About this replacement
SanDisk Sansa Clip / Clip Jam — 3.7V Li-Polymer Replacement Battery (363830PL)
This 3.7V, 350mAh lithium-polymer battery replaces the original cell in the SanDisk Sansa Clip and Clip Jam portable media players. It matches OEM part numbers 363830PL, SDMX26, and FT312933P. If your Clip no longer holds a charge or won't power on after sitting unused, a degraded cell is the most likely cause.
- Clip and Clip Jam compatibility: Both models run the same 3.7V voltage rail and use an identical connector footprint with matching BMS handshake parameters — one cell fits both without modification.
- Bench tested on actual hardware: We cycled this cell through charge and discharge on a Clip unit and confirmed the BMS accepted the new cell without triggering fault flags or refusing the charge current.
- Post-swap initialisation: After fitting the new cell, connect the Clip to a charger before pressing the power button. A freshly installed cell can sit below the BMS's minimum wake threshold, and applying charge current first lets the protection circuit initialise correctly.
Battery percentage jumping after cell swap on the Sansa Clip
After replacing the cell, the Clip's battery indicator often shows erratic percentages — jumping from 80% to 20% mid-session or resetting unexpectedly. The Clip uses a voltage-threshold fuel gauge, not a coulomb counter, so it has no memory of the new cell's discharge curve. The indicator recalibrates over two to three full charge and discharge cycles as the firmware maps the cell's actual voltage steps. Run the battery down to auto-shutdown and charge to full twice, and the readings will stabilise.
Playback cutting out before the battery indicator shows empty
The audio amplifier in the Clip draws a short current spike at the end of each track transition. When the cell is near end-of-charge, its internal resistance causes a voltage sag during that spike — enough for the BMS to register an under-voltage condition and cut output. The device shuts down even though the indicator still shows charge remaining. This is a cell-voltage issue, not a firmware bug. A fresh cell with lower internal resistance handles the spike without sagging below the BMS cutoff threshold of approximately 3.0V.