Questions about phone audio Bluetooth and USB

Congratulations on upgrading to PRIME. I am not an expert in any of Prime's feature, and I am also fairly new to all those techy things for my previous Prius was Gen3 Two without many of options. One thing I know for sure is USB works with MP3 files. If you store your MP3 formatted audio files (such as music) in USB thumb drives, you can connect to the USB port to play music files (or any other audio) through car audio system. This feature was present in Gen3 Prius even in Two trim. I have never tried connecting my android phone through USB, but I understand USB port also work with iPod music player. Via Bluetooth you can use many of Phone functionality using the Car system both on the steering wheel buttons and on the LCD panel, but I am not sure about the music player functionality. I am sure others who are more familiar than I will chime in.

 

Congrats on your Prime! I'm a recent new Prime owner, too. I have an iPhone 6, so can't speak specifically to how your Android works, but the USB definitely plays music in iOS. I keep all my music on an iPod Shuffle to free up space on my phone, and that plays fine, too. Bluetooth via iOS lets you use the on-screen controls for various streaming apps, including those not part of Entune (TuneIn radio, for example).

 

Welcome. Your best resource to "start with" is your manual. Yes, your manual. Seriously, read through it. Then check this site and look at the compatible phones section. See if yours is listed.

 

Since you phone is not on the comparability list, anything we tell you may be wrong. Entune is the basis for the whole interface, not just the apps. Everything you're asking is based on assumptions that your phone will be able to do what we're describing. Chances are, it won't.

You really do need to read your manual. I could type 8 pages here or you could read what is already there. Most of your questions are in the manual. I'm not trying to be rude, but I can tell from your questions, that you have not read the manual. Please meet us half way and we'll bend over backwards to help.

 

What it's supposed to do could be phone-dependent. Again, I can tell you that on an iPhone (or any other iOS-based device, such as my Shuffle), the USB port is more than just charging - it transfers data (e.g., music), as well. Can't imagine why Android devices wouldn't do the same, but I've seen stranger things.

 

Fair enough. Thanks.

It's referring to a USB thumb drive. You can play music from a properly formatted USB thumb drive. An example is a MP3 file.

SOME phones can be connected via a USB cable and act like a media player, but only a media player via USB. I can't tell you if your phone can or not.

That tells me that you phone is not recognized. If you went through the Bluetooth pairing process to tie your phone and the car together and you still see nothing then it's your phone. Not much can be done for that. It's not compatible.

IF your phone was compatible and it was properly paired via Bluetooth with the vehicle, you could see your phone's contacts list on the Entune screen, make calls, etc.

 

That's the phone's incompatibility with the system.

I don't think you phone will work for music since it didn't find any. So a USB thumb drive (or an iPod) is your choice.

For music, on a USB thumb drive, it has to be formatted FAT 16/32 and contain MP3, WMA, or AAC format files. There can only be 255 files (songs) max in each folder for a max 9,999 folders on the drive, and a max of 9,999 files (songs) on the drive..

You can play the music from an iPod if you have one. They work great.

 

Bit old bur quite relevent for my current open question.
My Gen3(Prius)/Gen1(PHEV) USB connected iphone is not delivering the phone sounds anything expect Phone calls(may be blutooth connected already?) and Apple Music (old iTunes). How to get all of my iPhone audio is delivered to the car audio system with connected USB port? Thanks