MGGF

Leaving the site too many ignorant people.

dchar

I actually turned album artwork off because it lags the system a bit. Don't care much about seeing the album artwork while I'm driving.

bc6152

When I hear the song I know who it is and the name of the song. Don't need pictures. Would also be a distraction as Dchar states.

Mike728

I rarely use an iPod anymore, since a memory stick is much easier and less bulky to use. That said, I do miss the artwork that was displayed while using the iPod. I've never purchased anything on itunes and all my artwork showed up fine. About a quarter of the artwork was not found, or incorrect, when I manually transferred my CD collection over to itunes in MP3 format. All I had to do was either find the album cover on the internet and copy it over to itunes, or scan and copy. Not sure why your's acts finicky.

Oh, and you didn't get any response to your original question, because you asked it in a regional forum, not here. You're pretty much guaranteed to get a response to anything here. Even if it's not useful!

Mike728

I formatted at FAT32. All my music is MP3 encoded at 256kbs and I have the drive organized by artist. There are some limitations to the number of files, or directories allowed, though. I have over 1k of albums loaded, which seems to exceed the limits. The system only recognizes 800 and something of the albums, but I've learned to be ok with that.

user420

^^^ Agreed @Mike728. I'm a Mac user also @MGGF and have found that I must format as FAT32 for the flash drive to work properly in the vehicle.

LexBob2

It sounds like you've had really bad luck with the newer vehicles. It might be time to simplify. Don't get your hopes too high tthough, even the Kia Soul has a lot of tech that could frustrate..

TechNut

It does sound like you have had bad luck but I haven't experienced the issues you refer to. I have not used the infotainment features you described or Gracenote, but I haven't had any problems with multiple iPhone 6 devices and now an iPhone 6S. I tend to use Pandora rather than connecting my devices via cable. I also haven't experienced the seat issues or the mirror issues you describe - so I don't believe those challenges are representative of the brand but perhaps just bad luck? While no car is going to be perfect, the Lexus vehicles I have owned (and Toyota for that matter) have been some of the most reliable I have owned.

I owned a Honda Accord and the rear main seals went out at 3000 miles. My 93 Ford pickup had 3 sets of rear main seals by the time it had 18K miles. The only "failure" I can recall with 3 Lexus automobiles is a headlight fogging up - and Lexus cut me a deal because the car only had 24k miles on it, even though it was several years past warranty.

Bottom line, sorry to hear of your challenges but I have had a VERY different experience. I have had excellent luck with the brand but I don't think for a moment that it is perfect, or that there aren't other excellent brands. Perhaps the dealership technology specialist might be able to help with some of your challenges?

Kijug

MGGF, if you have a Mac and are having trouble with the USB stick, here is what I do...but it takes a little computer-knowledge. It's mostly 'cause the Lexus fails if there are hidden, non-MP3 files which you probably have.
1. I format the USB stick to FAT32 (I have a 128 GB stick), I call it "MUSIC".
2. Then I go to the iTunes/Music folder on my Mac. Sort the list of folders by size. If you see any that are super-huge there is a chance iTunes put some movies in there...go figure. Move that folder to the Desktop temporarily.
3. Drag 'n drop all the folders in the iTunes/Music folder to the USB stick.
4. Now here is the hard part unless you are computer smart. Mac OS X will create hidden dot files such as ".DS_Store" on the USB stick in every single folder. It's what makes the Finder do its magic. However, I've learned that if Lexus sees these files then Lexus will fail to read the USB at all.

I wrote a little ksh script that iterates through all the folders and removes all the hidden dot files. Now my USB stick works fine. I tried and tried when I got my 2014 ES and finally figured out this was causing the problem. Lexus should know to ignore non-MP3 files and just read the ones it can and do it. Car manufacturers are NOT computer whizzes at all. Very frustrating. There are other non-user-friendly items on the Lexus ES infotainment that drive me crazy and would be easy to fix, but they don't.

Hope that helps!

SW17LS

Is seeing the album art on the screen in that tiny little picture really worth all this hassle and angst?

I want to listen to music. It plays. Always connects to my iPhone and I stream audio over BT. I couldn't even tell you if the album art works or not...my 2010 ES, 2013 GS and 2015 LS all worked just as well.

chromedome

That's weird, I have a 64 GB Sandisk drive formatted to FAT32 in OS X and it works fine in a bunch of cars, the ES included. I only have a thousand songs or so on it and those files were copied straight from my iTunes media folder.

You might want to try formatting the drive again, putting just a few songs and using it in the car. Maybe there's an issue with character encoding in the file name (accented letters or uncommon characters) or ID3 tags that causes the car system to get stuck.

SW17LS

I mean the tiny part of the screen that shows the album art. Its maybe 1/5"x1.5". That being said though, the screen in the ES is quite small by modern standards, even Lexus standards.

To put it into perspective, this is what we're talking about here, that little tiny thumbnail of album art:



If all you want is technology in a screen to show album art, you should just buy some downmarket car with good tech. A luxury car is much more than just that and just features, and amongst luxury cars infotainment is not Lexus' strong point.

FWIW, all the features in all my Lexus vehicles have always operated properly.

Lex222

I'm assuming you did this, but did you check the settings of the car's infotainment system? I seem to recall you had to enable Gracenote. My memory may be playing tricks, but it would be worth checking.

I have an iPhone 6s and it shows artwork and Gracenote. Interestingly, it seems to show album artwork that is one the phone when the phone is connected to USB and other images (Gracenote perhaps) when playing music through Bluetooth. I don't really care either way, but it is interesting none the less.

SW17LS

Thats not my car, thats a picture that I got off the internet. That tells you how little I care about album art...I don't even know what the screen looks like. Gracenote can be updated, but Gracenote is not a Lexus product...its a third party service.

With the thumb drive, I've never tried to use a thumb drive, I stream music over BT from my iPhone, works fine. I'm sure it has to do with how the drive is formatted.

For your seat entry/exit. The choices in the menu system do not apply to the steering wheel, only the seat. You can select it to slide all the way back, part of the way back, or not at all. The steering wheel will still go up and in when you turn the car off regardless of how you have the seat set. If you want the steering wheel to stop moving, the dealer has to disable that.

Whats the issue with the seat memory? One thing to make sure of is that your foot is not on the brake when you are trying to recall a seat setting with the memory. If your foot is on the brake it will not function.

No offense, but the bulk of your issues are likely user error such as the above.