[msintros]

Should I switch the mp3 to wav format you think to be able for songs to play right on my toyota corolla?

Honestly, even though this is technically "solved", I never really got it to work to my satisfaction. I did at least get it to recognize MP3s on my drive, but it wouldn't recognize everything. Many songs just wouldn't appear, for seemingly no reason. After literally about 8 hours spent trying different things and never really getting it to work the way I wanted to, I ended up just getting an iPod Touch that had Bluetooth and abandoned the USB drive. It's obvious that the Toyota media player is just not good at handling USB.

But if you're looking for suggestions:

• I'd stick with MP3, but you can try WAV and see if it makes any difference. It probably won't though.
• Like I say in one of my posts above, open the drive on your computer and check what actual format it's in. It will need to be in FAT32, but I also recommend making sure it's the right kind of partition map. I believe the manual says it should be in GUID, but this never worked for me, and the only success I ever had was setting it to be Master Boot Record. If this makes no sense to you, just look up how to reformat a drive and you will probably find stuff that walks you through this on whatever operating system you use.

Other than that, I'd recommend just going to a Bluetooth device. There are other advantages to this as well, such as the fact that with USB you will never be able to change artists/albums while the car is moving. This is a safety feature, apparently. You can skip tracks forward and back but not interact with the menu in any other way. With my iPod Touch I can still interact with the controls on the iPod itself to change things while the car is moving.

 

[Samanthag13]

I have been trying to get the media player to recognize .mp3 files on a USB flash drive with no luck. I have tried every possible format. The manual says it should be in FAT32 which I have now tried twice, along with the other formatting options I have (Mac, exFAT). I have tried different file tree structures:

• Files in the main directory
• Each album in a single folder with Artist - Album name format
• Each artist as a folder and within that folders for the albums

In every case, when I connect the USB drive in the car it says that there were no audio files found.

I tried calling customer service and they referred me to the owner's manual pages that talk about format, etc. I have read all these pages and there is no way in which what I'm doing deviates from what it says there. The format of the drive is correct, all the .mp3 files are of the correct format in the correct range of bitrate, etc.

Really stumped at this point and regretting even getting this car if I'm unable to listen to music in it.

I have been trying to get the media player to recognize .mp3 files on a USB flash drive with no luck. I have tried every possible format. The manual says it should be in FAT32 which I have now tried twice, along with the other formatting options I have (Mac, exFAT). I have tried different file tree structures:

• Files in the main directory
• Each album in a single folder with Artist - Album name format
• Each artist as a folder and within that folders for the albums

In every case, when I connect the USB drive in the car it says that there were no audio files found.

I tried calling customer service and they referred me to the owner's manual pages that talk about format, etc. I have read all these pages and there is no way in which what I'm doing deviates from what it says there. The format of the drive is correct, all the .mp3 files are of the correct format in the correct range of bitrate, etc.

Really stumped at this point and regretting even getting this car if I'm unable to listen to music in it.

that is currently happening with my USB I compared it to another one that works and everything is the same fat32 64g even same company USB’s everything I try does not work. How do I fix this?

 

[msintros]

that is currently happening with my USB I compared it to another one that works and everything is the same fat32 64g even same company USB’s everything I try does not work. How do I fix this?

Did you look at my above reply where I talk about the partition map? This is independent of the format itself (fat32). That's the only thing I can think to check. Honestly, the USB support is really bad and I completely gave up after spending probably 8 hours or more trying different things, reformatting drives, changing the way files were named, etc. so I don't have any ideas for you that aren't already in this thread.

 

[L3G1T]

that is currently happening with my USB I compared it to another one that works and everything is the same fat32 64g even same company USB’s everything I try does not work. How do I fix this?

Did you try this?

OK, I literally just solved this…

It turned out I did have another drive lying around and it happened to already be FAT32 formatted so I threw some of the same files I had been trying to read with the other one onto that. Loaded just fine in the car and browsing/playing was nice and fast.

So I took it inside and examined both drives in Disk Utility to see how they were different. Well, it happens that the one that worked had a Master Boot Record partition map… the one that didn’t had a GUID partition map. So I tried reformatting the one that didn’t work with a Master Boot Record partition map and that one works in the car now too.

I had actually read about this because I was curious what the different partition maps were for and everything I read said that you should generally use GUID unless you are specifically making a boot drive. So it turns out all of that was rubbish and the car kind of requires a Master Boot Record partition map or it won’t read the files, even though they are correct files and in the correct disk format.

Thanks everyone for your input. Hopefully this will help someone down the line with the same problem.

 

[jangmoen]

I had the same problem on a new Rav4. Less then half of my songs on the usb stick would play. I dragged and dropped files from my music library in Windows onto the USB stick. WAW and WMA files. After several tries, I decided to export them via a file converter, converting them to MP3, 256 quality onto the stick. Now I can play all files. There must be something in the filestructure from Windows that the cars multimedia system doesn't like?

 

[rayrayh]

OK, I literally just solved this…

It turned out I did have another drive lying around and it happened to already be FAT32 formatted so I threw some of the same files I had been trying to read with the other one onto that. Loaded just fine in the car and browsing/playing was nice and fast.

So I took it inside and examined both drives in Disk Utility to see how they were different. Well, it happens that the one that worked had a Master Boot Record partition map… the one that didn’t had a GUID partition map. So I tried reformatting the one that didn’t work with a Master Boot Record partition map and that one works in the car now too.

I had actually read about this because I was curious what the different partition maps were for and everything I read said that you should generally use GUID unless you are specifically making a boot drive. So it turns out all of that was rubbish and the car kind of requires a Master Boot Record partition map or it won’t read the files, even though they are correct files and in the correct disk format.

Thanks everyone for your input. Hopefully this will help someone down the line with the same problem.

I don't even own a Toyota but I had to make an account to say thank you to msintros. You were ABSOLUTELY right about changing the USB drive from GUID to Master Boot Record. It worked instantly. And like I said, it wasn't even for a car, it was for a boombox in my living room! lol. Thanks again!

 

[Tazio Nuvolari]

After several tries, I decided to export them via a file converter, converting them to MP3, 256 quality onto the stick. Now I can play all files.

USB must be formatted to FAT 32 and the individual files on the USB must be AUDIO mpeg type. File converters are the best to use. Sometimes when downloading old music files (that play on a laptop) onto a new USB they turn out to be something other than an audio file and won't play on a Toyota.

 

[DPierre111]

I ACTUALLY SOLVED THE PROBLEM ... for real!! (It had nothing to do with FAT32 or album artwork or anything.)
Here is what you need to do:
YOU - you, dear reader - have to create your own folders on your USB drive. In my case, I simply named the folders 'Music 1', 'Music 2', 'Music 3', etc.
Then you can drag album folders and individual songs into these folders from your laptop/desktop.
What's the catch? You simply have to make sure that the total number of songs (or 'files') in each of the folders you created does not exceed 255. Got it?
Do not treat the folder of an entire album as a folder in this case. You need to drag an album folder (with its 12 songs or whatever) into one of the folders you created on the USB. It's the same with individual songs. Just don't exceed 255 total songs in a folder.
NO, it does not matter how your order/drag your albums or individual songs. It does not matter which folder any of your music is in! When you put your USB in your car, everything will be organized fine. Trust me. (I am assuming that all of your songs are tagged and identified correctly (name of song, name of artist, etc.).)
It turns out there's some weird thing where each folder on a USB can have up to 255 files, and the USB can have a max of 3000 folders and an overall max of 9999 files. (If you have over 10,000 songs, I can't help you.) The whole thing has to do with how the system searches files on your USB, and I don't even understand how it works. But what I say will work!
Got it? Take a blank/empty USB and create folders in the USB (right-click >> New >> Folder), and then simply drag your album folders and individual songs into these folders so that the total number of songs in each folder does not exceed 255.
Enjoy.

 

[Floyd62]

OK, I literally just solved this…

It turned out I did have another drive lying around and it happened to already be FAT32 formatted so I threw some of the same files I had been trying to read with the other one onto that. Loaded just fine in the car and browsing/playing was nice and fast.

So I took it inside and examined both drives in Disk Utility to see how they were different. Well, it happens that the one that worked had a Master Boot Record partition map… the one that didn’t had a GUID partition map. So I tried reformatting the one that didn’t work with a Master Boot Record partition map and that one works in the car now too.

I had actually read about this because I was curious what the different partition maps were for and everything I read said that you should generally use GUID unless you are specifically making a boot drive. So it turns out all of that was rubbish and the car kind of requires a Master Boot Record partition map or it won’t read the files, even though they are correct files and in the correct disk format.

Thanks everyone for your input. Hopefully this will help someone down the line with the same problem.

THIS ^^ may be what I need to check; I had a 64 MB thumb drive that wouldn't play but my 16 MB plays fine.

 

[Alleyoop.]

I ACTUALLY SOLVED THE PROBLEM ... for real!! (It had nothing to do with FAT32 or album artwork or anything.)
Here is what you need to do:
YOU - you, dear reader - have to create your own folders on your USB drive. In my case, I simply named the folders 'Music 1', 'Music 2', 'Music 3', etc.
Then you can drag album folders and individual songs into these folders from your laptop/desktop.
What's the catch? You simply have to make sure that the total number of songs (or 'files') in each of the folders you created does not exceed 255. Got it?
Do not treat the folder of an entire album as a folder in this case. You need to drag an album folder (with its 12 songs or whatever) into one of the folders you created on the USB. It's the same with individual songs. Just don't exceed 255 total songs in a folder.
NO, it does not matter how your order/drag your albums or individual songs. It does not matter which folder any of your music is in! When you put your USB in your car, everything will be organized fine. Trust me. (I am assuming that all of your songs are tagged and identified correctly (name of song, name of artist, etc.).)
It turns out there's some weird thing where each folder on a USB can have up to 255 files, and the USB can have a max of 3000 folders and an overall max of 9999 files. (If you have over 10,000 songs, I can't help you.) The whole thing has to do with how the system searches files on your USB, and I don't even understand how it works. But what I say will work!
Got it? Take a blank/empty USB and create folders in the USB (right-click >> New >> Folder), and then simply drag your album folders and individual songs into these folders so that the total number of songs in each folder does not exceed 255.
Enjoy.

This answers my problem. I have over 1000 songs on the drive, but the car system only sees around 235 of them. I made them loose because when I select random play, the player doesn't remember what it's played already. Now it plays in order of track numbers. I'll try putting them all into new folders and see how that works.

 

[juanpm]

I had the same problem on a 2017 Hilux with a 16Gb USB drive that was working and suddenly stopped working. I tried the solutions indicated in the post without satisfactory results. I also tried quick formatting, slow formatting, always in FAT32, but without results. Then I thought of formatting the drive in NTFS and then back to FAT32, and that solved the problem.

 

[dabareh]

Had old 1 and 2 GB drives that play fine. Got new 32 GB and formatted...won't recognize the drives. Tried different formats and file setup of music, no luck. Frustrating.

 

[75aces]

Need to reference the model number of your head unit to see if anything larger than 2gb will work. Some of these have limitations and this is due to the read rates. When the processor isn’t above average, the read time is impacted.

 

[gold94corolla]

Had old 1 and 2 GB drives that play fine. Got new 32 GB and formatted...won't recognize the drives. Tried different formats and file setup of music, no luck. Frustrating.

Some vehicles have a limit to the size of the USB drive it can read. It's all in your owner's manual.

 

[automatic]

I’m using a Sandisc Cruiser, 32g and format them the slow way using an old windows 7 laptop. Works great in the ‘22 non-jbl.
I use wav files, no folders.
Low dollar amazon usb drives never worked.