Music on a Thumb drive question: Although I'm pretty capable on a computer, the dash board on my 2018 RAV4 LE pretty much defeats me. They tried to get me to upgrade from their basic...

2Dragons Loc: The Back of Beyond

Although I'm pretty capable on a computer, the dash board on my 2018 RAV4 LE pretty much defeats me. They tried to get me to upgrade from their basic model, but why pay for MORE stuff that you don't understand was my reasoning. Anyway, it does have a CD drive that I've made many CDs for and that's great, however, I noticed that way under the radio, close to the console, there is a USB port and I was wondering if I put music on a thumb drive and plugged it into the USB port would the radio recognize it and play the music? Thanks...

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

2Dragons wrote:

Although I'm pretty capable on a computer, the das... (show quote)

Can't speak for your car but my car recognizes mp3's on a usb thumb drive. Your car audio must have software that recognizes thumb drives and mp3's. For my car, which is brand new, requires the thumb drive be formatted with DOS Fat32 and be 32GB or less.

I first tried it with a drive that I had formatted with NTFS and it didn't work. I reformatted it with FAT32 and it works fine.

I found the format and size info in my car's operating manual.

2Dragons Loc: The Back of Beyond

Thank you for your input and the fact that I have to format it to fat32. I'd just like to listen to more songs rather than the same 22 or so repeating if I don't change CDs.

AirWalter Loc: Tipp City, Ohio

2Dragons wrote:

Although I'm pretty capable on a computer, the das... (show quote)

Read your manual that came with the car.

fredpnm Loc: Corrales, NM

Being a 2018 chances are it is a charge USB port and not a data port, but read the manual to be sure. If it is a charge port you cannot put music on a thumb drive and have it play music on the car's audio.

Good Luck

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

AirWalter wrote:

Read your manual that came with the car.

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

From the Rav4 forum:

RAV4's, the 2018 anyway, can only read USB drives formatted at FAT 16 or 32 and USB 2.0 HS (480 Mbps) or FS (12 Mbps). File formats from USB are limited to MP3/WMA/AAC, with a maximum of: 3000 folders, 9999 files, and 255 files per folder.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

BigDaddy wrote:

Can't speak for your car but my car recognizes mp3's on a usb thumb drive. Your car audio must have software that recognizes thumb drives and mp3's. For my car, which is brand new, requires the thumb drive be formatted with DOS Fat32 and be 32GB or less.

I first tried it with a drive that I had formatted with NTFS and it didn't work. I reformatted it with FAT32 and it works fine.

I found the format and size info in my car's operating manual.

My 2011 Hyundai Sonata will take a USB drive and play through the radio.
There are controls on the radio to navigate the USB files/directories.
They may have to me MP3 though. I haven't tried any other file format.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

2Dragons wrote:

Although I'm pretty capable on a computer, the das... (show quote)

Load some music onto a thumb drive and plug it in. See if it works. What could possibly go wrong?

Indi Loc: L. I., NY, Palm Beach Cty when it's cold.

I have a 2018 Subaru Legacy. There are specific USB ports for data/media or just charging. I never used a flash drive for entertainment purposes but I’m pretty sure you can play music from a flash drive by selecting “Media” or “Source “ on the entertainment center.
I’m willing to bet that if the flash drive is formatted correctly, your entertainment center will automatically switch to media or to source when inserted when it’s turned on.
Have you ever listened to the radio and inserted a CD or DVD and the EC automatically switched to playback from the cd or dvd?

KillroyII Loc: Middle Georgia

2Dragons wrote:

Although I'm pretty capable on a computer, the das... (show quote)

Best way to answer your question is take a thumb drive of 32GB or less formatted Fat32 and put some songs on it and plug it in the car. You may have to push a button to select "media" input... versus FM or XM, etc. may take a few minutes for car to read the contents. Then you can experiment. I currently have 64GB USB thumb drives in each of our cars.

I have had cars several years older than yours that play the music... the car brands vary with some accepting more than 32GB and formats other than Fat32. Personally, I like to create playlist... giving you a choice of accesing by album or artist. If you like I can give you some further advice... after you confirm the USB port will play music.

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

2Dragons wrote:

Thank you for your input and the fact that I have to format it to fat32. I'd just like to listen to more songs rather than the same 22 or so repeating if I don't change CDs.

Assuming it plays Mp3 files, you will probably will want separate folders for different music styles. Your Mp3 player should have options to choose folders, mix folders and all that rot.

Also, I recently got a tip from Jerry on this forum for this thumb drive:
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-16GB-Ultra-Flash-rive/dp/B077Y149DL/ref=sr_1_3?sr=8-3.

This is a perfect drive for a car as it's about the size of your thumbnail so it doesn't stick out like a normal flash drive. It's USB 3.2 but is backward compatible with 2.0 so it works in my car. It does run a bit hot though, but so far, so good.

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

2Dragons wrote:

Although I'm pretty capable on a computer, the das... (show quote)

Rip one of your CDs to a 16 gb Fat32 thumb drive and plug it in. If the drive shows up as selectable as a source on the head-unit display, you’re good. If not, look around this forum…. https://www.rav4world.com/threads/usb-memory-stick-with-mp3-music-input-to-rav4-audio.311449/

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

I checked the manual for your Toyota. Yes, it does have USB connection for a flash drive. I have used flash drives in my Hondas for 12+ years. I am a music "freak"! On the flash drive are two folders, one for my wife's music and one for mine.

Page 357 of your manual explains the use of USB (flash) drives.

Good luck,
Mark

bobbyjohn Loc: Dallas, TX

2Dragons wrote:

... if I put music on a thumb drive and plugged it into the USB port would the radio recognize it and play the music? Thanks...

We have a 2022 Subaru Forester, and have put approx. 400 MP3 files on a USB Thumbdrive, and the audio system recognizes the drive when "media" (not radio) is selected, and plays the songs. One problem is intermittent however...when we shut off the car, the next start of the engine normally remembers where it left off, and continues playing from there. Intermittently, on engine start and selecting "media" it jumps back to #1 in the list...so we hear that song and subsequent ones many times over. We can however scroll to any number in the list of 400 songs.
Wish Subaru would fix that.