I'm fairly new to the 5th gen 4Runner. I installed an aftermarket stereo with CarPlay in my old 2008 4Runner and it did everything I needed my phone to do while driving. I was having some growing pains getting used to the Entune system and its apparent weaknesses. But after spending many hours on the Google machine, I have learned some things that help make things easier. I thought I would compile all my new-found knowledge in one place in case anyone else is tired of googling to figure out things.

I'm using an iPhone SE with Entune Premium (with nav) in my SR5 Premium. The important thing to remember is that Entune has "Siri Eyes Free", so you can get Siri to do lots of things for you that Entune has problems with.

Pair your phone with Entune. Go into Bluetooth settings on your phone and make sure Show Notifications is checked. If you don't do this, text message alerts won't show up on Entune.

Don't put the "speed dial" contacts on the Entune home screen. You can choose a 2 or 3 panel layout. I chose 2 panels and put music on one side and nav on the other side (will also work with weather in one of those panels). If you populate the speed dial contacts and put them on the home screen, text messaging alerts won't show up on Entune most of the time. And when they do appear, you are given a notification that says something like "Text message from Bob Smith" and a button that says "Read" and another that says "Ignore". The Read button is grayed-out. You can only Ignore the message.

Making a phone call: Long press the Off Hook button on the steering wheel to wake-up Siri. Tell her who you want to call.

Ending a phone call: Short press the On Hook button on the steering wheel.

Answering a phone call: Short press the Off Hook button.

Send a text message: Long press Off Hook to wake-up Siri and tell her to send a text message.

Read an incoming text message: As long as you don't setup speed dial contacts on the home screen, you should be able to just press the Read button on the screen and have Entune (I call her "Marge") read it to you. If Marge doesn't want to work, you can ask Siri to read your text message to you (e.g., "read my last text message").

Reply to a text message: Entune only gives you the option to select some canned messages like "Can't talk right now". If you want to send a more detailed message, tell Siri to do it.

Play music stored on your phone via bluetooth: Tell Siri something like "play my music shuffled".

Pause music: Tell Siri to "pause the music".

Resume playing music: Tell Siri to "resume playing the music".

Jump to the next/previous song in a playlist: Use the up/down steering wheel buttons for this.

Fast forward/rewind a song that is currently playing: Use the left/right steering wheel buttons.

Tune to a radio station: Press the Talk button on the steering wheel and tell Marge "tune to 99.5 FM" or "tune to XM station Lithium".

Switch from one music source to another: Press Talk and tell Marge "change to source to XM".

Navigation - Get directions to a national chain store/restaurant: If you want to go somewhere like Home Depot or Best Buy, Marge can usually find big box store places. Press the Talk button and tell Marge what you are looking for (e.g., "Get directions to Home Depot near me"). She should bring up a list of matches, select the one you want and start navigation to get turn-by-turn directions.

Navigation - Get directions to a local store/restaurant: If you want to go somewhere that isn't a national chain and is likely not in Marge's database, press to Talk button and say "launch Destination Search". You must be running the Entune App on your phone for this to work. Marge will launch the Destination Search app and ask you what you are looking for. Tell her the name of the place (e.g., "Martha's Restaurant"). Marge will pull up a list, select the correct place, press Map, and then press Go There to get directions.

Navigation - Stopping route guidance: When you reach your destination or if you just don't need the turn-by-turn directions anymore, press the Talk button and tell Marge to "cancel navigation".

That's all I have for now. Entune is pretty good. I give it a grade of "B". Combined, Siri and Marge can do most of the things I normally do with my phone while driving.

Hopefully this will help other frustrated folks out there.

Coming from Ford Sync I quite like Entune even with the smaller screen in the 4R. Many people in here ***** and moan about it but it does what I need it to do.

If infotainment systems did every single thing that people ***** and moan about then they'd be *****ing and moaning about the price of said system.

You need to learn how to spell b!tch, b!tch.

Do you have to unlock your phone prior to doing this to access Siri? Went out over lunch to try this and was not able to activate Siri. I did not unlock the phone manually while trying.

I know I know! I forget which words I can and cannot say. I know I can say shit because I use it all the time.

You shouldn't have to but you have to make sure Siri is enabled in such a manner on your phone (i.e. You have to make sure Siri can be used from lock screen under your Siri settings on your phone)

Thank you @adaml . I am going to have to mess around with this later on this evening.

I don't have siri, I have google now. I have not checked but I am not sure what options android users have.

Not sure how Android works. I think Siri works properly because the way we Apple folks wake-up Siri is to hold down the button. The "phone off hook" button on the steering wheel basically "pushes" the phone button.

If Android requires launching an app, it may be tough to get a steering wheel button to do that.

Before buying my 3rd 4Runner (previously 2002, 2008 and now 2016), I test drove an Explorer with Sync 3. It has CarPlay and is very nice. Ford still sells lower-end models without Sync 3 and I guess that is what you are referring to. If I could fit mountain bikes in the back of the itty-bitty Explorer, I might have bought one (gasp!).

Learned this today: Entune will play music stored on a USB flash drive. But -- the USB drive can't be formatted as NTFS. If it is, Entune completely ignores it like it isn't even plugged in. FAT32 works. I have not confirmed if ExFAT or plain ol' FAT will work.

I was using a 32 GB USB 3.0 flash drive.

On some other forum, there were folks conjecturing whether Entune could recognize flash drives larger than 16 GB. It can. I can't confirm whether anything larger than 32 GB will work (I don't have anything larger than that).

Those folks also conjectured whether Entune could recognize USB 3.0 flash drives. It can.

I have a 64gb sandisk in mine and no problems whatsoever. I can't remember what I formatted it to though.

Sorry, but it gets an D in my book. But it isn't just Toyota. Car manufacturers need to get over the idea that they are in the consumer electronics business. That ship has sailed. They make cars (and damn good ones at that). Give in to Car Play and Android Auto and let the rest of us get on with our lives. The Entune interface is garbage like every other automaker's electronics interface.

I really do appreciate you taking the time to relay what you have learned though. Would have been very helpful a year ago. But over that year, I've learned to live with it.

Therein lies the problem. There was nearly zero learning curve to use my phone. Not so with Entune.

The worst is the stupid nav system. It takes 3-4 back and forth exchanges just to map to a local POI (that's "point of interest" for all of you that don't speak Entune). Meanwhile I just tell Siri "Directions to ______". Done.

It's 2016. Entune is ridiculous.

I want to change out the Entune stereo out of my 2012 4runner with an aftermarket receiver with Apple carplay. I for one am tired of the outdated Entune system and I am not paying to get new maps because atleast with carplay it uses my phone maps. However I don't how replacing Entune will affect the safety connect.

Great post, thanks for the tip on not setting up speed dial contacts. Fixed my biggest pet peeve with entune.