So, I was cleaning up in the garage today and ran across a box containing my old iPods. I use USB sticks and SD cards now in everything, but I thought I would try these in my '23 LC500:

Touch 4th Gen - 16GB
5th gen - 30GB
Classic - 120GB

Surprisingly, once the batteries had charged a few minutes, they all worked without issue. One weird thing - I used the upper USB with the first one, and it did not work. Then I tried the lower port, and it worked. And I later went back to the upper port, and they all 3 worked there, too. May have just been a matter of getting enough charge in the first one.

My owner's manual says:
• iPod touch (6th generation)
• iPod touch (5th generation)
• iPod nano (7th generation)

 

Interesting. Sounds like they dropped support for older iPods when they did the infotainment refresh for 2024. I've got a 6th gen Touch and iPhone 8 on the way from eBay, will test them in my 2025 and report back.

 

OK, the iPod 6th gen works in my 2025 LC (despite the manual specifying 7th gen), so that's good news. Especially because eBay prices on the 6th gen are much better than the 7th (last) gen. I got mine (in blue that matches my blue LC nicely) for ~$70.

I'm still working on the iPhone 8 (main advantage -- larger available memory of 256gigs) -- CarPlay aggressively tries to take over, and I'm still fiddling with settings to have it act like a simple iPod via USB. Will report back.

 

And what I hope will be the final chapter in the saga -- the iPhone 8 is both cheap (even the 256gb model) and works well as an iPod via USB in my 2025 LC. BUT you have to disable CarPlay, which otherwise aggressively tries to take over the USB connection. To do that (thanks ChatGPT, and I also leave it in Airplane Mode for good measure)o this (recommended for a dedicated “car iPod” phone):

1. Settings → Screen Time
   
2. Content & Privacy Restrictions → Allowed Apps
   
3. Toggle CarPlay → OFF
   
4. Power-cycle the phone
   
5. Plug into Lexus via USB
   
6. On the Lexus screen:
   
   • Media → Source → USB / iPod
     
   • Do not select CarPlay if prompted
     

This prevents the CarPlay negotiation entirely.