2012 Prius 2, No Nav or Entune--Does the Prius audio system only read FAT formatted USB Hard drives?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by EricBlair, Mar 4, 2012.

  1. EricBlair

    EricBlair New Member

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    Don't have my car yet and the online manual says nothing about this. But I read a vague post somewhere that Prius can only read a FAT Formatted 32Gig partition of hard drive space? Is this true?

    I'm planning on using an external drive for music and audiobooks.

    Would be nice if people who are using external drives would post what brands have worked for them and what they've had to do to get them to work correctly, whether reformatting or removing encryption software, etc...
     
    #1 EricBlair, Mar 4, 2012
  2. boopie

    boopie Are we there yet?

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    Re: 2012 Prius 2, No Nav or Entune--Does the Prius audio system only read FAT formatted USB Hard dri

    It definitely doesn't work with a 8gb flash drive formatted in NTFS. Both 4gb and 8gb FAT32 flash drives work. I haven't tried a bigger portable drive yet.
     
    #2 boopie, Mar 6, 2012
  3. JoelIrwin

    JoelIrwin New Member

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    Re: 2012 Prius 2, No Nav or Entune--Does the Prius audio system only read FAT formatted USB Hard dri

    I regularly use a 4GB FAT stick. I have attached an external 320 GB FAT drive and do not recollect any problems. Don't remember if I tested with a 750 GB or 1 TB and all my external drives are FAT. I can't think of technical reason for me right now to use NTFS on external drives and my day job is professional videographer.

    Do keep in mind that unless they fixed their 2011 restrictions in the 2012, then your folders will still be limited to 256 entries, it will display the files in the order they are physically written (NOT sorted) and the on Prius screen scrolling buttons (for next and previous screen) will NOT be displayed when the car is moving and so you will have to do next / previous track and the steering wheel.
     
    #3 JoelIrwin, Mar 6, 2012
  4. boopie

    boopie Are we there yet?

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    Re: 2012 Prius 2, No Nav or Entune--Does the Prius audio system only read FAT formatted USB Hard dri

    I just tried a 500gb WD passport and she didn't like that at all. Something about USB consuming too much power and it was turning off the device.

    Not sure if this is really different but with the 2012, I'm able to search and browse the USB drive. Annoyingly, I can't seem to get the audio to go back to playing all songs on the drive. If I search for a song, or use the "more like this" feature, it creates a temporary playlist that I can't seem to clear.
     
    #4 boopie, Mar 6, 2012
  5. Caydoc

    Caydoc Junior Member

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    Re: 2012 Prius 2, No Nav or Entune--Does the Prius audio system only read FAT formatted USB Hard dri

    Sorry about the slight deviation from the original post, but would someone tell me whether the 2012 Prius, non-Entune, will read USB flash drives loaded on my Mac? Thanks!
     
    #5 Caydoc, Mar 6, 2012
  6. scooter4n

    scooter4n Junior Member

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    Re: 2012 Prius 2, No Nav or Entune--Does the Prius audio system only read FAT formatted USB Hard dri

    I have 2012 Prius 2, and I use my 32Gb memory stick formatted on my MAC Extended Jornaled format, works fine
     
    #6 scooter4n, Mar 6, 2012
  7. EricBlair

    EricBlair New Member

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    Re: 2012 Prius 2, No Nav or Entune--Does the Prius audio system only read FAT formatted USB Hard dri

    I don't know why Toyota just wouldn't publish these specs.
     
    #7 EricBlair, Mar 7, 2012
  8. tach18k

    tach18k Member

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    Re: 2012 Prius 2, No Nav or Entune--Does the Prius audio system only read FAT formatted USB Hard dri

    Eric, I think the idea is that they dont want to test a zillon differenet drives, maybe one or two, but then maybe you cant buy the one they test, whether it did or not see a fat/fat32 drive, would you not buy the car. Toyota feels you would , so what go thru all the hassle. Also I have had some very good drives mess up my usb ports on computers, I would hate to try that on the only one in my car.
     
    #8 tach18k, Mar 9, 2012
  9. Hank101

    Hank101 Member

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    Re: 2012 Prius 2, No Nav or Entune--Does the Prius audio system only read FAT formatted USB Hard dri

    Can any of you folks get the USB album art to show up on the Prius II display?
     
    #9 Hank101, Mar 10, 2012
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