I have all my music on a USB drive and periodically I get a message to "Please Update the GraceNote DB". After some googling it looks like I should go to the Toyota and look up Updates. There seems to be a way to update the Infotainment System (including GraceNote) by connecting a blank thumb drive, downloading the current system to it and uploading that to Toyota (I may have mis-stated the exact process). When I do that, I'm told that my system is up to date. Supposedly that should have done the GraceNote update, too. What does GraceNote do for me? Just get better album cover shots? I still can't figure out how to switch to various play modes. It usually never leaves the current album, sometimes just repeating the same track over & over. Sometimes just randomly tapping the Next Track and that little icon to its right, I can switch to a different album, but no definable process. Previous vehicle gave me options like random tracks in current album, random tracks in random albums, sequential play, etc. This seems to be lacking on the Prius. Clicking Source and starting over is pretty kludgy. Does Toyota ever do Over The Air updates to this car? TIA Don Central VA
Consider playing the tunes off your phone, using Bluetooth. A number of good audio players should be on Android Auto. I use VLC for Android.
I know next to nothing, but my impression of GraceNote is that it sucks and is not worth any effort. I haven't played my usb stick lately. I usually don't get fancy and just focus on an album at a time, sometimes repeatedly playing the same track, lol. I recall using file browse and my steering wheel controls. I'll have to plug it back in today and fool around. I think this topic came up before. edit: It might've been you.
The way I read the manual is that the Random and Repeat buttons cycle through different modes: one touch does one thing, the next another, etc.
Okay, in the name of science I spent an hour in the driveway in my Prius. I know it was an hour because I received a notice that it was about to turn off, lol. Anyway, best I came up with is that when you Browse, you have to choose something that gives you a Shuffle choice. Genres, artists, etc don't. BUT, Songs do. Select shuffle from there. The little repeat icon..you need your reading glasses...like I do. There's a little "1" for repeat the same song, etc.
I can name that tune in one word "No". At least, that's the case so far in the U.S. market when it comes to the multimedia unit. That said, you're looking in the right place for multimedia system updates, as this is where the Gracenote DB resides. One of the six modules updatable in the multimedia unit is called "CDDB" and it's likely showing version 3080 from the factory like my 2024. CDDB stands for "Compact Disc Database," which is the Gracenote component. Even though there’s no CD player anymore, Toyota still uses it to identify artist, album, and genre information, and to display cover art when that data isn’t otherwise available (though the artwork quality is pretty poor). In my case, I never get that Gracenote update message, which I'm fairly certain is because I've "tagged" the music on my USB drive meticulously with the title, artist, album, genre and other data, including high-quality artwork. Seems logical that there would be no earthly reason for even Toyota to check it against some old, static Gracenote database. There are plenty of programs out there that you can use to tag your music too, if you care to put in the effort. There's always hope for an update, so I have an automated process that checks my multimedia unit for updates every day (500+ days now) and Toyota never has updated it here in the U.S. However, I've read of examples where an update or two have occurred in Japan and the EU markets, but they weren't driven because of a need to update the Gracenote DB.
