Sansa E200 Playlists on MicroSD

[vsl2005]

Running a both latest build and stable 3.6 on a Sansa e260 and using MediaMonkey to to sync music to 16GB microsd card. Have it set to create a playlist in the PLAYLIST directory when it transfers the music. Some playlists work fine, others cause RB to crash. I have compared both files in a text editor to see what the problem was and can't tell the difference in structure between the two of them.

Similarly, using the database function produces the same results: hit enter, song freezes, but I can navigate out to the directory on the microsd and play the files in that directory safely.

I've erased and reformatted card and the same problem with the same playlists recurs.

A search of the forums yielded this thread from 2008 which calls for editing the files manually by adding \<microSD1>\ to each file path, but why would one playlist work and another fail?

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=ad8b99ffa7beac95575c4e4403937078&topic=17165.0

Here are example paths from one playlist that works and another that crashes:

WORKS:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:425,Peter Gabriel - Come Talk To Me
\Music\Peter Gabriel\1992 - Us\1 - Come Talk To Me.mp3

FAILS:
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:166,Fleetwood Mac - Monday Morning
\Music\Fleetwood Mac\1975 - Fleetwood Mac\1 - Monday Morning.mp3


Before I manually add \<microSD1>\ to 200+ playlist files can anyone please tell me if have I missed another solution?

Thanks again to all for your work on Rockbox!

[JdGordon]

\<microSD1>\ tells it to look on the microSD card for the file so it is needed for any tracks which are on that card.

rockbox shouldnt be freezing or anything though, any files it cant find should be just skipped.

[pixelma]

Rockbox should find the files without the leading <microSD> too, it strips drive letters etc. and looks in both places. Adding it is not wrong though if your files are really on the card - then they are found quicker.

From the snippet you posted it looks like you are using the extm3u playlist format? As far as I know this format isn't supported by Rockbox, only "simple" m3u and the unicode variant m3u8. I don't know MediaMonkey though, so this is just a guess.

[Lear]

No, Rockbox never adds anything to a path, so it won't look in <microSD>.

The "extra" information in extm3u is in comments, so programs that don't understand it simply ignore it.

[vsl2005]

Thanks for your replies. I should note that I have no issues with playlists on the main flash drive on the unit. Nor have I ever had any issues with creating playlists in this fashion with any other of my Rockbox enabled DMPs (Archos JB V2, Ipod 5.5G).

And Rockbox does not freeze. Soon as I hit enter on one of the bogus playlists it simply does not play them, but I can navigate to another location. I noticed on a couple of my playlists that do play, that when I view the playlist through the context menu several of the songs appear thus:

1. (ERR)1 - Monday Morning

But why these errors some songs and not others? Like I said, I can navigate and play these files directly from their directory location no problem.

Anyone else out there using MediaMonkey to sync?

[Lear]

Thanks for your replies. I should note that I have no issues with playlists on the main flash drive on the unit. Nor have I ever had any issues with creating playlists in this fashion with any other of my Rockbox enabled DMPs (Archos JB V2, Ipod 5.5G).

These players only have one volume, so there is no extra directory that can cause problems.

I noticed on a couple of my playlists that do play, that when I view the playlist through the context menu several of the songs appear thus:

1. (ERR)1 - Monday Morning

But why these errors some songs and not others? Like I said, I can navigate and play these files directly from their directory location no problem.

This means that Rockbox can't find the file in question (and removing any drive letter or leading directories didn't help).

[vsl2005]

These players only have one volume, so there is no extra directory that can cause problems.

Odd. It would have been nice to have the playlists in the same directory on the unit - so that is what I tried when I first bought the Sansa. But I found that if I move a playlist sync'd to the microsd card to the playlist directory on the main drive that definitely does crash Rockbox and I have to do a hard reboot.

This means that Rockbox can't find the file in question (and removing any drive letter or leading directories didn't help).

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. I've not removed any drive letter or path. Nor have I modified these playlists once they are sync'd to the unit. I am only reporting what the unit displays on those few playlists which actually play - meaning there are a few songs n that list which don't return errors.

[Chronon]

Rockbox will strip leading directories from paths in a playlist looking for a match.  For example, I have an album on my PC at "/home/username/Music/Tool/Undertow/09 - Flood.ogg".  Rockbox will find this file on my player from a playlist containing this path if a file exists on my player at, for example, "/Music/Tool/Undertow/09 - Flood.ogg".

[vsl2005]

Thanks Chronon. Last time, then I give up, I promise: any ideas why Rockbox sees some files and not others? They are all there on the microsd, and I can navigate to them and play them successfully, so the song files themselves are not corrupted. As I posted above, there's no difference in syntax between the playlists themselves.

[Chronon]

You initially described it as a crash, but now it just seems like Rockbox is not playing the files because it can't  find them (this is expected).  Does it do this with all files located on the microSD?

[vsl2005]

Sorry, I didn't mean to mislead - the only time Rockbox has ever crashed is when I moved the playlist from \microsd\playlists to the root\playlists directory on the main unit and tried to play it from there. That necessitated a hard reboot.

I can manually navigate to and successfully play all of the files located on the microsd which otherwise result in the ERR noted above when I attempt to play them through a sync'd playlist.

Thank you again  for your help!