USB MP3: undocumented feature, pleasant surprise

Thanks, that was what I was hoping to hear. I'm bummed that the iPod won't let you use voice control to search for a particular song, but getting to the album should be good enough. I'm now one step closer to the $400 64GB iPod. Much cheaper than $1300 for a new head end.
The only way I've been able to use the USB port is to set up 3 folders, in my case Oldies, Rock, and Classical. I dragged and dropped songs one by one into these folders and play them usually in folder random mode. So I have what amounts to 3 radio stations playing only songs that I like, which is cool, but unfortunately, no search function. And if I want to pause a song I have to turn off the audio system or set it to another source. Who ever programmed this feature was a complete idiot. And Toyota isn't gonna do a damned thing about it.
I did have a Ford with Sync and I was really impressed with its capabilities. I actually really loved it. The JBL stereo in my Prius sounds great, but the search function for any device I use to listen to my own music completely and totally sucks.

 

I just got a 2011 Prius III. I don't know of any USB connector. Where is it? Or is it only on certain models? Thanks.

 

D'oh! Then I don't have one.

 

I have an iPod Touch4 which to my knowledge, unfortunately has no capabilities of Voice Control via USB. Functions and operates pretty much as in previous posters statements. If someone knows of a voice component--I'm up for a "pleasant surprise" myself.

 

Itouch 4G...no voice control that i know of.

As for scrolling, just be thankful that we can scroll forwards AND backwards!! On Acura/Honda system, you can only scroll forward...so, if you want to hear that song #601, you need to scroll thru 600 songs before getting to it. At least with the Prius, you can save some time by scrolling backward. Yes, the scrolling may take some time as the info is being loaded from Ipod to NAVI screen, but this is not too bad.

For me, i just go to the playlist that i want...and then just hit RANDOM...this way, i get to listen to music and just hit "next" button whenever i don't like a song.

 

Thanks for posting this thread. I recently downloaded a number of MP3 files from the Amazon MP3 store and discovered this exact behavior on my 2010-III with Nav. I had wondered if it was a bitrate issue but noted that when I recoded the files using some old tool I had, the old tool apparently stripped out the artwork and it played. And recoding at the same bitrate had the same effect.

 

I guess it depends on how you consume your music. I rarely buy albums -- just a bunch of singles I put in a player as a compilation versus a playlist composed of links to files. And I'm not sure how players capable of display handle the cover art when composed of a physical versus a logical grouping. Or perhaps the presence of folder.jpg overrides individual artwork.

Regardless, last night I used mp3tag to simply remove the artwork whenever it was over 256k and rename all tracks to Title - Artist.

But this issue would still seem to be a firmware issue in the player / head unit - something someone at Toyota should be able to oversee getting fixed. But who should be notified?

Thanks again for the post.

 

This was driving me crazy and I couldn't figure out why some mp3's wouldn't play until I read your solution. I was going to embark on resampling the mp3's, reformatting the USB stick and other potentially lengthy troubleshooting steps. Fortunately, I kept searching until I found this thread and used your solution to remove the embedded artwork - everything is fine now! Thanks!

 

I quickly glanced at all the responses here. So here is my take on it based on my experiences so far with my car as I use a flash drive as my primary way to listen to music though I do occasionally listen to stuff from my iphone 4. Firstly, you will not see a USB port unless you have the navigation package (either by itself or via the moonroof package). Secondly, any storage device should work in FAT format (I don't recollect ever trying ntfs). Thirdly, as far as I know, there is a file limitation of 256 tracks per folder. Fourth, you get only filename, folder, and artist on the screen and they will get truncated if they do not fit (the screen will not horizontally scroll). Fifth, the buttons on the display will get disabled/greyed out above the expected speed like anything else, so the only way to advance or go back would be via next/prev track (most efficiently from the steering wheel). Sixth, the songs will be played in the physical order they are written to the drive which may appear sorted to you on your computer but will probably not be on the drive. So if you want them played in a particular order, you need to physical put them that way after you write them out. I use a free windows utility called "drivesort". Seventh, any bugs or problems will not be fixed bu toyota except perhaps on newer models. So for example, when you first play a USB you may see "(no data)" for artist name even if you know you have an artist id tag. The workaround is hit another tab like FM or CD and then hit USB and the information will display correctly. Eighth, the USB player will not remember positions like CD or DVD player. If you pull out the USB drive and put it back in, play starts from the first track in the first folder.

I do exactly what people suggest here - my file names include all the id tag info in them like title, artist, album and then I use the 'tag and rename' utility to create the tags from the filename. keep in mind, of course, that info on the toyota display gets truncated.