly garbled? and what happens when you move the file back?

Answer 2

Well, I solved this problem another way. The key to its solution is noticing that the Sansa player has two USB modes: MSC and MTP.

MSC, the default mode in the player, does not allow proper transfer of the id3 files.

OTOH, MTP, the Microsoft Media Transfer Protocol, does allow proper transfer of these files.

We now have the little issue of enabling MTP on the desktop and the player. In my case, this surmounted to:

1. Update Windows Media Player to version 11.
2. Install the Windows MTP porting kit.
3. Switch the player to MTP mode in the settings.
4. Connect the player to a USB port.
5. Allow Windows to auto-detect and install an MTP-based driver for this player.
6. Edit the id3 records using the Windows Media Player.
7. Copy the mp3 song files to the player using the MTP device.

It works. I hope someone finds the documentation useful.

Answer 3

The Sansa Clip firmware does not support displaying ID3 tags in Hebrew.

What you are doing (copying files over) is currently fine.