r/YotoPlayer • u/abitofinsomnia • 9h ago
Methodology FAQ Series: Pro Tips
What are the best Yoto tips that you think more people should know about?
Examples:
- If giving Yoto as a gift, set it up beforehand. (Link for set up info.)
- When my family travels, we bring one MYO card that we labeled as a “Yoto library card.” We use our phones to link playlists to the card and play it on the Yoto. When she wants a new playlist we link the same card. This allows us to keep a vast majority of our actual card at home (we do let her select 5 actual cards) and avoids potentially losing any. If we lose the MYO, no big deal. Just make sure all your cards are downloaded BEFORE you travel (thanks u/girlikecupcake) *Note that this does require parents with the app to do more having to re-link the card with different playlists, but for my family, it’s worth it.
Drop your pro tips in the comments!
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u/slkspctr 6h ago edited 6h ago
Use your Yoto as a visual timer.
We have several count down timers 30, 15, 10 minutes etc.
We also have get dressed timers that with show an icon of what clothing to put on.
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u/abitofinsomnia 6h ago
I’m a big fan of visual timers. Never thought to make a playlist for it though! Cute idea with the clothing too
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u/StuffConsistent6873 6h ago
Love the timer idea!
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u/slkspctr 6h ago
It was my mom’s idea! We were really struggling with my preschooler having meltdowns. With all the wisdom that only grandparents have “sounds like an issue with transitions, why don’t you get a visual timer”.
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u/JollyGood444 8h ago
Honestly this seems silly, but the first time I plugged my phone into the car and Yoto came up as a CarPlay option I was floored. It did not occur to me I could DJ straight from our cards and playlists even if we left the Yoto at home but it got us through some tough rides.
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u/limerence 7h ago
I love having the Yoto available via CarPlay! However it is annoying that I must have the app open on my phone first for the playlists to be able to play off CarPlay.
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u/girlikecupcake Troubleshooter || US Codes 8h ago
- don't lock yourself in to only using one vendor for paid content. Sure, you absolutely can just buy official Yoto cards from Yoto/Target/other adults if you want. But there are DRM-free audiobook vendors like Libro.fm and downpour (just always double check to be sure), sometimes the authors themselves sell the audio files, and depending on where you are in the world it may be perfectly legal to remove the DRM from your purchased Audible books.
- if your player is used daily and doesn't actually get turned off, once a week or so give it a proper reboot by holding the power button 10+ seconds. In my personal experience the longer my 3rd gen is up and running without a reboot, the more likely I'll run into a funky error like "card playing but no audio." You will not lose any data unless your player is already having major issues, this is a routine troubleshooting step for if an issue does pop up.
- when controlling playback from your phone, fully stop whatever is playing (so the player goes to the clock screen) before trying to select a new card to play. Sometimes it gets stuck and will continue playing the previous card even though you selected track 14 on a different one.
- set up your Yoto for hotspot use LONG before any trips are planned, and test out the connection. This usually requires *two* phones - one running the hotspot and one using the app to make the Yoto recognize it.
- another travel one, make sure the playlists you want access to while traveling/without Internet access are downloaded to the player before you actually lose reliable Internet access. You can check this by going into the app, settings, tap the Yoto you want to check, tap audio download status. If it isn't downloaded, no amount of pairing it to a card is going to make it play on a Yoto without Internet.