Need help, can't skip tracks on Clip Zip on 3.13

[IcarusMiles]

I'm sorry, I am new to this, I really like the rockbox utility, but I cannot figure out how to advance tracks, pause them, skip, or even sop the player on a Sansa Clip Zip 4GB player with a 32GB micro SD card.
I tried a fresh install to see if that was maybe the problem, I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, I just can't figure this out. I have read the manual, and I just can't get it to work. Please forgive my ignorance, but I am willing to try anything suggested to get this to work for me.
Thank you in advance.

[AlexP]

Make sure you don't have party mode turned on, or prevent track skipping turned on.  Also, Rockbox Utility installs Rockbox

[IcarusMiles]

Make sure you don't have party mode turned on, or prevent track skipping turned on.  Also, Rockbox Utility installs Rockbox

Party mode! Thank you! I don't know how I missed that was on somehow. I'd been using it without the ability to skip tracks for weeks now.

Where is the "prevent skipping" option found? I cannot seem to find that option under my settings.
Thank you so much, I've felt like such an idiot not able to figure it out.

No longer related to that, does rockbox not support tracks labeled in Japanese? I cannot seem to be able to play them (and additional fonts were installed).

[AlexP]

You need to use a WPS that uses a font that supports Japanese characters. Just because a font is installed it won't be used automatically.

[[Saint]]

Where is the "prevent skipping" option found? I cannot seem to find that option under my settings.

Settings -> Playback Settings -> Prevent Track Skipping

No longer related to that, does rockbox not support tracks labeled in Japanese? I cannot seem to be able to play them (and additional fonts were installed).

I want to make sure that we understand what is happening here, what is the issue exactly:

Is the problem with the display of Japanese track titles?
Will Rockbox not play the tracks at all?
Both of the above?

The way I interpret your post, it seems as though Rockbox will not play the tracks that have Japanese filenames...is this correct? Rockbox should have no issue playing the audio, whether it can display the metadata and/or filename correctly or not. If you can clarify your issue(s), it would be greatly appreciated.


[Saint]

[IcarusMiles]

Yeah, it displays the files correctly at first, but as soon as it tries to play Japanese filenamed tracks, suddenly it just completely skips them, and changes names formerly displayed into "Err" and sometimes boxes instead of the characters, but sometimes the characters are still there. I even tried with the zipplus theme and no go. The default firmware, however can play my tracks in Japanese, so I'm not sure how to go about fixing this.

[bluebrother]

Are you playing the problematic files via a playlist or from the file browser?

[IcarusMiles]

The playlist fails. I have a playlist of "All" since I want to be able to play all of my music on shuffle. I do have my music in a few different folders, due to the the 999 track supported limit. I can navigate to what I think is a folder (because of the squares) and play some of the failed songs, but they show up as a series of squares, so if I want to play something specific, I have to guess as to what it is.

[saratoga]

The playlist fails. I have a playlist of "All" since I want to be able to play all of my music on shuffle. I do have my music in a few different folders, due to the the 999 track supported limit. I can navigate to what I think is a folder (because of the squares) and play some of the failed songs, but they show up as a series of squares, so if I want to play something specific, I have to guess as to what it is.

So if I understand you correctly, your problem is two fold:

1)  Your playlist files do not work, but the files themselves actually do play if you access them outside of the playlist
2)  Unicode filenames aren't displayed with the font you're using

Basically two separate issues, with two separate solutions:

For 1, a playlist is just a list of file locations to play (in plain text).  If you open it in a text editor you can double check that the files actually exist on your player.  Keep in mind that rockbox will ignore things like drive letters and such.

For 2, it sounds like you need to use a unicode font, such as unifont, that supports the characters in your files.  You could switch to a theme that uses a unicode font, or (I think) change the font to in the settings menu. 

[bluebrother]

For 1I rather suspect an encoding problem of the playlist file than path errors. An m3u file dosen't have a specified encoding, it uses the local one of the PC that generated the playlist. A PC with japanese Windows will use an encoding different to the default one in Rockbox. Use m3u8 playlists (which use utf8 as encoding) or adjust the default encoding setting in Rockbox.

[IcarusMiles]

The playlist fails. I have a playlist of "All" since I want to be able to play all of my music on shuffle. I do have my music in a few different folders, due to the the 999 track supported limit. I can navigate to what I think is a folder (because of the squares) and play some of the failed songs, but they show up as a series of squares, so if I want to play something specific, I have to guess as to what it is.

So if I understand you correctly, your problem is two fold:

1)  Your playlist files do not work, but the files themselves actually do play if you access them outside of the playlist
2)  Unicode filenames aren't displayed with the font you're using

Basically two separate issues, with two separate solutions:

For 1, a playlist is just a list of file locations to play (in plain text).  If you open it in a text editor you can double check that the files actually exist on your player.  Keep in mind that rockbox will ignore things like drive letters and such.

For 2, it sounds like you need to use a unicode font, such as unifont, that supports the characters in your files.  You could switch to a theme that uses a unicode font, or (I think) change the font to in the settings menu.

Actually, the files display properly until the playlist tries to play them. It is only then that they start to be displayed in all squares, or in the ERR - [bunch of squares] format. Yet they display on the player properly while being played, when using the zipplus theme. I'm not entirely sure using the default theme, as I have never got them to play using the default, even when trying to navigate to them in the first place.

Do you have an easy way to switch fonts using the Zipplus theme? I'm sure I can figure it out on my own just by messing it about, but if there is some proper method I should follow, I'd rather do it that way.

[IcarusMiles]

For 1I rather suspect an encoding problem of the playlist file than path errors. An m3u file dosen't have a specified encoding, it uses the local one of the PC that generated the playlist. A PC with japanese Windows will use an encoding different to the default one in Rockbox. Use m3u8 playlists (which use utf8 as encoding) or adjust the default encoding setting in Rockbox.

I create the playlist using Winamp, on an American install of Windows 7. The files play correctly on Winamp, but fail on the default version or in a playlist on Rockbox. I will see if I can find a quick and easy way to create the playlist in utf8 format.
As I said before, the tracks display properly until the play list gets ahold of them.

[IcarusMiles]

After having created an 'All' playlist in the m3u8 format, it seems to now play my music without skipping over the Japanese tracks. However, same thing applies, once the playlist gets to files, it changes the hiragana, katakana and kanji into squares, where once they were legible whilst searching out files. I guess I will still call this a solution, as I am no longer restricted to Latin characters, and if I can find the one song in Cyrillic and confirm that that, too can now be played, I will be pleased. Thanks everyone who has given me input!

[saratoga]

Then all you need to do is use a theme that has Japanese characters.

[IcarusMiles]

Then all you need to do is use a theme that has Japanese characters.

That's why I used the Zipplus theme... because it specifically reports to support Japanese characters. And they display properly, until they are set to be played for the first time.
I couldn't get them to play at all in the default player theme.

They display properly while playing, but I can't read them in the play list or even in the file selection once they play, because the characters all get turned to squares.