jkeifer3

It took quite a few days but GraceNote finally was able to catalog my drive.

UpodJohn

Days!!! Yikes. Not surprised really with a 120GB drive. Congrats. Any idea how much accumulative time you had the GS on & the drive plugged in over the few days?

JDH

I am using a 16 GB USB drive with about 3500 songs in a dozen folders. In my month old 2013 Lexus Rx 350, a Gracenote icon flashes but no cover art appears. I inserted this USB drive in my brother's brand new Buick at the dealer and cover art appeared immediately with each song that played. I just traveled about 3000 miles in the past 3 weeks, so don't tell me to be patient while the Lexus system gathers information. Is there something I need to do to activate Gracenote?

On a side issue, I created another USB with several songs and a couple of playlist files. The Audio system states something like "Please wait while the system analysis the information." There can't be more than 20 to 30 files on the USB. Any help here?

zicogold

Good summary of format requirements. I am using a 64 GB USB with no issues. The media can be accessed by file or album or artist and song under each. There is no album art however.

So it sounds like some of you have organized your media by genre, is that correct?

mcfine

I don't think the Lexus system displays the cover art. The thumbnail is part of the mp3 (assuming its purchased legally from Amazon/itunes) file so you don't need Gracenote to search for it. It should just display if the system was designed to do so.

On the second USB might want to check that its FAT32. Otherwise no clue.

mcfine

Yeah I arranged mine by genre. Seemed like a broad enough category to use to group the songs. Was a bit of a pain to have to move 700 songs on the USB files into 5 different folders when my previous vehicle could read all that info off the USB without any 255 limitation. Made scrolling through album listings a bit easier without having to drill into folders. Once the sorting is done it works well enough.

harleymark

I have not used a USB drive, but when my iPhone is connected to the USB port, it will display album art if the art is on my iPhone. It does not display album art if I am streaming via bluetooth.

It does take a bit of time to load the album art.

terrycs

Doesn't the album art get switched off anyway when the primary display changes? If so, is there a way to leave it displaying music mode?

groversdad

I picked up a SanDisk Ultra 64GB USB 3.0 flash drive at Costco that was pre-formatted FAT32 and works fine out of the Box.

My question is about controlling the order that tracks play. I'm trying to listen to audio books that I have ripped from CDs using Windows Media Player (relevant?). The discs wind up in folders that I label Disc 01, 02, etc., but when I copy a bunch of folders at once and watch the copy dialog box the folders aren't copied in alphabetical order and therefore when a folder finishes playing it doesn't play them in the order of the book. When I look at the contents of the flash drive it of course shows the folders in alphabetical order.

The only way I can force the order of play of the folders is to copy them one at a time in order to the flash drive, which seems to physically sequence them correctly. This is a pain but since most audio books aren't more than 15 CDs I can live with it (although I have to shorten the book's name so I can read the title.) So far I haven't had any problem with the sequence of the tracks within the folders.

The screen on my 2013 GS350 only allows me to choose the next/previous track or folder.

Do I have any other options? I borrowed a friend's old Ipod classic but it wouldn't connect. I wish I could create a playlist.

Thanks in advance for any help.

JDH

Unable to get the audio system to recognize playlists on my USB flash drive, I went back to the dealer and spoke to a very knowledgeable technition. Currently there is a problem recognizing playlists directly from a flash drive, but it will work using an mp3 player.

The mp3 can be one with internal memory (and card slot) and I believe even an older mp3 player with a hard drive will work.

The player must be pluged into the USB port using the USB cable that came with your mp3 player. Since the USB port will be supplying 5 volts, no other power supply is required.

If you prefer to use playlists which will allow you to use the voice command "Play Music", then "Play playlist <your playlist.", you need to use a MP3 player rather than a flash drive.

2013 RX350

groversdad

I had originally tried to use a Sandisk Sansa Clip MP3 player, which is what I used successfully in my previous car, a Mercedes (showed me the playlists and everything). Since I had no luck with that, I explored the flash drive option. I tried the MP3 player again after reading your message and when I plug it into my Lexus I get a "No music files found" message.

I also borrowed a friend's (old) Ipod Classic and all I got was a flashing "Do not disconnect" message on the Ipod with no recognition at all on the car.

I bought a larger capacity flash drive and it seems that as long as I copy the folders to it in the correct order, I'm able to listen to my audio books happily.

jvinhj240

so what is maximum HDD capacity i can use? 250gb sata with FAT32 is fine?

jkeifer3

That's the size (256GB SSD) I use and it works fine. I am sure you could probably go bigger but that's an awful lot of storage space. Folders need to be limited to, I believe, 255 items per folder and the disk must be formatted in FAT32 of some type and not NTFS. That's way too many folders IMHO.

By the way, navigating a large disk gets very cumbersome.

dhklexus

I have a 2015 ES 350 which has two USB ports. I would like to use two thumb drives, one with classical music, the other with pop and jazz. It would then be easier to toggle between the two when my mood changes. The dealer has told me I can't do this, but it seems odd that they would put two usb ports in the car when I can only use one for a thumb drive, plus the dealer has been less than forthcoming with a few other issues so I have some suspicions that he is just trying to get out of fixing a problem. Does anyone know if the dealer is correct? Thanks

DHK, a newbie

MEAHT

iTrader: (1)

Not sure about other cars but this one cant play from more than one device. When 2 devices are connected it only reads from one. These arent the same as your PC USB slots in many instances.
Solution would be to create 2 folders on one thumb drive and play them seperately.

You guys should really just use your phones to play music, especially if you have a 64GB phone, much easier, much faster, through USB or BLUETOOTH.

Trust me Ive done boatloads of testing and can confirm that the less you have to press on the car radio the better.