Low-profile USB flash drive for music (to plug into side of 14" screen)?

[Hacksaw]

Any recommendations for a USB-c flash drive to play music from, to plug into the right edge of the 14" screen, that doesn't stick out like a giant wart?

Or maybe a low-profile right angle USC-C-to-A adaptor, to plug a vertical USB-A flash into?

It's probably in one of the manuals but if anyone knows top of the head, the answers to any of these:

• How does the music flash drive have to be formatted (NTFS OK?); ANS: it must be formatted FAT32. For USB sizes >32GB on windows, find a utility called "Rufus" to format FAT32 for larger USB sticks. I have used both a 256GB PNY and a 128GB samsung USB stick in the 4runner with no issues.
• 
  
• What's the max size of the drive(hopefully at least 64GB)?; ANS: the max is at least 256GB, possibly larger.
• 
  
• What music file types are supported? ANS: FLAC is supported, along with a long list of other types like mp3, wma.
• 
  
• Any limits on jpeg album-art file size? ANS: not stated anywhere, but keep the album art jpeg files under 300kB or 1000x1000 is probably reasonable given the screen size.
• 
  
• Are playlists (e.g. M3U files) supported (i.e. the system sees them and displays them on screen, to be selected)? ANS: NO, m3u playlists are not supported. See later post about creating faux playlists by adding a folder to your USB stick named something like Playlist01 and copying the desired mp3 files into this, then adding a number prefix to the mp3 files to control the play and display order. Best to have mp3's with embedded album art since the playlist folder contains various artists and albums. Tools like dBPoweramp can embed album art into mp3 files.

edit: added some answers above, 7-10-26

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[Mad Ghost]

not trying to be smart..... but with the way cars are today... and phones with music in them what's the point?

 

[Meganotch]

Yes Mad Ghost is right. Between using our free Sirius for a few months which is awesome, but wont keep because it is god awful expensive I have been also using Bluetooth from my phone which works great because I have a very large music library on it. Also you have all the other online sources through your phone. I also keep an old phone with my music on it as a player, bag the USB idea.

 

[mars001]

not trying to be smart..... but with the way cars are today... and phones with music in them what's the point?

For nostalgic reason? ?

 

[Who?]

Or maybe a low-profile right angle USC-C-to-A adaptor, to plug a vertical USB-A flash into?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNVNTBJ4/?th=1

Have had great experiences with "Cable Creation" items over the years. (Edit: This is C-C ?‍)

 

[Dead Horse]

I spend a decent amount of time out of signal range, I don't like the radio much, and don't always have my phone with me anyway. So I've got hundreds of albums I stick on tiny drives like these for my wife and I to use in our vehicles.

Just type "small usb drive" into Amazon and there are tons. They're cheap enough in the sizes you need.

 

[Nodak]

the multimedia manual will spell out what you can use and what formatting you need and folder layout will be needed to run a usb for music.

 

[mwulf67]

not trying to be smart..... but with the way cars are today... and phones with music in them what's the point?

I am not the OP, but I am interested in the issue as well. In my case, it has to with a rather large collection of live shows, mostly Grateful Dead and DMB.

Yes, I can stream somewhat, but I get what get; and/or I can download to my phone, but the volume of shows I'd like have available can quickly eat up my phone's storage.

 

[Tytlynz]

I use this Amazon and plug it into my phone and use DB Power Amp to play the files via bluetooth. I have a lot of live shows and rare albums that I like. I formatted the stick in FAT 32 and save the files in flac.

 

[Seabee]

Or better yet... connect an AIBOX, then install X off road, or youtube, or anything you want in the aibox. Make a good use of that beautiful screen!

 

[BluRunner]

I have tried multiple USBs and most dont work. The stubby USB like the one above and an adapter to C is what I use. Still sucks and sticks out too far. Would like to see what someone uses and not recommends.

 

[Nodak]

I have tried multiple USBs and most dont work. The stubby USB like the one above and an adapter to C is what I use. Still sucks and sticks out too far. Would like to see what someone uses and not recommends.

have you been formatting the usb as fat32 and not ntfs (windows defaults to ntfs)

and the usb CANNOT be more than 32gb in size

and the root (can only contain 8 folders) and nested folder cannot contain more than 255 files

so you need to nest files within folders with a max of all folders and root to not be more than 3000 but the max mp3's cannot exceed 9999 files

and in individual mp3 cannot be more than 2gb in size (if you embed lyrics or pics within the mp3 that will cause issues)

the restrictions are worse than the 5th gen requirements.

 

[Nodak]

i have folder layout like

• root
  • music
    • 096 bit
      • classic rock
      • classical
      • country
      • heavy metal
      • pop
      • rock
    • 128 bit
      • classic rock
      • classical
      • country
      • heavy metal
      • pop
      • rock
    • 192 bit
      • classic rock
      • classical
      • country
      • heavy metal
      • pop
      • rock
    • 256 bit
      • classic rock
      • classical
      • country
      • heavy metal
      • pop
      • rock

then under each respective genre, i have artist and under artist i have individual albums

yes i know its tedious but over the years i have learned that different audio playbacks require the old ways from back in the 90s folder structure

i have about 4000 mp3's over the years across a wide spectrum of genre and i keep a copy on my phone and on my server so they dont get bit rot over the years (data integrity checks monthly to ensure i dont lose data from bit rot)

and not just mp3's i have to worry about, i have pics from the 70s and 80s and 90s i cant afford to lose to bit rot either

i used btrfs file system to combat bit rot (also ZFS is great also) and ecc memory on the servers

 

[Hacksaw]

I ended up using this stubby PNY 256GB USB drive:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DSLRSPS4
recommended in some other related thread and it has been operating reliable for over a year (except for the weird random switch to powering up in FM radio when you normally default to the plugged in USB drive). Of course, like all SSDs, its price is at least double what it was a year ago due to the "AI data center flash memory demand," or so they say as their reason for huge price increases on all SSD (and even mechanical HDD).

Search for the Rufus utility on github. Easy and fast way to overcome the windows limitations on FAT32 formatted drives. I formatted the whole capacity as FAT32. I do wish the system would recognize m3u (playlist) files, since the navigation and huge font is a bit cumbersome for a USB drive with thousands of songs on it.

 

[Nodak]

I ended up using this stubby PNY 256GB USB drive:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DSLRSPS4
recommended in some other related thread and it has been operating reliable for over a year (except for the weird random switch to powering up in FM radio when you normally default to the plugged in USB drive). Of course, like all SSDs, its price is at least double what it was a year ago due to the "AI data center flash memory demand," or so they say as their reason for huge price increases on all SSD (and even mechanical HDD).

Search for the Rufus utility on github. Easy and fast way to overcome the windows limitations on FAT32 formatted drives. I formatted the whole capacity as FAT32. I do wish the system would recognize m3u (playlist) files, since the navigation and huge font is a bit cumbersome for a USB drive with thousands of songs on it.

dont worry m3u didnt work in the 5th gen either

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