iPod connection problems

Hi all...

I have had my Prius for a week now and am starting to get into the nitty-gritty of the nav/phone/audio system.

I have the exact same issue as Martso on here; I will try what Rip recommended; but I have an early iPod, so may have the same issues as Momster....Mom, are you sure it doesn't work with an early iPod?

Thanks much to everyone that has posted here, it has been useful, but as with the popular consensus, it is a pain to start/restart the car just to get the iPod working...I haven't tried it yet, but will shortly.

Thanks...
Roblaw

 

Update...

Turning the car off and on did not work. In fact, when I did that, the USB tab grayed out and was not accessible. I had the Do Not Disconnect message on the iPod. Oddly enough, when I got to my destination and turned the car off, the iPod became active, allowing me to see the playlists, albums, etc. So I have no idea what is going on.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 

I have the 2010 Gen III.

Problem: if itouch (did not try ipod) is being played and you power off the car (say filling gas or reached home), then next time you start the car, it wont play -- SOMETIMES (itouch says "Accessory connected" but prius display reports an error of the type "could not connect to ...device ... check service manual.." and manual has nothing)

Workaround: The reason it wont play SOMETIMES in my case appears to be if the itouch has gone to sleep mode before you power on the car again. So just touching the itouch button (that wakes it up) before you power the car on appears to work.

Have a ticket opened with Toyota (800.331.4331 call that number and report yours) as well as the dealership. Dealership says Toyota is saying "working as expected" but I am fighting on unless they can show me it's an APPLE problem.

 

We have the same problem. Plug in the cable to the USB port. The Ipod says do not disconnect, but the USB tab does not light up on the Nav Screen.

Any solutions?

 

I have the same prob...

 

Reiterating what Momster said in an earlier post...

I went to the dealer and tried one of the salespeople's iPod. It worked fine...mine is old, I got it in 2005, a 30G iPod. The ones they had were newer...so that may be the issue, older iPods won't work for some reason.

I can't seem to find a list of "acceptable" iPods though...so if anyone has seen something like that, please let us know.

Rob.

 

Yeah, this is a pretty lousy iPod interface. When I try this scrolling method, it scrolls quickly, but all the titles are grayed out, how can you see what you're scrolling to?

 

I heard some people referencing...list of acceptable iPods. Not so much on here, but from conversations. But there does not seem to be any list of iPods anywhere that work.

So I have started my own investigation. If others could list what type of unit they have that works (or doesn't), maybe we can create our own list:

Doesn't Work: 30G iPod version 1.2.1 (can't be updated further)
Works: 2G iPod Nano version 1.3.1

 

I also had problems connecting the iPhone. But the clue with waking it up before plugging it in works fine.

 

I experience the same thing on my 2010 III w/Nav using iPhone 3GS

I have found that I need to pause the podcast when I arrive at my destination and connect the iPhone before I start the car. Following these simple listing adjustments seems to be working for me.

I hope this helps.

 

I have an iPhone 3G and the power off/power on works 100% of the time for me to get it to work but thee is one trick I have to do - when you power back on, the iPhone must be unplugged from the connector at the iPhone. Once the car is running I plug back in and all is fine. My wife's new iPod Nano does not have this issue, but the docs do say iPhone is not supported which is nuts of course.

I have to do this when needed though as I do not have a pure iPod and need to listen to 'what drives us'.

 

I have had my 2010 Prius III for 2 days. My iPod 3rd gen works fine, but my shuffle doesn't. The USB tab comes up, but nothing else is recognized, and, like someone else posted here, sometimes I get an error message. The USB cable and shuffle work fine outside the car.

Any ideas?

- - - -
2008 Prius, Dark Gray
2010 Prius III with Solar and Nav, Blue Ribbon

 

Connecting iPod Nano to USB. Prius V 2010 (picked up 5/26)

When I start the car sometimes the ipod connects to the NAV/Audio and sometimes it does not.

I noticed yesterday that if I cycle thru the mode selector switch on the steering wheel it will connect if it was not recognized when I started up.

At least this is better than unplugging then plugging in again which had been my fix to this annoyance.

any thoughts?

 

Roblaw --

Your 2010 Prius should have come with a small paper booklet that contained a description of the USB interface. That booklet lists the supported devices.

I just bought my 2010 a couple days ago and found this booklet amongst the various manuals I got with it. I'd list the unsupported devices here for you and everyone else, but I don't have the booklet with me at the moment.

I do knw that there are a lot of unsupported iPods on the list, which unfortunately included my old model.

 

Same problems on my 2010 Prius V - just picked up yesterday and learning.

I have a 60GB Classic. I will try the above recommended fixes - the USB drive fix is also tempting. Are you copying your files in the Ipod format, or something else?

 

Here is an image of the back page of the manual I referenced yesterday. Note the info on the right side of the page concerning iPod compatibility in the 2010 Prius.

As a side note, I dumped a bunch of .mp3 and .wma files to various folders of a USB stick last night and plugged that into my Prius, and it worked great.

 

Thanks. My iPod is an early photo version and is not supported. I'll try the USB Stick method next.

 

Wow, Carlre, I never saw that. I will have to check again. Although, with all the trial and error with other people I knew that had iPods, I kind of figured it out. I bought a used one of Craig's List, it wasn't too expensive.

Thanks for that image.

 

I just bought a new Prius IV (7/29) and change my starting procedure and now my music loads every time. I first activate the vehicle in accessory mode (pressing the start button without depressing the brake) then pressing the AUX button or the USB tab on the NAV. When the music starts, I then depress the brake and start the vehicle. Seems to work every time using that method. Hope this helps.

 

I'm bummed to find out this is clearly a systemic problem with the USB interface box. I though maybe my car was the issue, like a bad interface.

My 60gig 5th gen works for the most part, but I also get the random kick outs (have to reconnect the iPod) ... lately it has been crapping out every time I try to change playlist.

My iPhone 3GS used to work with 3.1.3 software, but now since the upgrade to 4.0 it totally doesn't work on the car. It sometimes starts playing for a second, then stops. I have to power cycle the car to get it working again. I at least managed to charge the phone by plugging it in but not playing any music.

What a pain Toyota!