iFixit - Answers With Device "Sansa Clip Plus"

Sansa Clip Plus: Player stuck in refreshing media mode

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 19:19:01 -0700

Hi I have a Sansa clip plus 4gb. No idea what happened but one day I plugged into my laptop and my player restarted and stuck in refreshing media mode. I held the player to turn it off hard reset and no matter what its still stuck in the refreshing media mode.. Appreciate any advise at all as it's now as good as a junk of plastic =(

⟐ Commented January 19, 2026 at 19:19 MST

Sansa Clip Plus: Where can I find a new battery?

Sun, 22 Jan 2023 15:28:32 -0700

My Sansa Clip Plus doesn't hold a charge anymore. I'd like to replace the battery but I can't find any battery on internet.

Does anyone know where I can find a new battery for this MP3 player (which is not available anymore, except at 100$ on Ebay (WTF!!!)) ?

Thanks a lot for your help

⟐ Answer edited January 22, 2023 at 15:28 MST

Sansa Clip Plus: No connection to my computer

Fri, 30 Dec 2016 15:08:33 -0700

When the USB cable from the Sansa Clip is connected to my Windows 10 computer there is no indication of the connection on the computer.

Originally I connected through Rhapsody, but that doesn't work anymore.

Which means that I can't add or delete music or update.

Is there some other program that will enable the connection? Does anyone else have this problem? Is there anyone who can help?

⟐ Edited December 30, 2016 at 15:08 MST

Sansa Clip Plus: How to fix brokien volume control?

Wed, 20 Apr 2016 14:03:03 -0700

there's a work-around: add a volume control in-line. But it would be more elegant to fix the toggle on the side of the Sansa. Anyone?

Sansa Clip Plus: usb charging port just broke off on charing cord, can I reattach?!

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 05:59:32 -0700

Hi! I was literally just using my mp3 player and as the battery went low, I went to charge it, and the charging port pulled out the charging jack piece and i don't know - can i reattach it? Is all lost? Thank you!

⟐ Answer accepted July 01, 2024 at 5:59 MST

Sansa Clip Plus: Which component blew up and needs to be replaced?

Mon, 04 Sep 2023 14:03:29 -0700

After replacing the battery in my Sansa Clip+ everything seemed normal – turned on, navigation worked, radio playback was working – but when I tried to charge it I smelled a magic smoke. Once opened, I noticed a component that blew up. Don't know if I messed up with soldering job and shorted GND lead from battery to the test pad nearby, or I accidentally shorted Audio Jack pad to smth nearby – will redo both after replacing the faulted component.

Interesting to know why it blew up. Was it just my bad solder job? Or was it caused by a cable / charger supplying more current than the player circuit can handle? Or is it (a wild idea) prone to aging and it was first-time charging in the last 5 years?

Now I obviously need to know to replace it with... something. According to the Rockbox wiki photo this component has a marking "S21" with a white stripe on one of its leads. Is it a diode of some sort? Which replacements I can order in EU?

⟐ Answered September 04, 2023 at 14:03 MST

Sansa Clip Plus: Sansa Clip Plus unable to add files/delete files and unable to mount.

Tue, 10 Apr 2018 07:31:15 -0700

I had my sansa clip for 2 years and i think the flash memory has gone bad.Any ideas?

⟐ Commented April 10, 2018 at 7:31 MST

Sansa Clip Plus: How to fix broken Pause button?

Mon, 30 Oct 2017 11:21:02 -0700

The Pause/Play (up) button on my Sansa Clip+ is broken. How can I fix it?

⟐ Answered October 30, 2017 at 11:21 MST

Sansa Clip Plus: Sandisk Clip+ Component Identification

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 10:54:52 -0700

Recently dug out my old Sansa Clip+ and couldn't get it to power on. Appears the component shown below has ruptured and I assume is the issue. Looks like a capacitor to me but I can't find anything that looks the same with the markings s451. Hoping someone can point me in the direction of a replacement. Thanks in advance.

⟐ Edited February 04, 2026 at 10:54 MST

Sansa Clip Plus: FM radio works, can't switch to my stored music, it sticks.

Sat, 06 Jul 2024 09:07:00 -0700

FM radio works, can't switch to my stored music, it sticks

Sansa Clip Plus: Cannot mount Sansa Clip device as USB storage

Wed, 11 May 2022 22:26:30 -0700

I have had the common issues with this device freezing. Long story short, it appeared to die after crashing when refreshing the music database. A few years later I plugged the Clip into a computer and it showed signs of life. Thereafter, I would try to troubleshoot it every so often. Eventually, I was able to reset it, get into settings without it crashing, and performed a factory reset and reformated it.

Now I have it working sort of normally (still crashes more than it probably should), but it has no music on it. It does not seem to be able to access mp3s on a microSD card. I cannot get any of my computers (Win XP, 7, 10, osx, Linux Mint (18.2), Ubuntu(22.04)) to recognize the device and access the storage, so I can transfer mp3s to it or at least update the firmware. I have set it to "mass storage class" as recommended by SanDisk for troubleshooting connections. Each version of Windows seems to see it as an "unknown device" but does not seem to mount it as a storage drive. OSX and Linux do not acknowledge it at all. Occasionally I will see normal behavior from the Clip with the alternating "Connected" and "Writing" screens, usually when connected to the Linux Mint computer but with no corresponding entry in /dev/ or /dev/bus/usb/.

Has anyone encountered this issue and fixed it? Initially, I assumed a compatibility/driver issue, but I just tried an old XP computer and it also could recognize the Clip. I am beginning to wonder if this is a hardware issue.

Thanks.

Sansa Clip Plus: Why aren't the words on the screen displaying?

Tue, 30 Mar 2021 17:39:47 -0700

My Sandisk Sansa Clip+ works just fine, however the words on the screen (song titles, artist, settings, etc.) Are not working. For example, when I turn it on, the first thing you're supposed to see would be “music". Mine doesn't show that. I can click it and go in and play the music, but I can't see any of the words and it makes it very difficult to navigate. Imagine trying to navigate your phone with the apps having no pictures or words to tell you what it is until you click it. Also, everytime you add a few apps (songs) all your other apps shift so you have to try to figure it all out all over again. It's very frustrating. Please help!!

Sansa Clip Plus: I damaged my Clip+ during disassembly.

Wed, 24 Feb 2021 08:20:55 -0700

I have a Clip+ that had a loose headphone jack, so I fixed it.

Unfortunately, in the process of opening it up, I pulled too hard on the sticky pad sitting on the flash memory. It can sometimes boot to Rockbox but it won’t play any music, it’ll get stuck skipping tracks.

I tried to take it all the way apart to make it easier to work on the flash, but it turns out there’s another sticky pad between the motherboard and display, and now the backlight doesn’t work. So, yeah, it’s time to stop and ask for help before I make it worse.

Does anyone have experience fixing a Clip+ with this kind of damage? How do I even begin to troubleshoot?

Sansa Clip Plus: Power button is stuck

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 17:38:22 -0700

The power button won’t press down — the only way to turn the device on now is to plug it in, and the only way to turn it off is to wait till the timed auto shutoff. I’ve tried blowing compressed air around the button. Do I have a brick?