Anybody out there know whether I can get my iTunes library to play on a Sansa mp3 player? The salesman at Best Buy said it would be no problem, but I have since found out that he doesn't know what he is talking about. Big shocker there.

Get windows media player on your machine, and import your iTunes library. Then the Sansa will be easy to load.
What model Sansa do you have? I thought they were making players that worked with both M4P and MP3 files. Maybe check out the Sansa site, they have pretty good support.
Do you use a Mac or PC?

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On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

I got a Sansa Clip. It's about the size of a pack of matches.

We use an iMac. I wonder what it's going to think of my running Windows Media Player.

I will give it a try.

There is a version of WMP for mac.
I have both WMP and iTunes on my PC's and my old G4, because I have MP3 players and iPods. Slightly different topic - iGadget is a great program to avoid having to sync the iPod everytime you want to put something on or take something off.

You could try reformatting the clip -
http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=clip&message.id=3744

__________________
On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

http://lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/free-your-music-from-itunes-with-itunes-export-280279.php

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99 ML320
94 SL600
92 SL500
95 E320 Cabriolet
87 560SEC
86 300SDL Grease Car
80 380SLC Euro

13 Fiat Abarth
02 Maserati Spyder Cambiocorsa
00 BMW Z3
90 Rolls Royce Silver Spur
80 Ferrari 308 GTSI
88 Jaguar XJS12 H&E Edition
99 Land Rover Discovery

Forgive me if you know these things already...they are very basic.

First off, make sure your Ipod/itunes library is storing songs in MP3. You have to set this up in Itunes as the default otherwise it stores / rips files in apple format.

Itunes stores the music files in directories, usually by artist / then CD. You find the MP3 files at the bottom of the directory tree. Depending how your MP3 player connects to your computer, you may be able to drag and drop onto it. I do this with my daughter's cell phones. They appear to be a USB drive to the computer.

As far as a more full featured library app, I don't have any info. I think the generic MP3 world is all looking for an itunes equivalent.

Apparently not basic enough

Thank you Cscmidt, powerpig, and cmbdiesel. So far, I can't get any of those things to work. I downloaded Media Player, but when I tried to run the downloaded program it said it can't open the file because it's not a movie. I have no idea what that means.

The other solutions I tried all seem to be designed for files not purchased through iTunes, although it is just as likely that I am misunderstanding the instructions.

I really am ignorant about these things, but I thought that's why people by Apple - for idiots like me.

I don't know who has me more angry right now - Apple for being so proprietary or Best Buy for having sales people who don't know what they are doing.

I think I will take the Clip back and get another iPod, which really pisses me off. I have never liked the iPod or iTunes. Neither seems particularly well designed. The most idiotic part being the lack of an on-off switch on the iPod. Bad design, pure and simple, IMHO.

Thank you for your help and for allowing me to rant.

Actually that's why people keep buying PC/Microsoft. Plug and play. Apple seems more for those who don't mind figuring a lot of things out for themselves, and yearn for those things sleek and sexy. (one of the reasons I got an iPhone)
Did you download the WMP from microsoft? apple? they both have it available.
Maybe a different MP3 player that will link directly to iTunes, possibly the Sansa e200 series. I like the Sansa stuff, have a tiny little .5 gig player the size of a thumb drive.

__________________
On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

I haven't read in detail, but it claims to review itunes alternatives. Maybe it will help your search.



http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=862&tag=nl.e539