Yoto MYO limits, explained — and how to fix the upload errors they cause

“My file is too large”

Yoto rejects any single track over 100MB or longer than 60 minutes — the fix is to split the file or re-export it at a smaller size. The two caps are separate, so a track has to fit under 100MB and under 60 minutes at the same time.

What causes it

• A whole audiobook or long recording exported as one file — 60 minutes arrives faster than most people expect.
• High-bitrate exports: at 256kbps, a file reaches 100MB in about 53 minutes.
• Uncompressed formats: WAV and other lossless files are huge, and Yoto takes MP3 and AAC/M4A audio.

The manual fix

• Split the file at chapter breaks with a free audio editor such as Audacity, keeping every piece under 60 minutes.
• Re-export as MP3 at a lower bitrate. Spoken word stays clear at 96kbps — an hour comes out at roughly 43MB — and switching stereo to mono shrinks it further without losing clarity.

What won't work

• Renaming the file or changing its extension — the uploader reads the audio itself, not the name.
• Zipping the file — it has to arrive as playable audio.
• Trimming a few minutes off a high-bitrate file — if it's still over 100MB, it still fails. Re-export at a lower bitrate instead.

“My card is full”

A MYO card tops out at 600MB or 6 hours of audio in total, so it can be full long before you reach 100 tracks. The fix is to audit what's on the card, remove what you can, and split the rest across more than one card.

Which total you hit first depends on bitrate. At 128kbps, 6 hours of audio is only about 345MB — the time cap bites first. At 256kbps, 6 hours would be roughly 690MB, so the 600MB size cap arrives just past the five-hour mark.

The manual fix

• Audit the card in the Yoto app: check each track's size and length, and remove anything your child has outgrown.
• Re-export the biggest tracks at a lower bitrate — see “My file is too large” above — to claw back space.
• Split long collections across two or more cards at a natural break, such as the end of a book or a season, and label each card so you know what lives where.

“Too many tracks”

A MYO card stops accepting tracks at 100, no matter how small each file is. The fix is to merge short tracks — combine several mini-tracks into one longer file before uploading.

The trade-offs

• Skipping: the player skips between tracks, so merged audio loses its per-track skip points.
• Icons: each track gets one 16×16 icon, so ten merged stories share a single picture.
• The caps still apply: a merged file must stay under 100MB and 60 minutes — see “My file is too large”.

“My upload keeps failing”

If an upload fails on a file that is inside every cap, the usual culprits are the file's format or encoding, the connection, or a stale session. Yoto accepts MP3 and AAC/M4A audio — anything else needs converting before it will upload.

Worth checking, in order

1. Format: MP3 or AAC/M4A only — WAV, FLAC and OGG files need converting first. A free editor or converter does this in one step.
2. Encoding: an MP3 that still fails may be unusually encoded. Re-exporting it from a free audio editor usually produces a clean file.
3. One at a time: upload files individually rather than in a big batch.
4. Connection: retry on a steady connection — large uploads are the first thing a flaky network breaks.
5. Session: if everything else checks out, refresh the page or sign out of your Yoto account and back in, then retry.

The first check is Yoto's documented format requirement; the rest are the checks that most often clear a stuck upload.

“My icons look wrong”

Yoto track icons display at exactly 16×16 pixels, and any image you upload is automatically shrunk to that size — which is why detailed photos come out as a smudge. The fix is to start from real pixel art: an image drawn at 16×16, one pixel at a time.

A 16×16 icon is 256 pixels in total. A photo holds millions; squashed down to 256, faces and fine detail simply vanish. Bold shapes, high contrast and a plain background survive the shrink. And because dark and transparent pixels show as unlit pixels on the player's display, very dark artwork can disappear entirely.