SD Card Confusion

[tardcat]

Howdy everyone,

I bought a 2GB SanDisk SD card this afternoon, and am having some issues. I read the users manual and nowhere could I find info about how to properly set up directories to hold the various kinds of files (AUDIO, DCIM, etc.), but luckily nice people like you are out there, and so I'm now aware that the directories need certain titles. I have downloaded FileZ and can see everything that's on my card, but when I go to the picture viewer, it only shows me pictures that are *not* in subfolders. I have some pictures just loose in the DCIM folder, and a bunch of others in a folder called "portfolio". I finally figured out how to use the drop down menu and "organize albums" function, but when I select the "portfolio" folder, there's nothing there, just a blank screen. FileZ confirms that that folder is definitely in there under DCIM, so I'm baffled . Also, RealPlayer only sees songs that are not in subdirectories (I grouped a few by artist). I realize RealPlayer may have a plethora of issues related to formats of songs, etc., but it seems to be a running theme of no subdirectories being accessible/accessed. Does anyone know how I can fix this?

Thanks!
Anne

[kabeyun]

You're asking about two related issues, and both are common. The common issue is that most applications only access data in directories they understand.

For your photos, I presume you're using the built-in Media application. As you discovered, this app will only display images in the DCIM root directory, or in subdirectories created within Media. If you want a subdirectory called "Portfolio," I suggest using Filez to move your photos up a level into DCIM, then delete the empty "Portfolio" folder, then use Media to create a Portfolio album and to put your portfolio images there. It's great that you're comfortable enough to use Filez to manipulate directories but you can see that the Media app is not as clever. Other image viewer apps (Splash, etc.) may be able to smart-sense all viewable images, but it's still a good idea to create albums within the apps you'll be using to view them.

For your tunes, RealPlayer stinks (imho). It stinks badly enough that the standard bundled music app is now pTunes. Your only "fix" is to use a different music app, and I do heartily recommend pTunes which, among a bunch of useful other things, understands your MP3s' ID3 tags, letting you pick tunes according to artist, album, and genre (as well as playlists you can set up). This obviates the need to manually group songs on the card, which isn't a good idea anyway.

Good luck.

-K

[tardcat]

Thank you so much, I am really glad to know that I am not totally losing my computer savvy. I had gathered that almost no one liked RealPlayer, but I hadn't realized it's actually so deficient as to not eve be able to group songs together in a folder (sheesh!). I will also follow your advice on the picture album stuff; for now I can use the built-in app, but I'm going to look into a better one soon.

Thanks again,
Anne

[kabeyun]

Happy to help.



-K