Audio not recognizing USB stick

Hello fellow truckers,

I'm hoping someone may have seen this and has a solution for this issue that I'm having with a USB thumb drive that has a bunch of songs on it.
I have a '15 Highlander and a '17 Tacoma TRD OR.
I have two USB thumb drives, one that works fine (I'll call it H because I use it on the Highlander) and the other that does not get recognized by any vehicle (I'll call it T because I'm trying to use it on the Tacoma).
I formatted T with NTFS and copied all songs from H to T.
H had the songs sitting in a folder so I just copied the entire folder as is to T.
I went to use Audio from T on the Tacoma but the USB button on the screen was grayed out, so the Tacoma is not recognizing the T thumb drive. I tried it on the Highlander but with the same result, doesn't get recognized by the Highlander.
Any thoughts or recommendations?

Thank you for taking the time.

Keep on trucken'

 

has something to do with the format of the usb. this may help/
http://doughaslam.com/2010/11/04/fo...for-your-car-a-solution-to-a-nagging-problem/

 

Has to be formatted as FAT32.

 

Thank you.

 

Two things may be wrong with mine. It's old so probably a 1.0 and I formatted it with NTFS. Thanks for the info. Where did you get it, if you don't mind me asking?

 

The info can be found in your owner's manual.

 

Thanks, I must have missed it.

 

so you are using a thumb drive as a mp3 player? can you browse the thumb drive as you would an ipod? port at bottom of info radio screen?

 

I cannot. The USB button on the console is grayed out, can't select it. I'm going to format the USB FAT32 and try it again. Will let you know.

 

Yes the thumb drive works like an iPod/hard drive interface. Click usb on screen and select whatever. Get a better thumb drive, they're dumb cheap. Format to fat or fat 32 and you'll be fine

 

this is what i have, does not stick out into the cup holder

SanDisk Cruzer Fit CZ33 64GB USB 2.0 Low-Profile Flash Drive- SDCZ33-064G-B35

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruz...pID=31Lb1yp-sWL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

 

And it worked. FAT32 it is. It’s working fine on the Highlander, will try it on the Tacoma tonight. My guess is it will work there too. Thanks for the help.

 

It worked on the Tacoma, so it was definitely the FAT32 format requirement. Thank you all for your help.

 

I don’t want to nag Toyota... I also bought a mini drive like shown above to not have it stick out

 

Those things are getting tiny and cheap! I mean 64GB for $13 bucks is crazy, or like @kahanabob said "dumb cheap". I remember paying around $300 for my powered 75GB hard drive for my home network a while back. Unreal!

 

Try a different USB drive...

 

This one worked. I had to format it with FAT32.

 

my thumbdrive and USB port have been working fine for over 2 years then one day last week I went to put on a song and the thumbdrive was also grayed out? even pulled it out and reinstalled it, and still nothing, thought it was the CD that was in but then after shutting the truck off and starting back up, it worked..not sure if it was a fluke or something?

 

Could it be that a relay was reset when you shut off the power?