Flash Drive Format - FAT32 vs. NTFS

Crimewatcher · Nov 25, 2013

Looking to buy either a 2013 or 2014 Rav4.

Can't figure out why Toyota can't (or won't) upgrade Entune systems to read flash drives formatted in NTFS. The format has been around since the early 90's.

Almost NO technical information is available on Toyota's web site about Entune. Would be nice to be able to download a detailed manual. :wall

qlang · Nov 26, 2013

It's because NTFS is a journaling file system. It keeps writing to the device, and that will shorten the life of the flash drive. See if it reads xFAT formatted flash drives. The xFAT format is almost like FAT32 except that it has extended addressing for large drives.

Crimewatcher · Nov 28, 2013

Reply from Ask Toyota about Entune

Asked for more detailed info from Toyota and this is their reply:

The largest size of USB drive that can be used on 2013 and 2014 RAV4 is 32GB. However, for music data, it will be 4GB within that 32GB USB drive.

For file formats, it needs to be FAT12/16/32 (Windows) and MP3 and WMA files written in any format other than those listed above may not play correctly, and their files names and folder names may not be displayed correctly.

Please refer to the section 5-2 titled “Using the audio system” in 2013 and 2014 Owner’s Manual for our complete audio system information. This section of your Owner’s Manual may be viewed at:

2013 RAV4, Toyota 2013 RAV4 Owner's Manual (OM42809U)

2014 RAV4, Toyota 2014 RAV4 Owner's Manual (OM42869U)

One puzzlement is the statement about the limit being 4GB. Makes me wonder why the max size supported is 32GB but will only read 4 GB. No problem with 4GB - that's around 1,000 songs depending on the length.

I checked into the ExFAT format and it's proprietary and Toyota probably didn't want to pay for the licencing.

Flash Drive Format - FAT32 vs. NTFS

Crimewatcher

qlang

Crimewatcher

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