A TechLore "Ask the Experts" Question...

Question:

I have a 1GB Sandisk digital audio player. When I try to play my WMA files on it, they will not play. It will only play MP3 files. All of my songs on my player are from my CDs, so why won't my MP3 player play them? Why are some of them WMA and others MP3 files?

-submitted by Kryssi

Answer:

The Sandisk player that you currently own is capable of playing both MP3 and WMA files. It even supports protected WMA-DRM tracks that are purchased from popular online music stores.

Without more information, I have to make a few assumptions. The first is that many of your CDs were ripped to your computer using Windows Media Player. While that itself is not bad, there is a optional feature included that automatically copy-protects tracks you rip from your own CD collection. I'm willing to bet that some of your CDs have been ripped in this manner.

You also mentioned that some of your tracks are in MP3 format. I can only assume that these were ripped with a different program, or the settings in that program were changed without your knowledge.

Configuring Windows Media Player

To access the ripping settings in Windows Media Player: Hit the Alt key and follow --> "Tools" --> "Options" --> "Rip Music"

Once you've reached the screen like shown in the image, you'll need to adjust the following settings to properly convert your CDs into WMA files:

Format - this lets you choose which audio format your music is converted to. WMA is not a bad choice since it usually sounds better that MP3 files.

Copy Protection, you'll see a checkbox next to "copy protect music". You'll want to make sure that this is not selected if you want to tranfer songs to your player using the copy and paste method.

Quality - This lets you dictate the bitrate of your encoded music. The higher you go, the better the music will sound, but as you increase quality you increase the size of the file. The bigger your music files are, the less of them you'll be able to fit on your player. Try to stay at 128Kbps or higher.

Hit apply to save your changes, and you're all set. Now when you rip CDs you'll be able to copy and paste music files just as easily as MP3s.

Tranferring Copy Protected Files

I did mention that your player is capable of playing copy protected audio files. However, these tracks cannot be copied and pasted into the player using Windows Explorer. These tracks must be synced to the player using the "Sync" feature in Windows Media Player.

Updates

While doing research on your problem, I noticed that Sandisk has a firmware update for certain versions of your player. Check to see if your player needs this firmware update. You can see this information here.

You will also want to make sure that you are using the latest version of Windows Media Player, which is now version 10. You can download Media Player 10 through the Windows Update Service.

Should you have further questions, you can use the discussion page associated with this article.

Matt Whitlock - Editor, TechLore.com

Did You Know...

It's easy to play MP3 music in the car, at home, or anywhere there is an FM radio. Read Playing Portable MP3 Music in the Car Using Wireless FM Transmitters for more on this.

There are many different kinds of compressed audio formats. Read Understanding Digital Music Formats to learn more about them.