hello,
I put some albums on USB stick and connected to the port - they are visible in media player - but - the songs are sorted alphabetically ???? WTF ??? how can I change that ? (the best - track numbers tag)
thanks

 

I don't think you can. When I copy my iTunes songs to my USB stick, iTunes seems to put a 01-xxx, 02-xxx, prefix on the songs. I leave it that way so the songs are in order when I play them. When I connect my iPhone and play songs I get all the iTunes lists, sorting and playlists, etc.

I'm bummed Lexus doesn't provide that. It wouldn't be hard to read the metadata and make some intelligent decisions. I'm a software engineer and many/most/all car interfaces are difficult to use and should not be. There are limitations due to physical interfaces, granted, but clicking 10+ times to get something is not acceptable. I always ask myself the question of how did someone design that and sit back, look at it, and say, "Now that's a good interface--ship it!" I don't get it. It isn't that hard once you have 90% of the overall system working.

 

Since I haven't used the USB port to play music, my thought might well be one that won't work, but I'll share it anyway. If the system wants to order the songs alphabetically, why can't you just change the file names for each song by putting an alphabetical prefix in front of the names of each song? Thus, you might put the prefix "aa" in front of the name of the song that you want to be first, an "ab" in front of the name of the name of the song that you want to be second, and so on until you get to the prefix "zz". With two letters, you would be able to order 676 songs. If you needed to order more than 676 songs, you could use a 3 letter prefix, which would get you to 17576 songs in the order that you wanted them to be.

 

The best way to sort songs is to do it ahead in iTunes.

Transfer the songs you want to a new playlist. Rearrange the songs in the new playlist.
Convert the files to mp3's. Then copy the songs to USB. VOILA!

 

I have my music loaded by artist and album. The artists are listed alphabetically, which I prefer. The songs are listed in the same order as on the album. I just wish album art showed up!

 

Do you have them in separate file folders?

 

Not sure if your question is directed at me, or the OP. I'll answer either way.

I have the artist folders on the root. Individual albums are folders within the artist folders.

 

That is how I have them, works best that way IMHO.

 

I recently picked up a 2013 ES350 and I'm having a similar issue of my songs for the USB drive playing in a random order. Is there any way to adjust settings so that it plays in correct numbered order? I have all my songs in folders.