Toyota Entune Forum

I've just bought a 2014 Corolla S Plus with the base Entune system. So far I'm mostly enjoying it, but I'm not 100% happy with random MP3 playback from a USB stick.

One of my USB sticks has just 326 songs but with many different artists in a dozen or so folders. Many of the tracks are the sole track from an album. Perhaps that's why it takes Entune a long time (several minutes) to discover the media and present the artist/song/genre browser screen. When that screen finally appears, I can navigate to, say, a genre and choose random playback. So far so good: songs are indeed randomly chosen from my chosen genre. When I power off the Entune then power on later (e.g., after starting the car up for a new trip), the song I was playing when I powered off Entune resumes exactly where I left off. Still good, but when the song ends, it becomes evident that Entune has forgotten all about genre random playback. If the song happens to be the only one for its album, Entune will happily play that same song over and over again. The only way I've found to resume random genre playback is to go back into Browse mode, wait for the media to be refreshed (several minutes), and select Genre/All Songs/Random all over again. This misbehavior essentially makes random genre playback unusable unless I'm happy with it working for only one trip.

My car's Entune software is at version BU.26.42. Is there a software update that will help improve this (mis)behavior? If not, is there anything I can do to work around or otherwise improve this: folder structure, file naming, ID3 tagging, etc.?

Thanks!
Dave

I'm having the exact same problem with my Entune Premium. My 2012 Corolla had no problems at all playing random songs from my MP3 player but the 2014 "forgets" what random means after the car has been turned off then on. After entering Browse mode, it takes a very long time before the song list is displayed where I can choose the Random option and fix the problem.

But on the brighter side, Pandora plays more reliably. It takes a long time for the stations and track information to be displayed, and I wish the display would default to the track information instead of the station list. But once it's going, it doesn't cut out nearly as much and oddly enough, it seems like its choosing a more varied selection of songs. On the 2012, I'd get the same songs over and over.

This forum doesn't seem to have much activity so I don't know if an answer will be found here, but I just thought I'd add my comments in case Toyota is paying attention.

Thanks -
Lisa

Thanks! It's good to know I'm not alone.

Dave

Anxious to see if they ever put out an update to fix this. Dealer tried other memory sticks and pretty much said that must be the way it works and they couldn't do anything.

I did follow all the rules about max number of folders, files per folder, etc...

Having the same problem with the Entune Plus in my 2014 Rav4. The other that I don't understand is that it doesn't have the ability to select "Folder"...in the age of computers and mass data, I think most people like to keep their music organized using computer folders. I am very disappointed with the length of time for the system to read the information from the USB, and the lack of understanding that the user would want a simple method to randomize their full music selection. The other problem that I have when selecting an Artist and playing the last song of the Artist, is that it won't automatically go to the next Artist...I might as well go back a few decades and just use CDs! This was an opportunity to WOW the costumer, however they failed miserably.

having the same issue, hopefully toyota will come out with a fix soon.

I'm having the same problem (i.e. unable to maintain random play mode of mp3 files) with the same sort of symptoms/behaviors described by others posting here.

I just leased a 2014.5 Camry SE and my previous car was a 2012 Camry SE (without Entune system). Playing music files on my 2012 was simple & consistent.

I keep thinking there must be a way to step through the controls to set and lock in consistent random play?
I'm guessing, if this is a BUG, I'll have to live with it until, of course, Toyota comes up with a FIX.

6-21-14 additional comments:

Tried 'cleaning' up my mp3 files (mainly putting in missing cover art in ID3 tags).
Only made it worse....
Now, after the initial processing cycle that it goes through when I start the car & try to play audio from the USB drive,
it stutters and stops playing instead of finally playing nice.
And, sometimes the touch & pushbutton functions do not work until the Entune processor catches up?

I have about 20GB of mp3 files on the USB drive and folder structure is Artist/Album/files.
I tried less files on USB drive to see if the 20GB of files was 'choking' Entune processor - no change.

BTW - My old 8GB iPod works fine (since it handles most of the processing which seems to bog down Entune's processor?).

I've given up for the time being to give myself a rest.
I'll use my iPod and supplement it with CDs I burn to have all my music on-hand in the car.

8-12-14 UPDATE

Brought my car into the Dealer and the Tech (after running Entune through it's paces) asked to talk to me about the problems I experienced. I described the problems I outlined earlier in this post to the Tech and demonstrated some of the problems to him. He didn't see anything wrong with the way the system operates and (like me) he suspects that it takes some time for the Entune software to scan and catalog all my MP3 files.
I asked him to write up and submit the problem(s) to Toyota. I said I would wait about a month and check to see if he received a response from Toyota. He said he doubted that Toyoya would respond.

In the meantime as a 'workaround' I choose the 'Browse' button and check to see if the cataloging is in progress (as evidenced by the message "Gathering information from the device..."). When cataloging is complete I can then select the 'Songs' tab; and then I select the 'Random' button that appears on the display at the beginning of the Songs list.

The time it takes to catalog all the MP3 files is quicker if I don't unplug (or change) the USB drive. Conversely, It takes more time if I unplug (or change) the USB drive. I've also shortened the cataloging time by using a 16GB USB drive loaded with only my highest (4 & 5 star) rated tunes.
[FYI - Aftrer cataloging I noted that the display shows there are 4,000 plus songs present].

P. S. I also do NOT press any other buttons while the files are being cataloged which seems to bring on the erratic behavior and lockups I experienced.

Having the same problem with my 2014 Tacoma. Nothing to do but live with the Toyota Glitches.

No doubt it's a pain that Toyota did not do a through testing of their software . so far the workaround that has worked for me:

1. Go into audio app set to play songs Random.
2. After car ignition is turned off and you power the ignition on again go back to audio app and select random (do this before the current playing song ends)
3. immediately switch to next random song on the playlist using steering wheel controls.

will continue to play random songs until ignition is turned off and you start another trip.

Total pain but if you want to use the stick then this seems to work. Basically you are forcing the entune to reload the playlist.

I also have the same problem, Toyota Rav4 2014.

When you said it's a bug and to live with it, did you try to contact toyota before, and still getting no solution ?
I dropped by the service center, and all technicians didn't have a solution. They told me to come back later, when the manager will be available, since changing the head unit require his approval.

So, is it worth wasting half a day to change it ? Is the bug across the entire line, or only on some defective unit ?