Help with using audio system to play music from USB stick

[rowan.bradley]

I have a 2016 Toyota Verso, Design trim level. I am trying to work out how to play music from a USB stick. I'm using the manual OM64595E.pdf downloaded from the Toyota website, since the manual supplied with my car does not seem to cover the version of audio system that I have at all. I believe that I have the Touch 2 system, although this is a guess (how do I find out for sure?). I am having various trouble:
1. The manual says (on page 22) "Open the cover of the USB/AUX port". My USB port does not have a cover (see picture).
Am I putting the USB stick into the wrong port? Is there another port somewhere that I have not found? Anyway, I have plugged my USB stick into the USB socket that I know about (which is on the left hand side of the gear stick).
2. The manual says (on page 31) that on plugging in the USB stick, it should select the USB memory operation screen. It does not.
3. The manual also says (on page 31) that another way to select the USB memory operation screen is to select USB in the Audio Source menu. In my menu, the USB button is greyed out, and does nothing.
4. I am wondering whether there is something wrong with the USB stick that I have inserted. It is brand new. It is 128GB. Is this too big? Does it have to be formatted in some specific way? Do the files on it have to be of some specific format? They are just .cda files copied directly from an audio CD. Do they have to be in some specific folder structure? Or is the car's USB port faulty?

I hope that someone can get me over this hurdle. I have to say that the manual supplied with this car are absolutely awful. I expected better from Toyota.

Thanks - Rowan
 

[FROSTYBALLS]

For the past four years or so, Toyota have supplied abbreviated owners manuals with new cars, with full owners manuals available to download from My Toyota or purchase from dealers. 

As regards the cover for the usb socket, as it is a used car, I suspect the previous owner may have broken off the cover.

As far as I'm aware cda files aren't audio files. You would probably be best to copy the files as MP3, WMA or similar. 

[Mike169]

Hi.

I don't know if this helps at all.

I have a 2012/3 Rav with it sounds like the same system as you.

I used a 128 gb stick for a 6 foot stack of CD's., all these CD's, a lot, only used about 25gb of the usb stick.

I loaded all the CD's onto the stick using a method I cannot remember now but using my computer, but I can recall I just 'dropped' them in and taking a couple of hours.

I plugged the usb stick into the same place as you, (Your rubber cover is simply missing).

The Touch Two recognises the usb stick straight away, displays the album covers, you select want you want to listen to and it just works.

If I unplug the usb stick it just reverts back to the radio station it is tuned into.

I didn't download anything, it just worked.

Regards, Mike.

 

[rowan.bradley]

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately it doesn't help me work out why it is working for you but not for me. I think I'll try converting the tracks to MP3 (which I know it is supposed to play) and see if that makes any difference.

Thanks - Rowan

[PeteB]

On 3/30/2019 at 6:31 PM, estate said:

I also think this is the issue, as I'm sure the max you can connect is 8GB.

 

On 3/30/2019 at 9:16 PM, Heidfirst said:

You can connect more but the system definitely struggles to index etc.

These are at odds with Mike's reply, but I've come across a number of people making similar statements.

My USB stick is quite small at 4GB and only has a few hundred tracks on it, but has worked fine in a number of Toyotas and Lexus I've driven (loans & test drives) and well as Gen 3 & 4 Prius and a 2011 Yaris, with only Playlists not being recognised on the very latest RAV4.

 

[Heidfirst]

1 hour ago, PeteB said:

 

These are at odds with Mike's reply, but I've come across a number of people making similar statements.

My USB stick is quite small at 4GB and only has a few hundred tracks on it, but has worked fine in a number of Toyotas and Lexus I've driven (loans & test drives) and well as Gen 3 & 4 Prius and a 2011 Yaris, with only Playlists not being recognised on the very latest RAV4.

 

I've tried it with a full 64GB USB stick ...  It works but it's a bit laggy - noticeably more so than e.g. on a 16GB (btw for T2 wG 8GB is definitely not the max - indeed iirc that's the minimum that Toyota recommend for when updating maps).

[-Jonny-]

17 hours ago, rowan.bradley said:

4. Do the files on it have to be of some specific format?

MP3 or WMA like the Touch & Go (which has much more information in its manual!), but there may be others. I ended up using WMA CBR 192 kbps (VBR gave it problems calculating track length/position), embedding the artwork into the file.

[Heidfirst]

12 hours ago, -Jonny- said:

MP3 or WMA like the Touch & Go (which has much more information in its manual!), 

do you have the full manual https://d24bc9lyrt5en5.cloudfront.net/Customer-Portal-Admin/emanuals/TOYOTA/OM64596E.pdf ? Check page 57.

[rowan.bradley]

Thanks to all who have contributed to this topic. On changing all the files to either MP3 or WMA, it now seems to work fine. These seem to be the only two formats that it will accept - WAV doesn't work, for example. I guess that it is not the size of the memory stick, but the number of tracks stored on it that causes the indexing to slow down. In any case, I guess that I have not yet got enough tracks on my 128G stick to cause problems. It is working fine with the 128G stick, so it seems there is no hard limit of size that it can work with.

So at least I can now start building my music library. Thanks again for your help that enabled me to overcome this problem.

Rowan

[Heidfirst]

1 hour ago, rowan.bradley said:

Thanks to all who have contributed to this topic. On changing all the files to either MP3 or WMA, it now seems to work fine. These seem to be the only two formats that it will accept - WAV doesn't work, for example.

from the OM64596E manual "Compatible file format (audio) MP3/WMA/AAC" ...

[Mike169]

8 hours ago, rowan.bradley said:

Thanks to all who have contributed to this topic. On changing all the files to either MP3 or WMA, it now seems to work fine. These seem to be the only two formats that it will accept - WAV doesn't work, for example. I guess that it is not the size of the memory stick, but the number of tracks stored on it that causes the indexing to slow down. In any case, I guess that I have not yet got enough tracks on my 128G stick to cause problems. It is working fine with the 128G stick, so it seems there is no hard limit of size that it can work with.

So at least I can now start building my music library. Thanks again for your help that enabled me to overcome this problem.

Rowan

Hi Rowan.

Have you any problems with your 128Gb stick, is it 'laggy' (?) at all or does it just work, mine works fine, 100% and instantly, mine as I said works instantly, shows album covers, finds CD's instantly etc, etc.

Mike.

[andytiedye]

I have tried 2 32gb USB sticks so far.  One was not detected at all (USB stayed grayed-out).   The other showed only 6 short nameless silent tracks,  none of the MP3s that were actually there.

Both were formatted FAT32.