[dannytang]

I’m not sure what the point of your comment is, but be it Beta or whatever I’ve never had this problem with any touch screen device. Maybe I’ve just been lucky or maybe I’ve got a defective screen?

All I’m saying is if it isn’t addressed I’ll be using something else for my vehicle and active use. I don’t think I’ve ever purchased a dap with ‘Beta’ firmware before so this is a first for me.

I don't think it's just you. Certain buttons/menus are less responsive on my screen as well. I hope it's just a software/firmware mapping issue since not every screen is affected.

 

[abitdeef]

What I meant is that it's still a beta, we don't know what will finally come out. On the other hand makers/developers have to know if the fixes are good or if they break something else.
Edit: 1st dap here but not first item with FW that could/should be improved.

I guess I’m so old school that I expect released items to be solid in functionality and future firmware updates only for ‘extras’. Obscure bugs I can kind of understand, but if someone play tested this, well it shouldn’t have passed.

 

[toear]

Any chance they could put some kind of software lock on the unit? I find the unit gets turned on and off too easily... Especially in my pocket. Otherwise an awesome sounding dap...

 

[dannytang]

Playlists work in two ways - file browser and database. If you just want to make them work without a lot of fuss and wasted time, you can drop the playlists anywhere and browse to them via the File Browser mode. If you want to make the "Playlist" menu option do something useful with your externally-created playlists, it takes some futzing. First, make a playlist on the device itself, and then save it. This will prompt for a filename and create the directory /playlist_data with the M3U file in it. Now, you can put your own M3U files in that directory (I've attached my MediaMonkey settings below), and then load them from the Playlist menu. It will take a while (my 150+ M3U files took about 3 minutes). Now you can play them from the playlist menu, and you'll know it worked if you see a number that isn't 0 below each of their names. There are two benefits to going through all that effort, and they are both cosmetic - you can see how many tracks are in each playlist before you select it, and the lock screen will show the song title rather than the song file path. Hope this helps.

Any chance you can post an example of a playlist you imported? I can't seem to get mine to work.

 

[AndySocial]

Any chance you can post an example of a playlist you imported? I can't seem to get mine to work.

Did you get the playlist_data directory created by the AP80? Based on the conversation about the Hiby R3 (same OS), you can't create that directory yourself - the device has to make it by saving at least one playlist on the device.

Otherwise, it's just the settings I showed above. Here's one playlist that I've loaded. It imports fine into the database when I hit the "load playlist" option in the menu, while also working perfectly from the file browser menu.

../Music/lovelytheband/broken/01 lovelytheband - broken.mp3
../Music/Foster The People/Sacred Hearts Club/03 Foster The People - Sit Next to Me.mp3
../Music/Panic! At The Disco/Pray For The Wicked/04 Panic! At The Disco - High Hopes.mp3
../Music/Imagine Dragons/Natural/01 Imagine Dragons - Natural.mp3
../Music/Weezer/Africa/01 Weezer - Africa.mp3
../Music/Marshmello & Bastille/Happier/01 Marshmello - Happier.mp3
../Music/The Interrupters/Fight the Good Fight/03 The Interrupters - She's Kerosene.mp3
../Music/Young the Giant/Mirror Master/01 Young the Giant - Superposition.mp3
../Music/Badflower/Ghost/01 Badflower - Ghost.mp3
../Music/Portugal. The Man/Woodstock/04 Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still.mp3
../Music/The Smashing Pumpkins/Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)/01 The Smashing Pumpkin - Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts).mp3
../Music/Bad Religion/My Sanity/01 Bad Religion - My Sanity.mp3
../Music/Billie Eilish/you should see me in a crown/01 Billie Eilish - you should see me in a crown.mp3
​

 

[dannytang]

Did you get the playlist_data directory created by the AP80? Based on the conversation about the Hiby R3 (same OS), you can't create that directory yourself - the device has to make it by saving at least one playlist on the device.

Thanks for the example!

I created the directory myself. The problem I have is, even when create a playlist on the AP80 and then save it, it doesn't create the directory and corresponding m3u file. Is there something I'm missing? This is my first non-iPod/iOS DAP in years, so I have some learning to do.

 

[AndySocial]

Thanks for the example!

I created the directory myself. The problem I have is, even when create a playlist on the AP80 and then save it, it doesn't create the directory and corresponding m3u file. Is there something I'm missing? This is my first non-iPod/iOS DAP in years, so I have some learning to do.

Here's the sequence I did to get the directory to show up (may have to delete your manually-created directory first):

1. In the Playlist menu (lines and music note in the player), create new playlist. Use tiny keyboard to name it something, with much frustration.
2. In the Playlist menu, save playlist. Select format from the list of ONE possible format, for reasons.
3. In Files menu (folder icon), navigate to the Micro SD Card, then to the playlist_data directory.
4. See new M3U file I just saved.
5. Load playlists from MediaMonkey with the settings shown earlier.
6. In the Playlist menu, select Load Playlist

And then it has worked ever since, even though I have long since deleted the device-generated M3U playlist and its database entry.

 

[Music Enthusiast]

Hi, I just found the time to photograph the hardware issue I have

with the AP80's skip forward button. Just posting it here in case anyone else comes across hardware problems

 

[UrbanMana]

Here's the sequence I did to get the directory to show up (may have to delete your manually-created directory first):

1. In the Playlist menu (lines and music note in the player), create new playlist. Use tiny keyboard to name it something, with much frustration.
2. In the Playlist menu, save playlist. Select format from the list of ONE possible format, for reasons.
3. In Files menu (folder icon), navigate to the Micro SD Card, then to the playlist_data directory.
4. See new M3U file I just saved.
5. Load playlists from MediaMonkey with the settings shown earlier.
6. In the Playlist menu, select Load Playlist

And then it has worked ever since, even though I have long since deleted the device-generated M3U playlist and its database entry.

Thanks for the help, I got to the point where I populated the device created playlist list with my m3u files, loaded them, but there's a 0 showing up next to them and even though it shows the track names, when I click on them it says that the file cannot be found. The link between the M3u and the track is broken somehow, thoughts?

 

[AndySocial]

Thanks for the help, I got to the point where I populated the device created playlist list with my m3u files, loaded them, but there's a 0 showing up next to them and even though it shows the track names, when I click on them it says that the file cannot be found. The link between the M3u and the track is broken somehow, thoughts?

I'm stumped. Once you create one M3U list on the player, it should allow you to load playlists in that same directory. Are the file paths relative and with Linux file separators? The relative path thing is essential; I'm not sure about the file separators, but Linux style definitely works.

 

[dannytang]

Here's the sequence I did to get the directory to show up (may have to delete your manually-created directory first):

1. In the Playlist menu (lines and music note in the player), create new playlist. Use tiny keyboard to name it something, with much frustration.
2. In the Playlist menu, save playlist. Select format from the list of ONE possible format, for reasons.
3. In Files menu (folder icon), navigate to the Micro SD Card, then to the playlist_data directory.
4. See new M3U file I just saved.
5. Load playlists from MediaMonkey with the settings shown earlier.
6. In the Playlist menu, select Load Playlist

And then it has worked ever since, even though I have long since deleted the device-generated M3U playlist and its database entry.

The problem I'm having here is that I can see the playlist in the Files Menu, but there's no directory on the SD card? And when create the directory myself and put m3u files in it, the AP80 can see and load them but show 0 songs on the list... so I'm not sure if this is all an issue of macOS (even though I've tried 2 computers) or the beta firmware that came loaded on my AP80.

 

[AndySocial]

The problem I'm having here is that I can see the playlist in the Files Menu, but there's no directory on the SD card? And when create the directory myself and put m3u files in it, the AP80 can see and load them but show 0 songs on the list... so I'm not sure if this is all an issue of macOS (even though I've tried 2 computers) or the beta firmware that came loaded on my AP80.

Just to be clear, did you delete the directory you created, THEN had the AP80 create an M3U via the "save playlist" option? That seems to be the special sauce. It's a needlessly complex dance, considering I could just drop an M3U list onto my Rio Volt in 2000...

 

[dannytang]

Just to be clear, did you delete the directory you created, THEN had the AP80 create an M3U via the "save playlist" option? That seems to be the special sauce. It's a needlessly complex dance, considering I could just drop an M3U list onto my Rio Volt in 2000...

Yes. I even tried reformating the card and resetting the AP80 back to factory settings... The AP80 sees the playlist it's saved in "TF:/playlist_data", but the directory and, as a result, the playlist file doesn't show up in macOS when the AP80 is plugged in as a mass storage device or when I put the micro SD card into the computer.

 

[AndySocial]

Yes. I even tried reformating the card and resetting the AP80 back to factory settings... The AP80 sees the playlist it's saved in "TF:/playlist_data", but the directory and, as a result, the playlist file doesn't show up in macOS when the AP80 is plugged in as a mass storage device or when I put the micro SD card into the computer.

Magic Mac problem? I'm at the end of my troubleshooting list. Maybe someday the actual manufacturer might chime in. Hahahahahaha

 

[dannytang]

Magic Mac problem? I'm at the end of my troubleshooting list. Maybe someday the actual manufacturer might chime in. Hahahahahaha

Thanks for your help! And yes, hopefully, they'll chime in...