Playlists on USB thumb drives

I've been working on this issue a little as well. My 2012 Prius Two definitely does not see .m3u files anywhere in my USB drive file structure. Actually, the manual says "M3u playlists are not compatible with the audio player," on page 63, but it is always good to check! (http://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/om/OM33A02U/pdf/nn02.pdf)

I finally figured out how the system orders the songs within a folder, since playlists are not recognized.

It is ordered by the timestamp of the file Creation. (In Windows, that's File>Properties: "Created"). Windows, being what it is, does not create files that you might copy from one location to another in any user-rational order, it copies them (essentially) randomly.

For instance, I rip songs from CD in the track order so they have sequential Create Timestamps. Is usually rip them to my hard drive. When I go and copy these files to the USB drive the Create Timestamp updates to the time each file is copied. They don't copy in alphabetical order, or original Create Timestamp order, or filesize, or ID3V1 tag. they copy in a random order (My files called 1.mp3, 2.mp3, 3.mp3, 4.mp3, 5.mp3, 6.mp3 were copied in this order: 5,3,6,2,4,1)

To get them on the the USB in the "playlist order" I want on the Prius, I have resorted to individually copying each file into a folder, one-by-one, in the desired play order.

Toyota -- are you listening? You choose a poor attribute. That is not flexible. That is not rational. That wouldn't even be a good choice in 1982.

For the rest of us, there you go. If someone comes up with a convenient way to modify the create time based on some other attribute, I'm ALL EARS.

 

In your head unit manual it explains the way the HU reads and uses the USB thumb drives, well at least my 2012 II does.

 

@tack18k: Is your "Head Unit" manual the same as the PDF link I posted above? If so, I'm looking at the published file order on page 64. "The play order of the compact disc with the structure shown on the left is as follows: 001. mp3 -> 002. wma. . . -> 006. mp3"

Page 64 suggests to me that the order is numerical (or alphabetical), but that isn't the way my Prius functions. We both have 2012 Prius Two models, so I expect they should work identically.

Does yours actually play in numerical order as the manual suggests?

 

Boy I forget, its been a few months since I put in a usb drive, I will look at it tonight.

 

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but does anyone know if the USB charges the thumbdrive as it plays?

And if this helps anyone, I listen to a lot of books on tape, and if I put them in a folder they will not play, they apparently are not seen, but if I move each file of the book (Mp3 or WMA) directly to the ..... is it the root? ... anyway move them out of their folder (and this is tough for us OCD types) they are seen on the screen and played just fine.

 

From what i have looked at on USB drives and how it displays music. Folders are set to number in order first, then the alpha names next. so 0-999 folder names first. then it is A-Z next. Files do the same, numbers first then alpha. Next, the file name will display first, folder next, the secondary info on the 3rd line, so it the mp3 has a the artist listed, then it will display the artist name on the third line. Top right corner is the List Folder spot, the bottom left screen, List files in that folder button. You need a mp3 editor if you want to edit the display screen for each song or mp3 file. It will not decifer any other info.

 

Thank you for your kind reply. It seems I was confusing my little mp3 player with a thumb drive. Since you responded to me I have learned how to translate CD tracks so they will play on the thumbdrive in the car, which was a bit of a learning curve but found a video on YouTube that was really helpful. Hint to anyone who doesn't know, CD tracks have to be translated into mp3s--at least that's what I read on the internet so it must be true and it has worked for me. It's super to hear all my favorites all together. And amazing how many songs can fit on a little 4 gb drive. Thanks again!

 

Not exactly correct. The audio system list the files in the order that they are stored internal to the FAT directory structure.

You are correct in that Windows file copy does not copy them in alphanumeric order.

To create them in alphanumeric order to begin with, you can use xcopy or robocopy from the Command Prompt. E.g.
cd /d c:\users\myname\music
robocopy classical h:\classical /S /V /FP /LOG:classical.log

Also from seaching through other forums, I found a freeware tool, DriveSort (Anerty's Lair) which is supposed to be able to reorder a FAT directory structure, but I haven't tried it yet.

It's too bad that they don't support playlists, but as the manual specifically mentions them not being supported, I bet this feature will probably be included in the 2013 model. Not enough reason to do a trade-in.

I started searching to see if I could duplicate the playlist format that an iPod uses (I don't own one, and don't know much about it) to see if that would work. It turns out the the playlists in an iPod are stored in a database, so this doesn't appear to be an option. If anyone does come up with a work around for playlists, please post.

In a way, playing the files in FAT order can be transformed from a bug to a feature. A playlist in an arbitrary order can be simulated by copying the files manually in the order desired, or creating a copy.bat script, (keeping in mind the limit of 255 files per directory) to an empty USB stick.

Question--The iPod mode is supposed to be able to display cover art. Has anyone figured out a way to do this for USB? Use a certain filename? What resolution?

 

I've created playlists for the Windows Media Player, and then copied them to the USB thumb drive containing the music files. The Prius sees the playlists, and everything seems to work fine.

 

When you say you "copied them" (the playlists) to the thumb drive, what kind of files are you are talking about? I.e. what is it called, what extension does it have, and is it a readable text file? Can you post the contents of such a file?

 

anyone tried using a linux ext3 formatted drive with links to the music? Different folders of links would be as good as a playlists

 

The playlist is a '.wpl' file, and it is readable as a text file. However, Priuschat doesn't allow a file of the type '.wpl' to be uploaded, so I've uploaded a playlist file which I first saved as a text file (guitar.txt).

 

and this works? i can't see how, unless the headunit is somehow mapping the thumb drive as drive "e" that or the hu ignores the drive letter completely.

so on your thumbdrive what is your folder structure like? is there for example a guitar folder at the root of the drive?

And so I'm clear do you see a "guitar" playlist that will play all the files listed in that file?

this is interesting. i'm going to try this myself

 

didn't work for me. i wonder if you are just seeing your guitar folder and thinking it was your playlist. a more valid test would be to save a playlist called mymusic and include a cpl guitar tracks as well as some others and see if you see that.

also i didn't even see anywhere in the interface you could see a playlist unless it shows up like a folder...

 

I could not get playlists to work at all......

so I went into itunes, opened a playlist, highlited every song on my playlist named "current faves"

then right click, 'get info'...then choose info tab....within the info tab you will see GENRE near bottom, I typed in 'current faves' into genre.

this changed every song in that playlist to genre current faves.

now on the car audio system you use genre when browsing songs, you will see current faves there.

only thing sucks is they all get put into alphabetical order by album name title which is odd i thought, and not my song playlist order. But it was best i could do.....at least all the songs are there from playlist. I did this for 5 different playlists.

Dan

 

at that point why not just put the songs you want in a "playlist" in a folder on the thumb drive. it will have the same effect and you won't have to alter the genre tags

 

Honestly Ive tried everything to make a playlist folder, If someone can tell me exactly how to do Id love to! As i said the only way i was able to do it was to use this Genre method I came up with.

Ive tried making a folder on the USB stick named "playlist" , the only way these HU's seem to read are by artists,songs and albums though.

Can you clearly describe how to make a playlist for me? Id love that!

Dan

 

Another thing that ive noticed...only SOME of my artwork seems to come thru to the HU. ALL my artwork is perfect in iTunes and on the iPhone, but its very hit n miss on the HU in car. Can someone tell me why or what im supposed to look for?

thanks!
Dan