USB Audio

Consult the owner's manual, navigation booklet, for specifics on drives, files, etc. A lot depends on which head unit you have.Your drive will have to be FAT32 formatted and be capable of running off a USB-2 port for both data and power. Some portable drives have 2 USB ports, and you could plug the second one into one of the car's charging ports for power. I'd suggest a good quality 256GB USB thumb drive, which can hole many thousands of music files. Prepare to be underwhelmed with Toyota's file playing capabilities.

 

I have a little carrying case for my USB drives, which are either 16GB or 32GB, each one with specific artists, etc. I copied music to these drives in Windows Media Lossless, as the car won't play FLAC files and I want my music in the highest resolution possible. They all play fine, even the files I have at 24bit/192MHz. I have no idea if these are being downsampled, but since each file is a .wma, the car's player will read them, and they sound good to me.
I quite like the sound system in the car, as I can turn the music up fairly loud and not have any distortion or perceptible loss in quality.

 

In my experience, WMA lossless is a rarely supported format (outside of Windows). If the Prius supports it, that's pretty amazing.

 

Yeah I was surprised too, but since the file extension is .wma regardless of the WMA format, the player recognizes it.

 

The 2021 multimedia manual says it supports FLAC and ALAC:

 

Yeah that multimedia manual is confusing. It seems to only refer to the LE model. Any diagrams of the system in it only show the basic screen, and it also refers to the CD player, which is not in the XLE or Limited. And, it mentions that the system can play FLAC (which at least in the Limited, it can't), and only recognizes Windows Media Standard, which in my experience is not accurate as it plays Lossless also.

 

Huh. So the LE has Android Auto and FLAC/ALAC support that the other models don't have? Toyota has always been a little strange with the option differences between models, but that would take the cake for me.

It seems we can never have it all. Other car companies have awesome entertainment systems with tons of options, lots of inputs, and 12V and USB power outlets throughout the car. The problem is the technology and fit and finish of their cars is pretty bad. Then we have Toyota. The technology and reliability is unparalleled, but the entertainment systems and the car's friendliness for portable devices is straight comical. It's like they made the guys who design the engine also design the interior features and they ran out of time.

 

I get what you're saying, but for me, I'm satisfied with the Prius Prime. I can play my music without difficulty, it sounds good, and I rarely, if ever connect my phone (other than Bluetooth). When I've used Android Auto in a previous car I found it more trouble than it was worth. Couldn't care less if I ever have it another car.

 

Android Auto only matters because there's no navigation in the LE and if you plug your phone in to the single USB port in the front seat for a charge, there's no way to listen to music from an external USB device without it. I can't use the 12V outlet to charge because there's only one in the whole entire car and that's being used for an inverter. I could run a cable from the rear USB ports and just throw the phone on the passenger seat for navigation and be able to use the single front USB port for music, but I agree with you, Android Auto is pretty lame. It's just the only possible way to have navigation and music at the same time.

 

I had Android Auto in my Chevy Sonic, and it + the simple GM interface was the best head unit I have used (and I rented many cars in the before times so I've seen my share). This in a sub-$20k car made by GM (not exactly known for nice interiors).

I made the mistake of assuming all trim levels of the PP had it, and didn't really take a close look at the operation of the big screen in the XLE because AA is simple and effective. Big bad surprise finding out the built-in nav and voice control are similar to my 2004 Sienna, and there's no AA to fall back on.

Oh well... I still like the car, but am still mad at myself (mostly) and Toyota (a little) for not being more obvious about AA only being available on the LE.