Travel Technology - Blackberry media player?

I use my Blackberry as my all in one email, phone, PDA, and mp3 player. Lately I've run in to some issues and I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas.

I have one playlist that I sync in iTunes using Blackberry Media Sync. It has, according to iTunes, 1549 songs. When I sync, the Media Sync program says the sync was completed successfully (no errors). But in Media Player on the Blackberry, it gives a total number of songs that is usually far less than 1549. Sometimes it'll say 700ish, sometimes 1200ish. Now it says 1384. It changes if I force the Blackberry to rescan, but when it rescans it never seems to find all the songs.

If I plug the Blackberry in to my laptop and use Windows to search for all *.mp3 and *.m4a files in the \music\Media Sync folder, it finds exactly 1549 files.

I've also noticed that some songs seem to "disappear". For example, I know I have "Rebellion" by The Arcade Fire. The other day when I went to All Songs and typed in "Arc" it didn't find it. Same for "Reb" or "fire". But when i went in to the media player and Explored my media card, I found the song file. I clicked on it and it played just fine.

I've backed up the media card to my computer, deleted all the bbthumbs.dat files, formatted the media card, and copied music manually back to the BB in small batches. Everything works well until I get about 1430 songs on there, and then the Berry starts reporting less than 1430 songs. Sometimes 1430, 1411, 800,etc.

Any ideas?

One thing I have noticed after putting an 8 gig card in my Blackberry is that after I do a battery pull or reset it takes a LONG time to scan and index the card. I don't know if you can interrupt this scanning process by doing something, but possibly this is what is occuring.

Just a shot in the dark, but you might make sure you give your BB enough time to finish the scan, after you remove it from your computer after a sync, or anytime it is connected to your computer.

I don't have anywhere near the number of MP3s on my BB but I have had items not show up on the playlist that I knew were there. In time they came back, so I am guessing that the BB scans the media card at various times to keep the index up to date. I am thinking probably anytime it is connected to a computer, as this is when you could add or delete items.

Other possibility is perhaps there is a limit to either the number of files, or the size of the index database, since your problems start occuring around 1430. I remember years ago DOS had a maximum number of files you could put in your root directory.

It could also be something in the media player with that number of of files. There are other media players out there, and some are free that you might try and see if you have the same problem. I'm guessing that as media cards get larger you are going to see other issues like this, as it wasn't that long ago when 2 gig was the maximum sized card you could put on a BB.

Other possibility is perhaps there is a limit to either the number of files, or the size of the index database, since your problems start occuring around 1430. I remember years ago DOS had a maximum number of files you could put in your root directory.

It could also be something in the media player with that number of of files. There are other media players out there, and some are free that you might try and see if you have the same problem. I'm guessing that as media cards get larger you are going to see other issues like this, as it wasn't that long ago when 2 gig was the maximum sized card you could put on a BB.

This turned out to be the problem. I downloaded the free version of xPlayer and it recognized all 1570 songs.

I gave up on that plan, I just carry my bberry and an ipod touch. Screen is better for watching movies and TV episodes etc. I know, I know

I gave up on that plan, I just carry my bberry and an ipod touch. Screen is better for watching movies and TV episodes etc. I know, I know

I really don't want to go back to the dark side, but we'll see.

Followup: I don't know why I didn't try this before. Instead of just clicking "shuffle songs" I went in to Playlists and chose my synced playlist - and all 1572 songs showed up. Of course, I can't navigate it easily but at least all the songs are there.

I still might get an iPod again. We'll see.