NW A45 cannot create playlist from the device

[noplanes]

I have successfully transfered songs but am unable to create a playlist on the device. The instructions say there are two ways to add a song to playlist - neither work for me and I get an error message saying no playlists are available, please connect to compliant software and transfer playlist. 

I am not looking to transfer an existing playlist, just to create one.

[Ian2019]

Distyl

Yes, I have some, not 512GB though. I will format a 400GB card in the player and report back. Fingers crossed. 

If that does work, will still be odd, but if it works I can cope with the oddness....

best

ian

[distyl]

BTW. Unicode (UTF-8) is fine. That's what I use. You can tell it is fine because it works with system memory playlist.

[distyl]

ian2019,

I am really curious! Good luck!

[Ian2019]

Distyl....

Please can I send you something across the ether to say thank you. It worked. A hand shake, a hug...

Used a 200GB card in the end. Formatted from the format menu in the player. Copied a bank playlist and 3 albums to the Music folder. Et voila. 

What a palaver to get there though.

Thank you for your perseverance with this. Would really help if Sony made this explicit in their instructions. Is still wonky though as I always format and copy stuff to the SD card outside of the player in which it is to be used. Means I now have to copy 500GB of data to the hard drive and then back again once the card is formatted. Will do that, and report back. It will take quite some time.

Again, THANKYOU!!!!!!

best

ian

[Ian2019]

Distyl et al

500GB copying now to the 512 card which has been formatted in the player and then put in a USB3 card holder, directly into the iMac. Is saying it will take about 2 hours. Will then create a blank playlist and see if I can add files. It looks like you can nest playlists i.e. embed one playlist in another. That is always a handy function to have. Will try that too.

One other thing... The A45 is the only player I have ever had (or software for that matter) that when you choose "Add file to playlist" does not give you the option to Create New Playlist. Isn't rocket science... If Sony are looking to control the ecosystem in which the A45 is used, then the Music Center software has a very long way to go IMHO.

Fingers crossed...

i

[distyl]

Hi ian2019,

I am glad, it worked. Formatting was my last resource. The software on this player really seems half-finished. I hope they port Rockbox to it. Though, to be fair to Sony it states twice in the online manual that the SD CARD needs to be formatted in the player. That's the reason, I got that idea. Other than that, Sony should listen to all requests in the community and materialise them in a new firmware update.

I hope that it works as expected after copying, too

We are very welcome ian! Greetings from Greece!

[Ian2019]

Distyl

If it says in the online manual that it needs to be formatted in the player then fair enough, mea culpa. A case of RTFM. Does it say that playlists won't work or just that it must be formatted in the player? All other functions seem to work OK with a reformatted card - the 512 card I use was formatted and used in another player before I got the A45.

I imagine the climate is better in Greece than it is in the UK right now - political and atmospheric...

i

[distyl]

Hi ian2019,

no it just says it has to be formatted in the player.

Anyway, it's Sony's fault that you can't create a playlist in the player, in the first place.

The weather is better here, but the political climate I don't think so...

Is the copy over? Have you checked the playlist function with the freshly formatted SD CARD?

Some extra info about formating:

After format, the following files are copied to the SD CARD: "default-capability.xml", "DevIcon.fil", "DevLogo.fil" which are Walkman specific files. "default-capability.xml" lists file format compatibility. I guess Walkman needs these files under certain circumstances.

[Ian2019]

Hi Distyl

Had to go out, just back. Copying all done, SD card in the player, took a long time to build its database, but that's hardly surprising. Copied an empty playlist to the Music folder on the card before putting it in the player.

And.....

It works!!!   Takes along time to add a file to the playlist. Maybe because of the number of files on the card? And it has copied across a whole stack of playlists that are embedded in the data. It look sleek each album has its own playlist from what I can see. Maybe because Roon has created them, not sure. But the good news is that the playlist I created then saved on the microSD card works and I can add tracks to it directly from the card in the player. Will look to see how I can edit it from the Mac. 

Meanwhile I need to eat!

Thanks again Distyl - would never have thought that formatting would have this effect. You live and learn eh?

best

i

[Ian2019]

Typos...

It looks like each album has its own playlist...

On closer examination some of them do and some don't. Is a simple edit to remove them. Think they have been added by another piece of software I used in the past.

All good,

i