Very strange Long File Name problem... Any Ideas? [SOLVED]
troll
Windsor, Nova Scotia Icrontian
Greetings and Salutations!
I have picked up a most amazing little audio player, the Colorfly C3 from Hong Kong.
Audiophile quality player for a great price.
Anyhow that is not the issue.
This little player plays FLAC's, WAV's and APE's all with drag and drop as it shows up as a drive in Windows and on the Mac.
This is the strange part, I thought there was a problem with the C3 as it stopped recognizing FLAC files, they just wouldn't show up in the menu. With a little research it seems that the Cowon players can exhibit the same problem.
If you rename all the FLAC's to .fla they are recognized again and play fine. I was sure this was a Firmware problem with the player and went on a quest... To make a long long story short there is nothing wrong with the C3 or the Cowon players or the files bit rate or the ID Tags or the FLAC files themselves , it is a Windows issue concerning Long File Names.
When you copy FLAC files to this player, a USB stick or even on your local drive, they show up in explorer as:
Song Example.flac
If you bring up a command prompt, go to the directory where the file is and do a DIR, you get:
01/31/2013 10:41 AM 50,000,000 Song Example.flac
Perfect for windows but not for the VFAT players. If you do a DIR on them you will see the same information now here is the problem.
If I do a DIR/X on the directory I get this on a proper working copy:
01/31/2013 10:41 AM 50,000,000 SONGEX~1.FLA Song Example.flac
Since it is an .FLA the player will recognize the file and play it, but on my Windows 7 PC when I copy the FLAC files to the player I get this:
01/31/2013 10:41 AM 50,000,000 SONGEX~1.FL~ Song Example.flac
The extension of the file has been changed to a .FL~ which the player does NOT recognize and therefore will not play any songs. If I go and rename all the files to .FLA everything works as Windows is not applying LFN stuff to the extension. But I just don't want to rename my music library for a Windows issue.
PC's I have tried:
My XP machine and same problem bad extension.
Virtual XP on my Windows 7 computer will copy the files properly BUT you have to attach the USB Drive to the Virtual XP side and not use the shared connection or it fails.
My C2D MacBook copies the files fine.
Fresh install of 7 on a customers PC creates the files extensions properly.
So it is either a Windows Update, a piece of software or something else that has changed my Windows to cause this. I've read that a fresh install fixes the problem but we all know how much work that is.
You can try this yourself on your machine to see if you have the same problem and you don't even need music files to do it with.
From the CMD prompt:
C:>copy con song.flac
Type a few letters, then press CTRL Z
Back at the prompt type DIR/X and you should see:
SONG~1.FLA song.flac if you don't have this problem and
SONG~1.FL~ song.flac if you do.
So there is the problem I have, sorry if it was long and winded, maybe a little convoluted as well...
I've searched many places but my Google-Fu sometimes is not up to snuff and I don't have a TechNet account.
I'm throwing this out to the Guru's of Icronic to see if any one has an idea as to what has changed on my system or could possibly be the cause of this?
Thanks to those who suffered to the end this post!
I have picked up a most amazing little audio player, the Colorfly C3 from Hong Kong.
Audiophile quality player for a great price.
Anyhow that is not the issue.
This little player plays FLAC's, WAV's and APE's all with drag and drop as it shows up as a drive in Windows and on the Mac.
This is the strange part, I thought there was a problem with the C3 as it stopped recognizing FLAC files, they just wouldn't show up in the menu. With a little research it seems that the Cowon players can exhibit the same problem.
If you rename all the FLAC's to .fla they are recognized again and play fine. I was sure this was a Firmware problem with the player and went on a quest... To make a long long story short there is nothing wrong with the C3 or the Cowon players or the files bit rate or the ID Tags or the FLAC files themselves , it is a Windows issue concerning Long File Names.
When you copy FLAC files to this player, a USB stick or even on your local drive, they show up in explorer as:
Song Example.flac
If you bring up a command prompt, go to the directory where the file is and do a DIR, you get:
01/31/2013 10:41 AM 50,000,000 Song Example.flac
Perfect for windows but not for the VFAT players. If you do a DIR on them you will see the same information now here is the problem.
If I do a DIR/X on the directory I get this on a proper working copy:
01/31/2013 10:41 AM 50,000,000 SONGEX~1.FLA Song Example.flac
Since it is an .FLA the player will recognize the file and play it, but on my Windows 7 PC when I copy the FLAC files to the player I get this:
01/31/2013 10:41 AM 50,000,000 SONGEX~1.FL~ Song Example.flac
The extension of the file has been changed to a .FL~ which the player does NOT recognize and therefore will not play any songs. If I go and rename all the files to .FLA everything works as Windows is not applying LFN stuff to the extension. But I just don't want to rename my music library for a Windows issue.
PC's I have tried:
My XP machine and same problem bad extension.
Virtual XP on my Windows 7 computer will copy the files properly BUT you have to attach the USB Drive to the Virtual XP side and not use the shared connection or it fails.
My C2D MacBook copies the files fine.
Fresh install of 7 on a customers PC creates the files extensions properly.
So it is either a Windows Update, a piece of software or something else that has changed my Windows to cause this. I've read that a fresh install fixes the problem but we all know how much work that is.
You can try this yourself on your machine to see if you have the same problem and you don't even need music files to do it with.
From the CMD prompt:
C:>copy con song.flac
Type a few letters, then press CTRL Z
Back at the prompt type DIR/X and you should see:
SONG~1.FLA song.flac if you don't have this problem and
SONG~1.FL~ song.flac if you do.
So there is the problem I have, sorry if it was long and winded, maybe a little convoluted as well...
I've searched many places but my Google-Fu sometimes is not up to snuff and I don't have a TechNet account.
I'm throwing this out to the Guru's of Icronic to see if any one has an idea as to what has changed on my system or could possibly be the cause of this?
Thanks to those who suffered to the end this post!
![[Deleted User]](https://icrontic.com/applications/dashboard/design/images/defaulticon.png)
0
Comments
I assume you don't want to just rename all your music to .fla?
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc756733(v=ws.10).aspx
looks like you'll have to copy/paste the link. stupid parentheses
The player is VFAT/FAT32 the XP & 7 systems are NTFS and the Mac is HFS+ 10.6.8
Looks like the exact ticket for the problem!
That is why I love this place so much, I'll apply it when I get home and report back!
Too FINE!
This is NOT an iPod or a Sansa Clip+, it has no playlists, it will not resume playback, it does not play by artist, genre or gapless, (workaround for that) you put files on it and play them.
The Sound Quality it where this little baby shines.
(Danger Danger Head-Fi link below, you might not come back from that void.
Here is a review of the C3 vs a higher model CK4.
If your looking for features and quality that won't break the bank, then FiiO is coming out with a player as well down the road called the X3 supposedly $200 price range and will do up to 24/192 resolution files and support ALAC.
I'm just waiting for the Astell & Kern AK100's to drop in price...
Who would know it was that simple a fix except for an Icrontian with their knowledge and expertise!
It makes things so much easier when you can just drag and drop the files to the player and the uSD card!
Thanks Again!
Also I feel quite embarrassed having a Windows Expert Badge in my profile...
sounds like it's time to turn in your windows badge and gun, though.
ComboFix...
When you run it the win95truncatedextensions is set to 0... That's what I get for trying to virus clean a friends HD plugged onto my machine, now I know to just reset it if ComboFix ever runs again...
Made a post on Anything But iPod pointing back to here as there are a lot of Cowon users with the same problem. Anyhow all is good and lessons were learned!