Sometime while playing music on a thumb drive, the song will stop playing, and even though I can browse to another song, it won't let me switch songs. The only thing that helps is to turn off the car, then turn it back on. This is not a good solution if one is driving on the highway. I've tried unplugging and re-plugging in the thumb drive, switching to radio and back to USB, but this does not help. I've tried turning the audio off, then back on, does not help. Is there a way to re-boot the audio unit without turning the car off and on?
It's not thumbdrive specific. And any song that locks up the player will play just fine once the player has been rebooted.
I'm on my second thumbdrive. The problem is intermittent. It will work fine for weeks then 1 day it will crash twice in the same day. At that point I usually switch to FM or Bluetooth until the next time I start my car. I just wish there was a way to reboot the radio that did not require me to shut the whole car off.
Try putting less songs on the drive and have multiple drives to store all your music. I would say your experience is quite normal, my drives also crashes at times. It's not all that great.
Plug it into a Windows system and select Properties, then Tools. Click on the Error Checking and run a scan. The Prius entertainment center appears to write to the USB drive. I see Playlists with $$ characters in them, which I did not put there. So, it maybe corrupting the file system when you shut the car off while it is playing.
I had a similar problem, you can probably fix it by getting a new flash drive.. Seems to be a common issue.
If you conclude that you may have a faulty drive, try a San Disk Cruzer Fit CZ33. Amazon has them Nice and compact, too. Have been using one for 2 1/2 years with zero problems.
I have found on my Prius C 3 that if I reinstall the latest entune firmware from a thumb drive, it behaves for awhile.
