2012 - how large of a USB thumb drive can be used

[garyacrowellsr]

I'm finally getting around to thinking of perhaps putting some music in my Leaf. I've found it works fine with a 1/2 Gig USB drive, but it doesn't work with my 256G drive and I don't have anything in between handy. I'd like to use something larger than that 1/2G, but I'd rather avoid having to buy a bunch of different sizes to see what works. Does anyone know for sure what is the maximum size of USB drive that will be recognized in a 2012 Leaf?

 

[BillAinCT]

For those reading this and wonder about the Gen 2 Leaf, a 256GB USB flash drive does work (2022 tested) with FLAC files, which is nice as that is a lossless format but very decently compressed. But album covers don't display which would be nice but is not essential.

 

[Stanton]

I'm finally getting around to thinking of perhaps putting some music in my Leaf. I've found it works fine with a 1/2 Gig USB drive, but it doesn't work with my 256G drive and I don't have anything in between handy. I'd like to use something larger than that 1/2G, but I'd rather avoid having to buy a bunch of different sizes to see what works. Does anyone know for sure what is the maximum size of USB drive that will be recognized in a 2012 Leaf?

I have used a 4Gig drive on my 2011...and I'm pretty sure the 2011/2012 model years share the same USB chip sets.
FWIW, I've noticed that older peripherals (and 10 years old is an eternity in the computer world) can't read drives >64Gig.

 

[gwscheil]

I am using 8Gig drives on my 2018. Be aware that the system cannot handle more than 999 files on a drive. It appears that this may mean total files in all directories. I have not tried a single monster directory yet.

 

[gward]

I'm wondering if this could also have a drive format issue. As Stanton mentioned the old 64GB hardware limit, that made me think of older drive format limitation(Fat 16 = 4GB and Fat32 = 2TB).

I too have ignored the usb port for easy music playing. Maybe I'll surprise my wife and put some on a drive. I have plenty of sizes to try out at same time.

 

[garyacrowellsr]

Well, I can now report that a 16Gig (Fat32) USB drive does not work in a 2012. I didn't think it would, I suspect the limit is 4 or 8Gig.

 

[Easy]

64Gig works in our 2019 SL but won't handle Flac files.

 

[RogerRDalTx]

Not sure about the maximum, but I just used a 32 GB drive to upgrade the maps in my 2019 SL.

 

[nenik]

I have always had funny problems with USB playback on various Leaf generations. Like, it worked, but often times it started playing my album from the very beginning sometimes, forgetting where was it the last time (very annoying to keep listening to the same song on short drives).
It turned out that a USB stick brand makes difference. Or, rather its initialization speed. If a particular USB stick initializes quickly, the Leaf resumes playing just fine. If it is a tad too slow, it would often reset to the beginning.
After some time, I have settled on a random stick that was large enough form my collection and fast enough for the Leaf.

 

[garyacrowellsr]

Yup, 8Gig works in the 2012. Now I'm getting a short extension cable so I don't have the stick poking up where it can get busted off. (I'd have preferred a 'button' type drive but didn't see one in 8Gig.)

Yeah, a 3 foot cable is perfect. I can run it along the console and drop the stick in the center console storage.