JSracer

Say, i have a 160 gig classic connected to the vehicle. Its cool playing artist, or albums, or songs by voice commands. My question for the thumb drive users, is this also how it works? Debating pulling the ipod, and just use a 128 or 256gig card in an adapter or flash drive,
My folder setup would be artist folders , then album folders inside? Do playlists work? Just curious. (could be setup another way if it works better)
Thanks much for the time. Any info
Probably makes no difference but i have the big screen nav with ML audio
(all is 320k or better format, some apple lossless, and some ape and flac and wav too i can convert)

GSFRX350

I can't answer the voice search question but I would highly recommend sticking with the iPod being the player. When you use the USB thumb drive you're using the car's audio player which is not as good as the iPod. Also check the manual, I think you'll find the USB drive won't play all those formats you mentioned.

golferjack

I have a 64gb micro flash drive, so nothing will bump it. That is about all the good news there is with the infotainment system. It is pretty much like my wife’s 2016 Rav hybrid, but maybe a little worse. I am sure you know you can only have 255 songs in a folder. Therefore, if you want a playlist you can make folders for each playlist. It will index all your songs that are in a folder or in root. You can then play songs by the 4 categories, but unlike the Rav, if you want to play a certain artist, it will only play the artists songs for a given album. At least the Rav will let you play all the songs of an artist. I have tried loading all the music into root and letting it index everything, but it seems to loose some songs in the indexing process. I even changed all the genre of the songs to match a various playlists, eg. Country, Classical, etc. Most of the time it reindexes all the songs each time the car is started, so when that happens, it plays the first album or folder while indexing. Indexing can take quite a bit of time and when completed it does not return to the song you were playing when you turned the car off. However, if you are playing music out of a folder, and you do not have anything but folders, it will return to the song you were playing. Toyota tried to do too much, with how it deals with music, and it looks like they have a real mess, and are not too keen on getting it corrected. You may have the better approach of using an Ipod to bypass the indexing issues. Good luck.

JSracer

Interesting, the 160g classic works very well. Seems like that might be the best option. It only indexes for voice control. If playing the ipod, pushing the voice in the wheel, say play artist ... Or play album... . Or anything like that works very well.
I use root, say mp3, then artist folders, with album folders inside. That's how my pc, and android devices are setup. Makes it easy for me looking at the file system
Seems the thumb drive/card option could be a bit clunky ? Thanks so much for the feedback

golferjack

Would you please tell me what version of the classic you have? I am interested in going to you idea, but want to make sure that the version I get has the remote IPOD features. My classic is so old that I can only operate if from the IPOD controls and use the audio out jack.

JSracer

Its old, but they all are. Lol 6th gen? Black, aluminum back, 160 gig
So usb connection, the car does not see the ipod?

golferjack

I have an older Classic, but with a click wheel. The Lexus sees it, and says it is checking it, but then will not open it. The IPOD says "do not disconnect", and keeps that message on the screen. There must be some logic in the IPOD that was upgraded on newer models.

Thanks for the info.