Great idea, poor execution – SanDisk Connect™ Wireless Media Drive Review

I made the “mistake” of getting a 16GB phone which I routinely fill up with either photos or music. So I initially bought a mophie Space Pack 32 GB so I could have extra storage physically attached to my phone at all times. The mophie app is well-designed and easy to use, but has no support for playlists, which frustrates me, as I often want to put my large, organized music collection elsewhere. So I thought the SanDisk Media Drive would be a great solution…except you can’t transfer existing music files or playlists from an iOS Device to the unit. Okay, that’s somewhat understandable due to licensing and services like iTunes Match. But even when I put the music on via USB, it doesn’t recognize m3u files at all! It doesn’t even treat folders as playlists, so organizing my music in any way on the Media Drive means nothing, because the app doesn’t care; it can’t see them at all. Though you can create playlists on the via the Media Drive app, I have no idea what file type the playlists are, or where they’re stored (not actually on the drive, it seems, but perhaps within the app data on the iOS device?), so they can’t be edited. You can’t even change the name. You can’t add additional tracks to an existing playlist later, which means if you accidentally forgot one, or added more tracks to your WMD later, you’re stuck. There’s no way to see what tracks you’ve already added to another playlist, either (though of course you SHOULD be able to add a track to multiple playlists). In sum: if you are working with ANYTHING OTHER THAN MUSIC, your experience with the WMD should be easy. But trying to work with music playlists makes it a pain. I’m wishing for a more iOS 7-styled app, along with playlist management. A more sensible way for the WMD to be connected to Wi-Fi while your iOS device is connected to the WMD would also be welcomed, since it didn’t like me trying to connect to my default Wi-Fi network at home via the app. It restarted the WMD, even crashed the app, but no matter how many times I checked the WPA2 password for my Wi-Fi, it wouldn’t connect. But, it will connect to open Wi-Fi and be connected to your iOS device simultaneously, so you don’t HAVE to use your cellular data if you don’t want to.
Review by Azurite on SanDisk Connect™ Wireless Media Drive.