I downloaded songs for him and it worked for a day and then stopped. I thought it was the battery, but it was not the case(i changed it to different batteries). It turns on, but then it shuts off by itself.

The bottom cover continuously unlatches on one and the other shaker stopped playing after about 1.5 weeks. I tried troubleshooting by reconnecting to the pc, but it was not recognized. Sandisk said this is a recurring problem and to connect to the USB ports at the back of the pc.

It is attached by a small lanyard, so it probably won't get lost, but the fact that it does come open so easily is annoying. the problem with the cover isn't enough to deter me from buying the player or enough to make me want to return it. Even if I did want to return it, my son wouldn't let me.

It was relatively easy to upload music except for the fact that they had to be in MP3 format and without my husband I would never have known how to do that. My son loved it and it had pretty good sound from the speakers, but after less than a week it just all of a sudden stopped working! Such a disappointment...

All of this is not to mention the biggest and worst problem of all, adding music. I spent most of a Sunday trying to figure out how to get music on this thing. WMA and MP4s do not work.

A big waste of $30 + shipping times two. Both of my daughters are very dissapointed. I will be getting them I-Pods and sending these back to Amazon.

It is a bit of a pain that you have to convert the files to MP3s but not so much of a pain that you'd not get the item. I transfer whole CDs at a time for her and it only takes a few minutes. As other reviewers have mentioned, our "shaker" function does not work either - and trust me, she's shaken the thing!

So it was not easy for me at all to get music on to it. All my music was in wma format and nothing would play. I plan on returning.

I buy things from Amazon.com all the time, but this product was not good. I am wondering if i can return or something. I would not recommend it.

Don't waste your time or money. Purchased for my daughers for birthday - she loved it for the 1 1/2 days that it worked. Returned and received a replacement and that one lasted 2 days.

The only design flaw that we found is at the bottom of the player. It twists off to replace the battery and the SD card, and is attached by a string, but it pops open often when changing tracks by the bottom "ring" or when using the "shake" feature. It doesn't get lost because of the string, but it slightly annoying to have to keep putting it back on.

So, why design a product for use by children in 2007 that needs a battery every 40 minutes or so? ... I truly do feel that the idea and basic function of this product are brilliant but, not very well thought out.

It was very easy to set up and start [once I found the batter compartment...just read the book], but it broke today and I cannot get it to come on. I have been in contact w/Sandisk's customer service and they are replacing the player and even sending me the shipping label. So, due to the customer service I received today, I decided its worth the 4 stars.

I was disappointed when I received the first one and the bottom cap would not stay closed. I returned it and was immediately shipped a new one (received in 5 B. days) and this one worked fine.

All in all a good product but it literally took me all night to get it ready to give as a gift since I am not really used to these machines and I had to find a way to format everything to work on this. I only have 1 CD that is MP3 formatted so it was a pain. Also, You can't work with these files in Windows Media Player so I had to learn another way to transfer the files.

Figuring out how to get the songs loaded was a task and the fact that you can't load iTune songs onto them due to the format conflict really sucks, unless you can figure out how to convert m4a's to mp3s. So I gave 4 stars.

I really like the product, but the description is deceptive when it states you shake the player to change to the next song. You have to hold the button while shaking and sometimes it does not work well.

Although this product costs conciderably less that the Ipod, it will cost you more in the end. Consider this: If your child uses this product for 2 hours a week (about 2 albums of music) you could have bought 4 gig Ipod for what you will spend in batteries and Ipods hold A LOT more music and have built in batteries. Furthermore, batteries are one of the most environmentally poisonious consumer waste products.

Therefore, you have to buy another $20 to $40 in software to convert the files to use it on this device. Very disappointing. Sure the package says "plays MP3s", but you have to take that literally - I did not.

Since this is only an MP3 Player and not a WMA player a lot of the current music like Naked Brothers Band, and Jonas Brothers, etc are not available for this player. More and more MP3 is becoming available just not the current stuff your tweens want.. Mine are 6 and 7 and they wanted to the hear naked brothers band song "Crazy Cars" and of course it's not available.

It was relatively easy to upload music except for the fact that they had to be in MP3 format and without my husband I would never have known how to do that. My son loved it and it had pretty good sound from the speakers, but after less than a week it just all of a sudden stopped working! Such a disappointment...

All of this is not to mention the biggest and worst problem of all, adding music. I spent most of a Sunday trying to figure out how to get music on this thing. WMA and MP4s do not work.

So it was not easy for me at all to get music on to it. All my music was in wma format and nothing would play. I plan on returning.

Although this product costs conciderably less that the Ipod, it will cost you more in the end. Consider this: If your child uses this product for 2 hours a week (about 2 albums of music) you could have bought 4 gig Ipod for what you will spend in batteries and Ipods hold A LOT more music and have built in batteries. Furthermore, batteries are one of the most environmentally poisonious consumer waste products.

Since this is only an MP3 Player and not a WMA player a lot of the current music like Naked Brothers Band, and Jonas Brothers, etc are not available for this player. More and more MP3 is becoming available just not the current stuff your tweens want.. Mine are 6 and 7 and they wanted to the hear naked brothers band song "Crazy Cars" and of course it's not available.

It is difficult to try to figure out how to download music onto it and we can't seem to take off the songs that come already on the player. The headphones that come with it didn't last very long, but it works with standard headphones so they were easily replaced. I like the option of listening to the music through the headphones or through the speaker.

When you purchase an "MP3" player these days, you're actually expecting to be able to play not only MP3 files, but MP4 files, WMV files, and so forth. This device, however, only actually plays MP3 files, which is noted in very small print in the instruction manual. music download sites like Napster & Real Rhapsody use WMV format.

One headphone quit working 3 days after christmas and now the player wont do anything but make funny noises-doesnt play any music any more

They can plug in 2 sets of headphones at the same time to "share" the music. It also has an external speaker that plays the music for all to hear when the headphones are not plugged into it. The only real down fall is that it does not recharge via USB port like our other MP3 players do, it takes 1 AAA battery, this is the only reason I didn't give this product a 5 Star rating.

One thing to mention, I learned that not all music files are in the MP3 format; and therefore cannot be used in this device. We had to pass on some of her favorite songs, and download others that were acceptable (not a HUGE deal to a 7 year old). So when downloading music, be sure that the files are MP3 and you shouldn't have any problems.

It is attached by a small lanyard, so it probably won't get lost, but the fact that it does come open so easily is annoying. the problem with the cover isn't enough to deter me from buying the player or enough to make me want to return it. Even if I did want to return it, my son wouldn't let me.

The only design flaw that we found is at the bottom of the player. It twists off to replace the battery and the SD card, and is attached by a string, but it pops open often when changing tracks by the bottom "ring" or when using the "shake" feature. It doesn't get lost because of the string, but it slightly annoying to have to keep putting it back on.

It was very easy to set up and start [once I found the batter compartment...just read the book], but it broke today and I cannot get it to come on. I have been in contact w/Sandisk's customer service and they are replacing the player and even sending me the shipping label. So, due to the customer service I received today, I decided its worth the 4 stars.

All in all a good product but it literally took me all night to get it ready to give as a gift since I am not really used to these machines and I had to find a way to format everything to work on this. I only have 1 CD that is MP3 formatted so it was a pain. Also, You can't work with these files in Windows Media player so I had to learn another way to transfer the files.

I really like the product, but the description is deceptive when it states you shake the player to change to the next song. You have to hold the button while shaking and sometimes it does not work well.

Since this is only an MP3 player and not a WMA player a lot of the current music like Naked Brothers Band, and Jonas Brothers, etc are not available for this player. More and more MP3 is becoming available just not the current stuff your tweens want.. Mine are 6 and 7 and they wanted to the hear naked brothers band song "Crazy Cars" and of course it's not available.

It is difficult to try to figure out how to download music onto it and we can't seem to take off the songs that come already on the player. The headphones that come with it didn't last very long, but it works with standard headphones so they were easily replaced. I like the option of listening to the music through the headphones or through the speaker.

When you purchase an "MP3" player these days, you're actually expecting to be able to play not only MP3 files, but MP4 files, WMV files, and so forth. This device, however, only actually plays MP3 files, which is noted in very small print in the instruction manual. Music download sites like Napster & Real Rhapsody use WMV format.

One headphone quit working 3 days after christmas and now the player wont do anything but make funny noises-doesnt play any music any more

After 3 different days of trying I finally got it off, but now I can get it to stay back on. Never before having used an MP3 player I can't seem to download any music onto the thing. Someone's coming this weekend so maybe they can help- if not...

I downloaded songs for him and it worked for a day and then stopped. I thought it was the battery, but it was not the case(i changed it to different batteries). It turns on, but then it shuts off by itself.

Figuring out how to get the songs loaded was a task and the fact that you can't load iTune songs onto them due to the format conflict really sucks, unless you can figure out how to convert m4a's to mp3s. So I gave 4 stars.

It is difficult to try to figure out how to download music onto it and we can't seem to take off the songs that come already on the player. The headphones that come with it didn't last very long, but it works with standard headphones so they were easily replaced. I like the option of listening to the music through the headphones or through the speaker.

I found this out only after spending tons of $$ downloading my daugther's favorite songs for them not to work. Then I had to download "switch" software to convert the files. Unfortunately even the converted MP3s will not work.

One thing to mention, I learned that not all music files are in the MP3 format; and therefore cannot be used in this device. We had to pass on some of her favorite songs, and download others that were acceptable (not a HUGE deal to a 7 year old). So when downloading music, be sure that the files are MP3 and you shouldn't have any problems.

The only thing I don't like about it is the battery cap at the bottom of the player. At first we couldn't get it off and now it just falls off randomly when you try to skip songs. It is difficult to get it on just right.

I agree with previous posts that this is a good product for young kids; durable, attractive, and good sound through earbuds & speaker. However, even my 7 year old loses patience with the fact that she can only skip one song at a time. Holding the bottom twist only skips within a song; should allow you to skip through multiple songs.

We purchased 3 for our kids and they all do the same thing. Called the company and they said we had downloaded a song with a virus. They know you are not going to be able to go back through 6 hours of songs and check each song.

can only get it to download mp3 even though it says you can download wavs so my daughter only has 4 songs on it so thats disappointing other than that its ok

She loves to dance to it and shake it to jump tracks often. Thank goodness it comes with a few kids songs preloaded since I couldn't download MP3 songs on my computer. I don't think it would be suitable for an older child since unlike most MP3 players you can't see which song is playing but my little one doesn't care about that; she just wants to dance.

I downloaded songs for him and it worked for a day and then stopped. I thought it was the battery, but it was not the case(i changed it to different batteries). It turns on, but then it shuts off by itself.

The only design flaw that we found is at the bottom of the player. It twists off to replace the battery and the SD card, and is attached by a string, but it pops open often when changing tracks by the bottom "ring" or when using the "shake" feature. It doesn't get lost because of the string, but it slightly annoying to have to keep putting it back on.

So, why design a product for use by children in 2007 that needs a battery every 40 minutes or so? ... I truly do feel that the idea and basic function of this product are brilliant but, not very well thought out.

They can plug in 2 sets of headphones at the same time to "share" the music. It also has an external speaker that plays the music for all to hear when the headphones are not plugged into it. The only real down fall is that it does not recharge via USB port like our other MP3 players do, it takes 1 AAA battery, this is the only reason I didn't give this product a 5 Star rating.

The only thing I didn't expect, which the kids have difficulty working, is that the play/pause button needs to be depressed prior to using the "shaker" feature to advance to a different song. The battery that came with them only lasted just under 2 weeks (This could be from the power needed to operate the internal speaker).

The only thing I don't like about it is the battery cap at the bottom of the player. At first we couldn't get it off and now it just falls off randomly when you try to skip songs. It is difficult to get it on just right.

The bottom cover must be twisted loose to insert one AAA battery and the storage card but is somewhat difficult to get reseated tightly, especially since it's part of the fast-forward control assembly. For added "security," the bottom cover is attached by a thin "safety" thread that no doubt will be an early casualty. Perhaps a better-constructed device would be one with a single ear bud (forget the stereo), which would free up more space for batteries, card, and FF control (if the latter is really judged necessary), along with a more traditional screw-in cover for the battery compartment.

Easy to install, but cover to battery and USB connection is flimsy and no real good way to carry item either. Okay sound w/o headphones and relatively simply to operate, but save money and get better player.

This was a highly anticipated gift for Christmas - and what a dissapointment! Not only does the bottom cap (which holds the battery and inputs) not stay closed.

This made them playable right out of the packaging. Other reviews comment on the difficulty of opening the device to change batteries, I had no problem seeing the twist arrows on the cover itself. battery life is just ok, would be better if the device did not blink all the time when in use.

The only thing I didn't expect, which the kids have difficulty working, is that the play/pause button needs to be depressed prior to using the "shaker" feature to advance to a different song. The battery that came with them only lasted just under 2 weeks (This could be from the power needed to operate the internal speaker).

I agree with previous posts that this is a good product for young kids; durable, attractive, and good sound through earbuds & speaker. However, even my 7 year old loses patience with the fact that she can only skip one song at a time. Holding the bottom twist only skips within a song; should allow you to skip through multiple songs.

We purchased 3 for our kids and they all do the same thing. Called the company and they said we had downloaded a song with a virus. They know you are not going to be able to go back through 6 hours of songs and check each song.

She loves to dance to it and shake it to jump tracks often. Thank goodness it comes with a few kids songs preloaded since I couldn't download MP3 songs on my computer. I don't think it would be suitable for an older child since unlike most MP3 players you can't see which song is playing but my little one doesn't care about that; she just wants to dance.

Yes it came loaded with some kids songs but really who wants them? My kids have their own personal favorites and of course they were not MP3 formatted so I had to get an additional program to format them. I also did not like the fact there was no screen for the kids to easily find their favorite tune or story.

1. The "shaker" attraction is misleading. I thought it meant a child could shake the gizmo to make it play (great ploy, since kids won't play the CDs I give them); instead, shaking it merely produces weird sound-effects and causes (somewhat erratically) the song being played to be replaced by another song.

I also like how easy it is to load music (no special software, you just rip a CD to your computer and then drag the songs from the folder to your device). What I do NOT like is how the end cap keeps falling open to expose the SD card and battery compartment, and it's not like I can tape it shut because it is attached to the part you twist to advance to the next song. I haven't tried the earbuds that came with it since I don't like in-ear phones for my kids.

I bought the 512mb but we put in a 2gb card and viola alot of music, although for the littler kids it's easier for them to find their favorites when there is less on the card. It is rated 8 and up but my 3 year old is able to use it properly.

I had to go to the Sansa website to read troubleshooting problems and replies to figure it out. Other than the pain of having to do that it is a neat little first player for kids. Next one will have a screen.

Great item for kids, it would be nice if it had a song display to choose your music but you can easily skip through the songs.

It was relatively easy to upload music except for the fact that they had to be in MP3 format and without my husband I would never have known how to do that. My son loved it and it had pretty good sound from the speakers, but after less than a week it just all of a sudden stopped working! Such a disappointment...

So it was not easy for me at all to get music on to it. All my music was in wma format and nothing would play. I plan on returning.

All in all a good product but it literally took me all night to get it ready to give as a gift since I am not really used to these machines and I had to find a way to format everything to work on this. I only have 1 CD that is MP3 formatted so it was a pain. Also, You can't work with these files in Windows Media Player so I had to learn another way to transfer the files.

Figuring out how to get the songs loaded was a task and the fact that you can't load iTune songs onto them due to the format conflict really sucks, unless you can figure out how to convert m4a's to mp3s. So I gave 4 stars.

When you purchase an "MP3" player these days, you're actually expecting to be able to play not only MP3 files, but MP4 files, WMV files, and so forth. This device, however, only actually plays MP3 files, which is noted in very small print in the instruction manual. Music download sites like Napster & Real Rhapsody use WMV format.

One thing to mention, I learned that not all music files are in the MP3 format; and therefore cannot be used in this device. We had to pass on some of her favorite songs, and download others that were acceptable (not a HUGE deal to a 7 year old). So when downloading music, be sure that the files are MP3 and you shouldn't have any problems.

The only problem we had was figuring out which songs (and format, MP3) we could download (itunes wouldn't work for us). Otherwise it was easy to hook it up to the computer for downloading. Overall, we were impressed and would recommend this product.

Yes it came loaded with some kids songs but really who wants them? My kids have their own personal favorites and of course they were not MP3 formatted so I had to get an additional program to format them. I also did not like the fact there was no screen for the kids to easily find their favorite tune or story.

One negative, however, is that you will have to convert the music on your computer to MP3 format for it to work on the player.

After we finally figured that out we have lost the songs completely off of the media card twice. When troubleshooting, we found that the card was corrupt and needed to be re-formatted. When you re-format a card you must erase everything on it so it is a little frustrating.

The only design flaw that we found is at the bottom of the player. It twists off to replace the battery and the SD card, and is attached by a string, but it pops open often when changing tracks by the bottom "ring" or when using the "shake" feature. It doesn't get lost because of the string, but it slightly annoying to have to keep putting it back on.

the shaker would not read the card. i called sandisk several times to get assistant, and it still did not read the card.

first one would no longer read the card and then would just not stay on. Second one would turn on for 2 seconds and then shut off. went to Sansa's website and found alot of other frustrated users with the same problem.

The bottom cover must be twisted loose to insert one AAA battery and the storage card but is somewhat difficult to get reseated tightly, especially since it's part of the fast-forward control assembly. For added "security," the bottom cover is attached by a thin "safety" thread that no doubt will be an early casualty. Perhaps a better-constructed device would be one with a single ear bud (forget the stereo), which would free up more space for batteries, card, and FF control (if the latter is really judged necessary), along with a more traditional screw-in cover for the battery compartment.

After we finally figured that out we have lost the songs completely off of the media card twice. When troubleshooting, we found that the card was corrupt and needed to be re-formatted. When you re-format a card you must erase everything on it so it is a little frustrating.

Cons: you do have to be aware that it only takes MP3 files, the "shake it" method of changing songs takes a little more dexterity than my kid has (you have to push a button and shake at the same time), it wouldn't work with a memory card from another device, even though they appeared to be the same kind, size, etc. That could be more due to my own technical incompetence.

I also like how easy it is to load music (no special software, you just rip a CD to your computer and then drag the songs from the folder to your device). What I do NOT like is how the end cap keeps falling open to expose the SD card and battery compartment, and it's not like I can tape it shut because it is attached to the part you twist to advance to the next song. I haven't tried the earbuds that came with it since I don't like in-ear phones for my kids.

I bought the 512mb but we put in a 2gb card and viola alot of music, although for the littler kids it's easier for them to find their favorites when there is less on the card. It is rated 8 and up but my 3 year old is able to use it properly.

The sliver of pink below that actually screws on and off to reveal the battery compartment and memory card slot. The pink sliver screws on and off with less then one quarter of a turn, therefore, when you are advancing through music you are unscrewing the cap. I have a feeling that SanDisk knew this was a problem because the cap is secured with string.

If for whatever reason you decide your child needs more space, just pay $20 for a 1G card later on.

It is a bit of a pain that you have to convert the files to MP3s but not so much of a pain that you'd not get the item. I transfer whole CDs at a time for her and it only takes a few minutes. As other reviewers have mentioned, our "shaker" function does not work either - and trust me, she's shaken the thing!

All in all a good product but it literally took me all night to get it ready to give as a gift since I am not really used to these machines and I had to find a way to format everything to work on this. I only have 1 CD that is MP3 formatted so it was a pain. Also, You can't work with these files in Windows Media Player so I had to learn another way to transfer the files.

Therefore, you have to buy another $20 to $40 in software to convert the files to use it on this device. Very disappointing. Sure the package says "plays MP3s", but you have to take that literally - I did not.

I found this out only after spending tons of $$ downloading my daugther's favorite songs for them not to work. Then I had to download "switch" software to convert the files. Unfortunately even the converted MP3s will not work.

When you purchase an "MP3" player these days, you're actually expecting to be able to play not only MP3 files, but MP4 files, WMV files, and so forth. This device, however, only actually plays MP3 files, which is noted in very small print in the instruction manual. Music download sites like Napster & Real Rhapsody use WMV format.

One thing to mention, I learned that not all music files are in the MP3 format; and therefore cannot be used in this device. We had to pass on some of her favorite songs, and download others that were acceptable (not a HUGE deal to a 7 year old). So when downloading music, be sure that the files are MP3 and you shouldn't have any problems.

It was a little tricky to download songs on it--I tried to do it from itunes, but, I didn't realize that itunes had 'protected' files so it wouldn't let me just automatically download them to the shaker.

Cons: you do have to be aware that it only takes MP3 files, the "shake it" method of changing songs takes a little more dexterity than my kid has (you have to push a button and shake at the same time), it wouldn't work with a memory card from another device, even though they appeared to be the same kind, size, etc. That could be more due to my own technical incompetence.

The one downside is that it does only play mp3 files, so I sometimes have to go a round-about way to convert wma and m4p files to mp3. (But, it can be done at no expense through iTunes, at least with a Mac.) My 7 yr old got one for Christmas, and so far, we've had no issues with it.

It is difficult to try to figure out how to download music onto it and we can't seem to take off the songs that come already on the player. The headphones that come with it didn't last very long, but it works with standard headphones so they were easily replaced. I like the option of listening to the music through the headphones or through the speaker.

They can plug in 2 sets of headphones at the same time to "share" the music. It also has an external speaker that plays the music for all to hear when the headphones are not plugged into it. The only real down fall is that it does not recharge via USB port like our other MP3 players do, it takes 1 AAA battery, this is the only reason I didn't give this product a 5 Star rating.

The only thing I didn't expect, which the kids have difficulty working, is that the play/pause button needs to be depressed prior to using the "shaker" feature to advance to a different song. The battery that came with them only lasted just under 2 weeks (This could be from the power needed to operate the internal speaker).

Of course, I could rationalize my selfish act since the child is barely 3 and Sandisk insists the device should not be used by anyone under the age of 8. The reason for the manufacturer issuing the precaution is no doubt the potential harm to young children abusing ear buds. But forget the ear buds: what distinguishes this device from an iPod (apart from its smaller, salt-shaker size) is the built-in speaker.

I agree with previous posts that this is a good product for young kids; durable, attractive, and good sound through earbuds & speaker. However, even my 7 year old loses patience with the fact that she can only skip one song at a time. Holding the bottom twist only skips within a song; should allow you to skip through multiple songs.

The earbuds were a bit hard for sich a little girl to manage, but my mom gave her a set of earbud-looking things attached by a piece that goes over her head (it's a fold-up set), and these have worked perfectly for her. The speaker doesn't have a loud capability, so I don't have to wake up to music blasting throughout the house. Not bad sound at all for such a little unit, though you won't be DJing a party with it.

(He also likes the fact that it's cute!) The built-in speaker is a HUGE plus, as earphones are very difficult for him. One hint--don't purchase songs on iTunes unless you are tech savvy. It was complicated for me to download songs from that sight--you can't just follow the instructions included with the player.

We LOVE that two can listen, and that it has a speaker feature. Fairly tough, though sometimes the on/off button is unresponsive. Would give 4 1/2 * if I could.