I'm trying to find a reasonable solution to listening to roughly 125 different folders worth of mp3 music via usb. Each folder is an album and most only have 10-20 songs in them. Ive already noticed that Lexus doesn't recognize subfolders and only lists every single folder on the drive. This means it takes a LONG time to scroll thru all these folder to find what I want to listen to. I could split them up between 2 or 3 flash drives, but some of my drives take 7-8 minutes to fully "catalog" once plugged in.

Is there a better way? Can I use an mp3 media player and plug it into my usb thus bypassing the Lexus interface other than IPOD?

 

I have no idea but I'd love to know the answer. My car wouldn't play anything off the USB drive I tried and I've not worried too much about it. I put a few 100 songs on thumb drive. It works great in my wife's Honda. Go figure.

 

It has to be formatted to FAT32 to work. That may be the issue with yours.

 

Nailed it! Works like a charm.

 

Buy a used iPod. They are cheap.

 

Would it work any better than USB flash drive? For example: would 175 different folders for each artist be easier to scroll thru than on usb?

 

I just put them all in the root of an 8GB flash drive and hit random.

 

The menu will let you select the title of the playlist or artist by letter. You can also access them using voice command too. I.e., "play artist The Doobie Brothers".