Next dumb question:
I plug in my iPhone 4s using the standard iPhone USB cable and it doesn't recognize any of my music.
Do I need a special cable as I do in my 2012 BMW?
I have a 2010 RX with nav.

 

Not sure what you did, but as soon as you plug in your iphone, under the usb screen, you should see ipod on top of the screen.
Have you try using bluetooth? I like it better then using the cable.
All of these info are in the manual. Do you have one? if not, you can view it online using this web site.
https://secure.drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrivers/home.do

 

ejm3,

Haven't used my 4s as a USB music source, but went and tried it when you asked the question. I use only Apple cables, but I had the problem as you describe it. The phone recognizes the car and the car recognizes the phone, but no music. I wondered at first if it had something to do with my music being out in the cloud. Switching to bluetooth, music played.

I'm guessing the 4s or iOS5 isn't fully supported via USB. As time permits, I'll search for some answers, not that Apple or Lexus will give any answers.

 

ejm3,

One problem could be all the songs must be in playlists. At least that was a requirement a couple of years ago. The car expects a specific file structure. No "orphaned" songs. They must be in playlists.

Not sure if that is true with all the new phone and new car software. There are limitations on the maximum number of songs and the number of playlists.

 

I find the bluetooth audio easier to live with although you can't get the best quality music, but after all they are just MP3 files. just my 0.02

 

I have playlists, thousands of songs, podcasts and everything else on there. It smells the iPhone when its plugged in but doesn't read any data. But now I'm wondering if I have so many songs on my phone it was just taking a while to read the data and I didn't wait long enough.

But on my BMW when it did this I needed to buy the official BMW iPod cable ($72 thank you BMW) because the standard USB cable wouldn't work. Oddly enough though some BMW owners said the basic cable worked fine for them and others had the same problem I did.

I also loaded up songs on a micro-USB and tried that. It works but not very well. I loaded everything on the USB in directories by artist and then in subdirectory by album and it doesn't seem to work very well at all. Navigation through the music is at best difficult and sometimes impossible.

 

Maybe a problem (software) of the car radio.
However, change your cable (Apple cable standard works well). I leave permanently a cable connected to the car plug and only connect the cable to iPhone when I want to listen music on iPhone. Exceptionally I get some connection problems when I am connecting the iPhone while he car already in function with radio functioning or CD's, etc. but I think it's more the cable (coming from iPhone 3G while I have the 4S).
Try the bluetooth to see whether it is the car system or connection with cable.

 

No problem here. Both bluetooth and ipod dock functions work fine. The bad thing about using the cable: Your phone can't be on vibrate and have to set to dock connection, not car multimedia(that's bluetooth).
Quality are the same with both options, since the sound is control by the DSP unit in the car(not the phone). If the input file is at a higher bit rate, it may help(maybe??).

 

Ejm3,

I changed my playlists and iPhone 4s worked fine. Songs in the cloud will not show up. iOS is 5.1.

I routinely use a 4 and iOS 5.0.1 without difficulties.

 

yeah you definitely cant have music in the cloud. That would require data usage.

You shouldnt have any problems with a standard apple white usb cord.

cloud may work with bt streaming though since pandora works as well