The mystery of the missing AUX jack (1 Viewer)

[clevelandLCguy]

Hi, my first post, so go easy on me...

I can't stomach commercials in any form, so I listen to music exclusively from a 64GB MP3 player with ~6,000 songs (and growing) on it. While it has BT capability, it's a PITA to use with the LC since BT has to be re-enabled each time it's powered up (several menu layers deep), then the LC has to be told to connect to it, blah blah blah. Too much silliness to go through every time I get in the car. What I need is a good old fashioned AUX jack.

The idea that Toyota would delete this jack isn't surprising...but I could've sworn I saw a post from someone last week talking about an AUX jack in his 2019, so did Toyota bring it back?? If so, can the later gen head units be installed in my 2013? And if not, can anyone recommend another way to go about getting this little bugger back?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

 

[CharlieS]

I coulda' sworn my old '13 LC had an aux jack beside the usb plug...

What about throwing your music on a usb thumb drive? My son has one that is 2Tb (I think...).

 

[clevelandLCguy]

I coulda' sworn my old '13 LC had an aux jack beside the usb plug...

What about throwing your music on a usb thumb drive? My son has one that is 2Tb (I think...).

I ordered a USB thumb drive for just this purpose earlier today in the hope that that's an option. Do you know if I'd lose the ability to shuffle the tracks with this approach? I suppose I could shuffle the file order on the drive to overcome that if required.

 

[clevelandLCguy]

And there's definitely no AUX jack. The head unit doesn't offer an AUX function. There IS a tiny hole next to the USB port, but that appears to just be there to accept a male protrusion on the cover, so it stays closed. Maybe that's what you saw.

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Getting a different MP3 player seems like the simplest option.

My iPhone connects to my '14 LX automatically, and resumes playing music automatically where it left off. I'd imagine any iPod made in the last ~5 years would do the same, and likely most other music players, too. So long as the BT protocol on the player is of relatively the same generation as the vehicle/software, it should be an easy match.

 

[CharlieS]

Ahh, it is my current 2016 that has it (yes I need to clean the car):

 

[clevelandLCguy]

See? That's weird to me that they'd remove it and then put it back.

A different player might do the trick as well, but I'm very fond of these little Sanso players; they're inexpensive, durable as heck, and clip to anything.

Just received my 64GB thumb drive and I'm loading my music library on it now. Stay tuned for results. I hope this works, because it would come with the added bonus of never needing to be charged!

 

[PhuckItImDone]

I use a USB drive and like it. Can set it to shuffle, easy to update when ya want.

 

[clevelandLCguy]

And that's the solution: use a USB drive. Works like a charm, although with a lot of songs, it takes a while for the LC's drive to get everything organized and start playing after the ignition's energized. Still, a great solution and no longer needing to charge the players is GREAT! Thanks for the replies, everyone.

 

[Madtiger]

I have 21 GB of music loaded on my iPhone…use USB connection (since i like to charge at same time). No issue with my 2019 LC loading it and playing. There is minimal delay if i push random play but otherwise smooth.

 

[clevelandLCguy]

I use a USB drive and like it. Can set it to shuffle, easy to update when ya want.

Phuckit, after a week or so I noticed I'm hearing a LOT of the same songs over and over. There are well over three thousand tracks on my USB drive, but when I go through the LC's file explorer, all it shows me are 255. Are you experiencing the same thing?

 

[PhuckItImDone]

I had this happen as I put more songs on, sometimes I'll start somewhere in the middle of the alphabet on random and it seems to help.

 

[clevelandLCguy]

Okay, some googling yielded an explanation. Apparently Entune can't understand more than 255 files in a single directory, for whatever reason. The solution I read in a Tundra forum stated that dividing the total number of files into a bunch of directories/folders with no more than 255 files in each will solve the problem, up to a max of 3000 folders, with a max of 9999 files for the whole USB stick.

So I did that and then took the wife out for ice cream to test things. With the head unit in Random mode, it appears to play songs from different directories/folders, so that's promising. I wondered if it would only randomly choose between the 255 songs within a single directory, and if I'd have to force it to change directories, but that does not seem to be the case. Then I took it out of Random mode and it consecutively played the songs inside a single directory, which is what I'd expect. I'll have to sit through 250 more songs to see if it automatically moves to the next directory when it finishes the 255th song, but that's no big deal to me if it doesn't. I loaded the songs with filenames sorted alphabetically, so even sequentially, that's a form of random because every song that begins with the word, "Animal" is going to be from a different artist and album anyway.