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can i use an external hard drive for music in my prius 3?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by 2clicker, Jun 15, 2014.

  1. 2clicker

    2clicker Member

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    newbie question, but can i use an external hard drive to store my music collection and access them through the stock touch screen head unit?

    the blue tooth connection to my iphone 5 works great, but does not give me the touch screen capabilities. using an ipod connected via USB works well also and does include the touch screen capability. so shouldnt a hard drive work similar?

    any help is appreciated.
     
    #1 2clicker, Jun 15, 2014
  2. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    yes a hard drive works, but it's very hard to navigate and when I use a flash drive it's very slow.
     
    #2 JC91006, Jun 15, 2014
  3. 2clicker

    2clicker Member

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    thanks for the reply. can you be more specific when talking about it being difficult navigating a hard drive? and what kind of flash drive were you using? were either of them USB 3?

    also, did you have to use a power adapter as well as the USB cable for the hard drive? i found that my hard drive (lacie rikki USB 2.0) requires more power than the head unit can provide. i assume i will need to use a power adapter as well...?
     
    #3 2clicker, Jun 15, 2014
  4. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    The flash drive I used is the micro usb device, very tiny. I used a 16gb version and had only about 4gb of music in it. The Prius radio would pick up the mp3 music but it takes a very long time to select the music you want. I'm not sure if the flash drive was the cause of the slowness, but it's to the point where you can't even use it. Whenever I get hopeless and attempt to use it, I just use the "random play" function so I don't have to navigate through it.

    It might be better if you use an actual portable hard drive and not a flash drive. But I didn't want a bulky item in my glove box so the micro flash drive was my first choice.

    Right now I use the bluetooth music and stream from my phone. That is a much better way to play the music that's stored.
     
    #4 JC91006, Jun 15, 2014
  5. pmike

    pmike Member

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    #5 pmike, Jun 15, 2014
  6. 2clicker

    2clicker Member

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    ahh. well i attempted again today with another lacey drive. this one has a power adapter as well. i first tried it w/ just the USB 2.0... no dice. then i used the power adapter also and it started playing right away. then i went right to the menu. they seemed to function the same as it does w/ the ipod. so i am stoked.

    i have been streaming from my 32g iphone 5 for the last year and love it. problem is that 32g is not nearly enough. im looking to store my entire collection. i would like to get at least a 500g portable external hard drive dedicated to music only. you can find these with a pretty small footprint so im not really worried about the real estate in the center console.

    thanks. i considered getting a high capacity flash drive (or two) for this. i wonder if i could use a USB multitap thing to run multiple flash drives...?

    i think using a portable hard drive with a power adapter is going to be the best solution for me.

    also i was a little surprised that there wasnt any threads here regarding the subject.
     
    #6 2clicker, Jun 15, 2014
  7. sopclod

    sopclod Junior Member

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    I use a flash drive and the only issue is if you have a lot of folders it could be annoying to scroll through them all. There is a pause of no more than a second when I change songs, but that's about it. If it's worse than that I suspect a bad flash drive. As others have said they are incredibly cheap now, a 32GB flash drive will hold tons and music and is less than twenty bucks.
     
    #7 sopclod, Jun 16, 2014
  8. 2clicker

    2clicker Member

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    define "tons" of music...lol. like ive said i have been streaming from my iphone5 and i love it, but the 32gb is not even half of what i am looking for.

    since yesterday i have decided to get myself a 128gb USB 3.0 flash drive. when that gets filled (already close) i will get another.
     
    #8 2clicker, Jun 16, 2014
  9. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    wow, 10 million songs to play in the car.......you can drive to the SUN and back and not have to repeat a song.:)
     
    #9 JC91006, Jun 16, 2014
    2clicker likes this.
  10. 2clicker

    2clicker Member

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    lol. im he kinda guy who does not like to be w/out any of my collection.
     
    #10 2clicker, Jun 16, 2014
  11. Jarf

    Jarf New Member

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    I had a 1TB WD portable hard drive connected for a few weeks. It mostly worked okay, but would occasionally freeze up. I think that if the car hit a bump while the drive was trying to seek, it would stutter a bit. The display couldn't handle it and it would take turning off the car to get the audio back in gear. Switched to a 64GB flash drive and no problems. If anyone is looking for a good way to keep their flash drive up to date, add playlists, etc, I'd recommend using MusicBee MusicBee - Music Manager and Player . It's got some awesome settings for syncing your music to a device or flash drive. You can easily change folder structure, only export certain playlists etc.
     
    #11 Jarf, Jun 23, 2014
  12. 2015ToyPrius

    2015ToyPrius Junior Member

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    Hello jarf, How did you hook up the hard drive? Did you use only the USB, or have some kind of secondary power connection to the power outlet that is in the center console lighter type outlet next to the center console USB connection? I am thinking about using an SSD, or going bigger to 1Tb maybe a laptop HDD. The laptop HDD's are more rugged and use less power, besides being smaller. If I use a SSD the power may not be a problem and the potential for shockwave damage would be pretty slim compared to a regular hard drive. I hope you are still out there, as your post is almost two years old. EDIT: I checked out amperage, and laptop drive from WD blue use less amps than SSD's, so I may try that route. I will look for the HDD in 2.5" size with the lowest amperage and highest G rating.
     
    #12 2015ToyPrius, Apr 1, 2016
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2016
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