Cannot Figure Out USB Music - HELP!!

Hey guys!

I have read through the other threads on this, and I just cannot seem to get my unit to sort out the files on my USB correctly... Any help would be amazing. When I select the drive through the head unit, it jumps immediately to AC/DC Back in Black which is the first alphabetical song on the drive. I can't select anything through browse it just starts the song over again. The files are a myriad of purchased files / CD rips / ...other sourcing.

2020 Tacoma Premium audio
Thumb drive: Kingston SE9 G2 64gb USB 3.0
Drive Format: Fat32
Music Files: All .mp3
Folders: None of the folders within the artists have >250 songs/files

Disc Format Leveling of Folders/Files:
1.) Tacoma Music
A.) Artist
i.) Artist folders are A-->Z, each containing loose .mp3 files (no album grouping, I'd like to play all artist songs without switching albums manually between each album)
B.) Workout Folder
i.) Loose .mp3 files intended for a playlist
C.) Country Folder
i.) Loose .mp3 files intended for a playlist

In an ideal world, what I want is to be able to navigate in this way:
1) Artist
a.) A-->Z artist files
2.) Playlists
a.) Country
b.) Rock
c.) Audio books
d.) etc

I'm normally pretty good with working through file paths and digital management, but I'm stumped on this one. Any help would be awesome, thank you guys!

 

Entune systems work best using MP3 ID3 tags. Folders are not well recognized.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/observations-on-the-entune-system-with-a-flash-drive.423978/

 

Thanks for the link, I'm trying to make read through everything to see if I can find a solution. Thank you for the tips and link!

...and before anyone else suggests to just use BT/Spotify, I spend most of my time on back roads looking for fishing spots, so no cell/radio reception where I go - hence the USB!

 

A work around is to have an iPod connected to the USB port. I believe that is the only way to recognize folders

 

Gotcha, thanks for the tip! I used to run that system years ago, but had my window broken and had it snagged so I try not to have too much tech out.

 

I’ve read that people will move the USB port to the glove box to combat the theft aspect.

 

And if you're like me, the sound quality improvement is worth the effort too. I did some really significant audio upgrades, so I can definitely hear the difference. It's enough that the kicker key eq set itself differently when I ran it off .wav on a thumbdrive instead of .wav through MediaMonkey & Android Auto on my phone. Yeah, didnt expect that. Maybe I need to find a USB cable that isn't garbage. Suggestions are welcome.

A note about the system:

When you're driving and you hit "browse" then select artist/album/folder/whatever, it will group songs accordingly and thats what you're switching when you tap the small arrows on either side of [what you selected] on the screen.

So if I hit browse/folders, then my steering wheel controls flip through the list as normal but if i reach over and tap the screen's arrow, it'll jump folders in (usually) alphabetical order.

So you can group the files on the USB as you'd like to and browse/folder will allow you to jump folders as you wish.

Sometimes I miss having a vehicle with a dial like iDrive but all-in-all I like the entune radio enough to not want to change it. I do have a 2020 and android auto was a big part of why I waited and ordered one... so it would be one less thing I'd want to change.

 

I could swear that the Tune/Scroll rotary knob on my 2017 used to step up/down through the folders on my flashdrive, like it does on every other car (Nissans/Hondas) that I've owned in recent years. But after some early Entune update, that functionality was lost. It always seemed much safer to me to reach over and twirl the knob until you got where you wanted to be by listening, rather than having to look at the display screen while you step through menu choices or use the stupid voice control to attempt to choose something different to listen to.

 

Hey everyone!

Thank you for your help, I found at least a workable solution so far.

Using iTunes (I know, I hate it as well), I went to File --> Library --> Organize library --> Consolidate Library. This makes a folder in the file explorer that you can locate with your other iTunes files iTunes --> iTunes Media --> Music. I copied the Music file over to the flash drive, and everything has been working so far! Thank you for your help, it was the ID3 tagging that was the problem. In order to make a playlist, I plan on just clearing all the "Genre's" in iTunes and making new playlist titles and tagging songs as a Genre, that way I can search it easy on the head unit.

I'm sure there are tons of ways to work around this, this is just what worked for me. Thanks again!

Kyle

 

...Just kidding. One issue is that you can't "Browse" music while the truck is moving, which is frustrating. Anyone else experienced this? I know Doobfucious mentioned this, but I can't highlight the different levels with my steering column controls - I only can change to the next song

 

You may be able to use the stupid voice controls to change folders... like "Play Artist Jimi Hendrix" or "Play Album Electric Ladyland". But personally, I would much rather the capability to simply twirl the Tune/Scroll knob to step through to the folder I want.