# Album art on my car stereo--the option exists, but it never works **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 25, 2024, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204 "2024-10-25T14:05:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2024, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/21 "2024-11-05T16:45:48Z")
I have a 2018 Mazda3 and it annoys the piss out of me that the album art randomly works for wav files. (Only if by some miracle the album is in the lousy Gracenote database). The engineers who wrote the program are the lowest of the low. Their code refuses to look in the folders for album art if the files aren’t mp3s. What century is this? We should be using lossless files. The crap software also refuses to acknowledge that an artist may not be its database, so instead of using the names provided by the folder names, it tries to find a best match. Worthless! ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2024, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/22 "2024-11-05T21:07:33Z")
You shouldn’t use .wav in any century if lossless is your goal. But unfortunately it looks like Mazda added .flac support in 2019. .alac works fine on an iPod Classic FWIW. Gracenote databases need to be updated. Also installing AA/CP might be useful, it’s fairly easy to do by yourself, I did it in 2018 CX-5. ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2024, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/23 "2024-11-06T15:53:49Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Couple options here: > > 1. If playing off an old iPod or direct from a USB stick, the mp3 files can have embedded metadata including album art. This is something you’d need to do manually, but there is also software to automatically attach this. > 2. You’re playing music via Bluetooth from phone. I’m not certain you can send album art this way. > 3. You are playing with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay through a wired USB connection or a wireless connection. I’m not certain about the Camry, but know that in 2017 this feature was not standard for many Toyotas, so you would have had to add this after the fact. And if you’re not sure, you probably don’t have it. This method would easily retrieve the album art, usually through some service like Spotify. > 4. CD data is often carried though Gracenote MusicID, other services might use their features too. You might not have this for CDs. > I assume the car’s option suppresses any art if you turn it off, but does nothing if art doesn’t exist. I am either playing over Bluetooth or from a CD. I haven’t tried a USB stick, though if that’s the solution I probably won’t bother. I have a USB port below the stereo, but if I plug my phone into that there doesn’t seem to be any option for me to play music from it , so I assume it only works with a usb stick. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2024, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/24 "2024-11-06T17:35:42Z")
You might see if there’s a [firmware update](https://www.toyota.com/firmware-updates) for your audio system, if you’re comfortable attempting. Check if there’s USB ports somewhere else, especially inside your center console. Often only one is dedicated to music, I am not sure if this is the case in yours. If by “below the stereo” it means it’s obviously part of the stereo system and not in the tray below, then I’d think that was an audio port and something else is needed. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/25 "2024-11-07T17:02:03Z")
With a 32GB USB stick, wav is just fine for lossless; the spacial savings for flac aren’t worth the effort. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204.md?page=1)