USB flash drive for radio

128 GB, one of those teeny-tiny USB type, works fine in my 2012 Prius PHV.

 

SanDisk Ultra Fit 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive (SDCZ43-128G-GAM46) [Newest Version]

 

Don't buy sandisk.goto YouTube memory dashcamguy and see why sandisk has low quality than other memory card.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Sandisk is outstanding. I've had great luck with their memory and have upgraded several laptops to use their solid-state drives. I even have an external T3.

 

Yes, that's just a protocol thing, not a physical format thing. It's a USB Type A connector.

 

I won't debate name brands.
I've bought more than one...and basically just what was on sale.
They all work. And if bought on sale? Even if they eventually fail...the investment was minimal. So far...and we are talking "years" here...none of them have failed. I think all I've bought were Wally World offerings at less than $10.

I don't know if it's this way on the 2017 Prius Prime...but on the 2013 standard Prius...the tiny USB drives are nice, if only because Toyota hid the USB port in an IMO annoying to reach place in the center console. Plugging in a small drive....seemed easier and then took up less room within the console itself.

 

Just go to NewEgg or Frys electronics and order a small form factor flash drive. It will work. I use a 16GB very small drive in my prime and it works great. One especially nice thing is that indexing and searching the drive is VERY much faster than it was in my 2010 ATP. And you can search by folder, artist, and composer with an alphabetical search. I don't think the drive is half full and I've got about 3 weeks of music on it.
However, I haven't found playlists on the USB tab. But, it's still new.

 

I am not saying sandisk is bad but u can get lifetime warranty on certain brand if u Google then why not buy if its same price.I had one sandisk failed on me but other worked fine.I would highly recommend not to use sandisk on dash camera that has repeated record erase loop going on.cellphone iPad are fine with sandisk but dash camera have high number of sandisk failure than other brand.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I think the usage here is specific to Prius USB for music playback.
My experience has been....they all work.
Haven't found one yet cheap enough to fail.
128 GB...well you can download more music than I could listen to on nearly any long drive.

 

For efficiency, I would suggest using just enough capacity for your need. If you have only 10 Gb of music, use only 16 or 32 Gb drive instead of 64 or 128 Gb. The larger capacity, the longer it takes to load and search for music. BTW, do you know that the Prius Prime can play video/movie (in MP4 format) also?

 

Yup, it does.

 

I have used mostly cheapo china made generic USB 8, 16, 32, or 64 GB and have not had any problem playing music. They are so cheap now, you should not have to worry too much about brand or size. I keep 4 different USB memory sticks on USB switch like this https://express.google.com/u/0/product/13627542310201456003_13572235342948068777_6136318?mall=WashingtonDC&directCheckout=1&utm_source=google_shopping&utm_medium=product_ads&utm_campaign=gsx&dclid=CPX7vJqn59oCFdhbDAodmMkBKA and connect it to the car's USB port.


This way, you can select different USB memory stick easily without actually removing them. Also it makes easier to take one off and add more files at home, and if you forget to bring it back to your car, you still have three memory sticks to play other music. One thing is if you have many files, do not separate them into too many folders. I initially had all of my music files in separate over 300 folders by artist's name. Problem with PRIME is that you can not scroll all of those folders while the car is in motion for safety reason. If you are on highway and cruising along, you don't want to stop on shoulder just to scroll down to pick your favorite artist's song.

One more thing, PRIME will not recognize folders that have no mp3 files. If you organize music files in subfolder in folder without files, your music order gets messed up.

 

Most of the storage chips used in USB memory drives are manufactured by one of four or so vendors in the world; the branding is mostly irrelevant as this kind of memory has become a commodity item sold by just a few suppliers. Warranties are meaningless; it's cheaper and easier to just go buy a new one because the MTBF on them is so long that there's a good chance the manufacturer you bought from (or the brand) won't be around when the device fails. And the warranties usually only cover "manufacturing defects" on the storage (chips) while the most common failures are the plugs themselves break, not the storage. They either fail very soon after purchase, or they don't fail for years.

USB 3.0 is faster than USB 2.0, but almost everything that works with audio is going to be USB 2.0 because there's no benefit to the increased speeds of USB 3.0. Even the most high-end audio equipment manufactured today uses USB 2.0.

You should just get whatever devices you can find that are on sale. If you're putting MP3 files on a thumb drive, then you can fit a couple hundred albums on a 32GB drive. If you need more, I'd suggest splitting the songs up by, say, they're genre and putting each genre onto separate devices because of the time it takes to index the drives when you plug them in -- the more files there are, the longer it takes.

But as a heads-up, the player on the Prime sucks. It's missing features that were on my 2012 Prius V. I cannot imagine a far newer vehicle with software that's worse instead of better.

I've started using the BT connection on my phone to play music through the car's audio system, and I find it much easier to use, mainly because you can load any number of audio players onto your phone and use whichever one you like best. The Prime gives you one choice, the built-in player. Period. If you don't like it (and I can't stand it), you're out of luck. If you've got a dozen albums, it's ok. If you have 4000+ songs in dozens and dozens of albums organized by artist, album, and CD# (for multi-disc albums), it's horrible.

Anything that will play on your phone can be played via Bluetooth on your car's audio, and I bet it's far easier for you to control your phone than your vehicle's audio. (The stuff on the steering wheel works fine for playing content on your phone!)

 

That's not right. I have mine organized by artist with a subfolder album. I think it says in the manual how many nested folders you can have.

 

I have to agree with another poster, avoid SanDisk. They sell millions of flash drives, but I've had terrible results with quality control with them (5 out of 5 failing), but no problems with any other makers. I bought 3 "Extreme USB 3.0"s maybe a year ago... all have failed. I even had the factory replace two of them, and after a few weeks, both of THOSE failed as well. All legit (not counterfeits like you find on ebay), all failed (even the replacements from the factory themselves). They had among the highest speeds, but are now completely useless. Had nothing like this from any other maker, and I use USB sticks a LOT (probably have about 30+ of them).

EVERY other brand I've used has been solid -- PNY (excellent), Lexar, SecurePower, Verbatum, etc... heck, even generics from big office supply chains. But it's amazing how all 5 SanDisks failed -- including the 2 replacements SanDisk sent to replace the 2 that I sent them. (Anyone who doesn't believe me, I still have the 3 useless SanDisks, I'll type in the models and serial numbers if you want).

One thing to keep in mind about USB sticks: your results will vary (especially with speeds) depending on the BATCH (where a particular batch was made, what parts were used for it, etc). These things change all the time. For instance, I bought 4 PNY 3.0s from BestBuy not too long ago. 3 of the 4 have blazing fast write speeds, but the 4th has more normal, so-so write speeds. Same model, but different batches made at different times and places using different chips.

As far as using a USB stick in the Prime....
I keep one in my Prime all the time. For the car, I actually just use an old USB 2.0 1GB stick from Staples because then I don't care if it sits in the hot sun (and instead of wanting to have an entire library, I'm happy to just have it hold a dozen podcasts, which I constantly update at home and then bring in the car). Remember that podcasts are small filesize, so unless you want to constantly transfer huge amounts of files, 2.0 is fine for the car.

Tip:
Also, though it's not necessary, to lessen wear-and-tear on the usb receptacle, and also make it easier to plug in, I bought a SHORT usb extention cable (a 1ft cable, male/female) for about $1-$2. I keep the extention cable always plugged into the Prime, then I just plug the USB flash drive into the cable. It's much easier to get at constantly than where the USB jack is on the Prime, and it saves wear and tear on it.

 

What are you using them for?

SanDisk is what I use... all that filming with heat & vibration... not a problem. The flash drives I've had on keychain too... not a problem.

 

You are correct! What I meant to say was this "PRIME will not recognize folders that have no mp3 files. If you organize music files in subfolder in folder without files, your music order gets messed up" I edited my comment above. Thank you. I think this becomes problem if you have music files without tag ID. If all of files have correct tags, artist and album I think sort will work correctly even if they are in a subfolder inside of folder without any music file.