Weird malfunction

Catlady · 06-13-2019, 09:43 PM

I just had the oddest experience while listening to an audiobook. Suddenly I was hearing a different audiobook mid chapter--the mp3 player's display showed the correct title and info, but it was playing a different book entirely, which I was able to recognize (a book previously loaded and played). That continued through the end of the chapter (time elapsed was that of the correct chapter), then returned to the correct book.

The file was actually altered--as I discovered when I copied it to my computer and the same thing happened. I also checked the book's backup file on my computer, which was fine. So it's pretty clear that the mp3 player somehow created the mashup all by itself.

Has anyone experienced anything even remotely like this? Has my mp3 player been taken over by a poltergeist?

haertig · 06-13-2019, 11:28 PM

Sounds like what you have are "cross linked files". These are usually found in FAT filesystems, because FAT is a non-journeling fileystem. FAT is almost for sure the filesystem that your MP3 player uses - I haven't heard of MP3 players that use other filesystems. Cross linked files are typically caused by improper shutdown of the operating system (like yanking power in the middle of file write operations) or by poorly written and misbehaved applications.

If your MP3 player uses a removable microSD card to store your file(s) that are now damaged, in theory you should be able to remove that microSD card, insert it into a Windows computer, and run chkdsk (or on a Linux computer, run fsck). These programs MIGHT be able to correct the filesystem damage. If your files are stored on internal memory in the MP3 player, you're probably out of luck in fixing them. You can remove them or re-format the MP3 player (if it allows that), and start over by adding your files back from scratch. Note that one damaged file does not mean that other files will be damaged. Nor does it mean that they WON'T be damaged. You may have one isolated corrupt file, or you may have many.

Catlady · 06-14-2019, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by haertig

Sounds like what you have are "cross linked files". These are usually found in FAT filesystems, because FAT is a non-journeling fileystem. FAT is almost for sure the filesystem that your MP3 player uses - I haven't heard of MP3 players that use other filesystems. Cross linked files are typically caused by improper shutdown of the operating system (like yanking power in the middle of file write operations) or by poorly written and misbehaved applications.

If your MP3 player uses a removable microSD card to store your file(s) that are now damaged, in theory you should be able to remove that microSD card, insert it into a Windows computer, and run chkdsk (or on a Linux computer, run fsck). These programs MIGHT be able to correct the filesystem damage. If your files are stored on internal memory in the MP3 player, you're probably out of luck in fixing them. You can remove them or re-format the MP3 player (if it allows that), and start over by adding your files back from scratch. Note that one damaged file does not mean that other files will be damaged. Nor does it mean that they WON'T be damaged. You may have one isolated corrupt file, or you may have many.

Thanks! I use the mp3 player's internal memory only (8gb), and add books as I read them until I run out of space, then delete them and start over. So if any other current files are corrupted on the device, at this point it doesn't matter because they'll be deleted.

But do you think I should reformat before adding any new files?

haertig · 06-14-2019, 05:04 PM

Reformatting probably isn't necessary. But if you won't lose a bunch of files, and your player supports reformat, then I would do it. Because it won't hurt, and may help. A reformat will clean up any other glitches in your file system, even ones that you don't know about now, and ones that may never cause problems anyway. The only reason not to reformat IMHO is if it would cause you to lose a lot of files thus causing you extra work to put them back after the reformat. That doesn't sound like your situation, so I would refornat myself (if you player allows you to in the first place).

Catlady · 06-15-2019, 11:10 AM

Thanks again, haertig. I did reformat. Hopefully the problem won't recur.

06-13-2019, 09:43 PM	#1
Catlady Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,346 Karma: 52398889 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite, AGPTek Bluetooth Clip	Weird malfunction I just had the oddest experience while listening to an audiobook. Suddenly I was hearing a different audiobook mid chapter--the mp3 player's display showed the correct title and info, but it was playing a different book entirely, which I was able to recognize (a book previously loaded and played). That continued through the end of the chapter (time elapsed was that of the correct chapter), then returned to the correct book. The file was actually altered--as I discovered when I copied it to my computer and the same thing happened. I also checked the book's backup file on my computer, which was fine. So it's pretty clear that the mp3 player somehow created the mashup all by itself. Has anyone experienced anything even remotely like this? Has my mp3 player been taken over by a poltergeist?

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06-13-2019, 11:28 PM	#2
haertig Wizard Posts: 1,758 Karma: 26012554 Join Date: Sep 2017 Device: PW3, Fire HD8 Gen7, Moto G7, Sansa Clip v2, Ruizu X26	Sounds like what you have are "cross linked files". These are usually found in FAT filesystems, because FAT is a non-journeling fileystem. FAT is almost for sure the filesystem that your MP3 player uses - I haven't heard of MP3 players that use other filesystems. Cross linked files are typically caused by improper shutdown of the operating system (like yanking power in the middle of file write operations) or by poorly written and misbehaved applications. If your MP3 player uses a removable microSD card to store your file(s) that are now damaged, in theory you should be able to remove that microSD card, insert it into a Windows computer, and run chkdsk (or on a Linux computer, run fsck). These programs MIGHT be able to correct the filesystem damage. If your files are stored on internal memory in the MP3 player, you're probably out of luck in fixing them. You can remove them or re-format the MP3 player (if it allows that), and start over by adding your files back from scratch. Note that one damaged file does not mean that other files will be damaged. Nor does it mean that they WON'T be damaged. You may have one isolated corrupt file, or you may have many.

06-14-2019, 05:04 PM	#4
haertig Wizard Posts: 1,758 Karma: 26012554 Join Date: Sep 2017 Device: PW3, Fire HD8 Gen7, Moto G7, Sansa Clip v2, Ruizu X26	Reformatting probably isn't necessary. But if you won't lose a bunch of files, and your player supports reformat, then I would do it. Because it won't hurt, and may help. A reformat will clean up any other glitches in your file system, even ones that you don't know about now, and ones that may never cause problems anyway. The only reason not to reformat IMHO is if it would cause you to lose a lot of files thus causing you extra work to put them back after the reformat. That doesn't sound like your situation, so I would refornat myself (if you player allows you to in the first place).

06-15-2019, 11:10 AM	#5
Catlady Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,346 Karma: 52398889 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite, AGPTek Bluetooth Clip	Thanks again, haertig. I did reformat. Hopefully the problem won't recur.