Well I bit the bullet and ordered my 2024 ES-350.
It should be arriving in March from the U.S.
A nice Japanese car made in the U.S. I assume the workers are Japanese Americans?
It's a pity you can't order the green color unless you go for the $10K extras.

This will be my first mp3-equipped vehicle and I have several questions about it.
Kia vehicles have a very weird way of handling mp3's and I'm hoping that Lexus vehicles handle them
in a logical fashion.

Does a Lexus recognize folders that contain mp3's and will it show the folder names so you can chose which one to open?
Can you have sub-folders.
Let's say a folder for Jazz, one for Classical, one for Folk etc.?
And can you have sub-sub-folders and sub-sub-sub folders?
Let's say Classical/Violin/Kremer/Mozart G+ Concerto?

 

It will read all the mp3's in the USB drive and organize them by it's ID3 metadata (Artist, Album, Genre, etc.). But it will also let you browse by folders and sub-folders.

Anyway, since the 2024 supports Car Play / Android Auto, I recommend you copy all the mp3 files (or better yet FLAC files) on your phone and use a supported app as a media player.

I'm Android user, so I use PowerAmp as a media player and have multiple playlists on my phone. I love the wireless AA interface with Google Maps and PowerAmp side by side in dark mode. Very elegant....

 

Thanks. In my case I'll be playing the mp3s with USB sticks, not a phone.
So I will have a choice to browse folders on my USB sticks and then sub-folders until I finally get to the mp3s to select the songs?

Many of my mp3s are obscure so I doubt its ID3 metadata algorithm would be able to figure out the artist/album.
In fact I'd bet a pretty dollar it couldn't do it.

 

I just went to my car to confirm and was able to browse a USB drive by folder / sub folder / filename on my 23' Lux with ML. You can even shuffle a sub-folder. I do have my library in FLAC format ripped from my CD collection.

Be aware that if your new car has the ML System and the MP3's are low quality it will revealed in the sound signature depending on how audiophile you are.

 

While it won't provide answers to your more specific questions, the 2024 LEXUS ES250, ES350, ES300H MULTIMEDIA OWNER'S MANUAL USA AND CANADA ONLY (Lexus Canada and Lexus US sourced copies are exactly the same except Canada puts a manual cover page on theirs) can answer the more general information questions. For example on page 130 in the "5-2. USB flash drive operation subchapter", "Playback of MP3/WMA/AAC/WAV/FLA C/ALAC/Ogg Vorbis" section, there's this:
and on page 236, "9-1. Appendix" subchapter, "Formats and specifications of USB flash drives:" section there a table which includes amongst other entries: "Maximum number of folders" "3000 (including root)" and "Maximum number of folder levels" "8" with these informational items accompanying the table:
There's also information on supported music/sound file formats, file naming, file tags, etc..

 

Thanks for taking the time to check!
Could you please elaborate a bit more on the warning you gave? I will be getting the standard package, I don't know if I'll have the 'ML System'.
What do you mean by "revealed in the sound signature"?

 

Thanks grp52. 8 folder levels will definitely be sufficient for me!
So it looks like I'll be good to go.

My Sandisk flash disks come with a few 'housekeeping files' on them. I wonder if they should be deleted?
Anyone know if that would affect the flash disks, outside the car use?

 

According to the Lexus Canada web site, the "standard" ES 350 package is equipped with the 10 speakers audio system. That's not a 17 speaker Mark Levinson audio system which Lexus Canada only offers as "standard" with the F Sport 2 and Ultra Luxury packages.

That said, I think scubapr's comment on low quality MP3s will probably apply to the base 10 speakers audio system as well. Another way of stating scubapr's comment is that the Lexus ES audio system does nothing to make crappy MP3 audio file inputs sound less crappy on playback speaker sound output.

 

MP3s output horrible quality with the ML system. They sound great in my wife's RX base system but poor at best in my ES with ML.

 

I have a 2019 ES 350. While you can set up the folders, etc, the problem with the system is that it doesn't allow you to browse others folders, genres, etc while the car is driving. You can change songs, but only within the folder you are in prior to putting the car in drive. Therefore, it's pretty useless to me. I tried to load an SD card with FLAC files on it, but stopped trying to use it because of this limitation. I even tried just loading certain playlists, but not being able to change to a different playlist was frustrating. I have all of my music on my phone, so I just use bluetooth now.

If you decide to go down this path, this thread may help when it comes to loading the music on the USB drive:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es-...ack-order.html

Things may have changed in the newer cars, but that's what my experience was.

 

Oh no, this is not what I was wanting to hear.
I'm surprised and disappointed. I don't know how it's possible.
I have a 2007 ES-350 with a CD player. It has no problem shuffling different CD's.
Yet a new 2024 can't shuffle MP3's while driving? Huh?

I read the thread you linked to and that's depressing!
Kia's have the same problem as they describe in the thread.
Is it 2024 now or am I dreaming?

It's funny the first few people who replied here didn't mention any problems.

 

In my '23 ES 300h with ML system, I can browse all my folders while the car is driving. It's good for the passenger to use or if you are in a situation where you can devote a few seconds of attention to the touchscreen. Not recommended in normal driving though.

 

From the link mentioned above:
I think I have figured out how to get the Lexus system to play songs in the desired order. What I think is happening is that Lexus will play the songs in the order they were written to the USB drive. This usually is in numerical/alphabetical order by the name of the file because that is how my Windows and Linux systems write them to the USB drive. So, before copying them to the drive I have to change the names of the files to something like "101 So What.flac" Then "102 Freddie.flac" and so on.

There was a similar solution in that linked thread using MP3Tag; it was quite complicated. Apparently it gets the same result though I haven't tried the MP3Tag method.

 

That could be the difference. My 12in screen is not a touchscreen, so I have the trackpad. Mine screen also doesn't display album art unless the car is in Park....also frustrating!

 

That is strange! Album art is always displayed on the '23 touchscreen.