Brain-dead audio system

We recently bought a used 2018 Prius Prime LE, and it has been an enjoyable experience, except for the sound system. We listen to USB drives nearly 100% of the time.

The player that comes with the Prius seems to be remarkably stupid... I expect that when I put in a USB, it will scan the folders, play whatever is in the root folder (if anything), and then go through the folders in some order (either alphabetical or in the order they were written to the USB) and play everything in the folder; any sub-folders would be handled in the same way. This seems to be a very logical way to do it, and is how sound systems in other cars with USB plugs have always done it.

But no... on the USB source, I can choose to sort by folder, but it only plays that one folder and then just repeats that folder.

If I sort by filename, it goes through every folder and sorts everything alphabetically, and then plays it... that means that anything that is labeled track 1 throughout the entire USB is played first, and then track 2, etc. None of the options seem to play in any logical manner... the closest is selecting Album... since I have an album in a folder, this is pretty close to what I want, but again, it will NOT move to the next folder when it completes one. This is just brain-dead stupid.

Another annoying issue is that if when I get to my destination and turn off the power, the next time I start up the car, it will randomly lose it's position and re-start the current track. When I'm listening to 3-minute(ish) songs, that isn't a problem, but when I am listening to my Old Time Radio USB, it is annoying to have been 25 minutes into a show, and then have it restart again (and again, and again). The fast forward speed is relatively slow as well.

I understand that the second problem may be a problem with my system -- either an audio system bug, or a problem with the USB port, or perhaps with some of my USB drives. I don't know if anyone else sees this.

However, the first problem seems to just be how the system is defined... how idiotic! I'm posting this here just in case there is some setting I've missed that will make it behave properly.

Thoughts? Comments?

 

Wow... okay, thanks for this... at least it's not just my system.

I'd consider after-market stuff, but I don't know if they will work with the car.