Sandisk Clip Sport Go 128GB Upgrade Mod

[@synestetic1687]

Wow, this brings up memories. I actually used to work for a company that did MP3 players and whatnot, and at some point we tried to offer ourselves as a second source to SanDisk for the sansa, so we bought 5 of these and completely redid the electronics inside to use our SoC device for a demo to SanDisk. Fun times.

[@Grim177]

I can't believe in 2025 have we're having to jump through hoops like this when two decades ago their players had microsd slots.

[@sjm4306]

"Progress" lol

[@mecin123]

It works. I just finished the swap/upgrade to 32GB(all I had spare). I also updated to 1.04. The order I performed the tasks: 1. open Sport Go using pry method (carefully - I used a fine precision screw driver), 2. remove silver tape, 3. slide retainer back, 4. lift retainer up, 5. turn Go upside down an uSD card drops out, 6. Make image of uSD card as shown in video, 7. burn image to replacement uSD card, 8. place newly formatted uSD card in Go, 9. close retainer clip, 10. connect to USB port, 11. if OLED lights up, you did everything correct. Next, D/L "update.hex" from SanDisk/WD site (Clip Sport Go uses 1.04). Copy "update.hex" file from computer to Go using File explorer - file goes at the bottom. Finally, unplug USB cable - Go should update. Once complete, restart Go, make changes to settings then reformat. Once reformatting completes, you are ready to go. This is just a summary of this video. Still watch the video so the instructions make sense!

[@HitnRunTony]

I remember having a SanDisk “Sansa” years ago

[@alostbird72]

I have a quick question I can't figure out why the SD card won't connect to computer to extract the mp3 files to swap a new one? Any thoughts or suggestions

[@sjm4306]

The sd card's partition that holds the os and music isn't mountable outside the player so you cant view the files like you can on a normal storage device. If you knew the filesystem/partition type it might be possible to mount and access it in linux though that's a bit outside my knowledge.

[@angledcanoe]

Nice video and upgrade. I'm not sure of the speed ratings on your SD card, any rational for using say a A2 or V30 speed card? Assuming transfer rates would be faster transferring to directly to the card, but constricted using the USB port of the device.

[@sjm4306]

Once inside the player the bottleneck will be the usb 2.0 port so there's no benefit getting a faster card imo

[@angledcanoe]

@@sjm4306 I wondered if a faster card might speed up the media refresh rate or responsiveness of the unit if you have a large card filled with songs, perhaps not really an issue. Wondering if the interface would get sluggish at some point after so many files are on the card.

[@sjm4306]

I'd guess the tiny underpowered cpu is the limiting factor in that case. Iirc it's weaker than the cpu in the clip+ which is the reason these newer clips never got rockbox ports.

[@LiSsOfS]

I don't have access to a computer to reformat the card after I flash the firmware file I downloaded from the link. Any chance of someone doing one with both partitions for a 32 gig card? I did this and it shows the sandisk logo upside-down. Thank you.

[@partypiggaming9344]

Could you upload the firmware backup somewhere? like you said at the end, you need a working one to recover a corrupted one just in case someone needs it yk.

[@sjm4306]

I have no idea how to extract just the 200mb firmware partition (especially as it shows up as raw/unpartitioned) so I'd need to upload and pay for a 64gb file to be stored online indefinitely! If someone with linux dd knowhow wanted to help I could temporarily clear enough space on my cloud to send it to them to work on that.

[@partypiggaming9344]

@sjm4306 Thats fair enough, I dont mind having a crack at it tho. Should I send you an email or discord dm?

[@sjm4306]

@partypiggaming9344 shoot me an email at [e-mail]

[@ozzelot3349]

I have extracted the firmware partition from my Clip Sport Plus (PCB designation Clippro-502-00.11). Flashing it onto a new SD card works and also creates a 16GB partition, which you have to format to FAT32 on the PC or the player won't boot. Then format the player and indeed all the storage will be available. (Also, it's in Czech, since my player was set to Czech at the time of this experiment.) I can upload it somewhere if you might find it useful.

[@sjm4306]

YESYESYES that'd be awesome! If you post the link here I'll add it to the video description!

[@borisdg]

Why you are calling SanDisk - Sansa? What im missing 😂

[@sjm4306]

It's like how apple called their portable mp3 player "ipod", sandisk called their's "sansa". Sansa was simply the marketing brand/trademark for sandisk mp3 players back in the day (the original clips didn't even say sandisk on them but rather sansa). Sandisk stopped using sansa on their mp3 players though a few years ago but the term is still stuck in my head lol.

[@borisdg]

@sjm4306 oh interesting :)