TomTom Map Update fails big time
by Volker Weber
TomTom has new maps for their devices. You can't miss the adverts in your TomTom Home application. Yesterday they sent me Activation Code so that I can update the maps in my GO 940 LIVE. You actually need two subscriptions, if you want to keep the Europe and North America maps updated. You may have bought both with the device, but when you update, there are two subscriptions.
After you insert the Activation Code into the application, TomTom Home starts downloading the update, and it warns you ! IMPORTANT: Do not disconnect your navigation device. !
Why such a strong warning? Simple. They are going to break your device when you do so. Yesterday TomTom Home told me a number of times that I had cancelled:
The f&ck I have cancelled. Why should I? Let's ask TomTom Home:
Ah, *I* have disconnected the device. Funny. It is sitting in its docking station, the Mac is showing the internal storage as mounted. The Mac did not go to sleep since I am writing a text. But TomTom Home has decided I had disconnected the device. Result (for the Europe map):
I need to activate. No problem. I still have my activation code. Result:
Yes, and that's it. The Europe map is dead. The old one is gone, the new one cannot be activated. The process has turned a perfectly good TomTom device into a well designed paper weight.
Why is it so important I do not disconnect? I can only imagine it is a DRM issue. The software could very well just download the map and then worry about the device when it is actually installing the map. But no, the device has to sit well connected until the download to the Mac is complete.
It was well connected, but TomTom Home has decided I disconnected it. Bummer. All my fault. Repeat after me:
DRM is bad for the customer
And TomTom, I have a secret to share. Go to any torrent site. Your maps are there. Unprotected for anybody to install who does not want to pay you. Your DRM does not hurt those folks in any way. You are only f&cking your customers. Every single time, a free product is better than what you sell, you lose. Your customers loses. The only people who win are not your customers.
Conclusion: stay away from TomTom Home if you need a working map.
Update:
This was the situation before I tried to update the North America map:
Europe would no longer work, but I still hat the North America map. Well, you know me. I had to try out if this is an isolated instance. Well, it wasn't. TomTom Home was happy copying the map to the GO, and then it decided again, that *I* had removed the device, when the drive was still mounted:
Result: the device no longer knows it ever had a North America map. You can only select Western Europe, and that fails.
Double fault. Two errors, one useless device.
Comments
Interesting. It's only about a week that I switched from TT to Navigon. Today I was using their fine (not!) "Navigon Fresh" tool to download the most recent map drop to my PDA. Clearly these two vendors do *not* distinguish themselves by providing a useful desktop updater: When updating to the 3Q09 maps, I am basically getting into an infinite loop, where progress reaches 63% and then jumps back to 61%. Forever.
Fortunately, Navigon's DRM only consists of a hidden folder in the %temp% directory (this is Win), so progress can be monitored by spying on that folder. It turns out that Norway is causing the problem (its map, that is). After deselecting Norway, the rest of Europe installs fine.
No clue what I would do if I had to navigate in Norway; the sole case in the past where I tried to contact Navigon support resulted in no response, so I won't even bother.
I bought (according to my Credit Card) a map of Oz for my trip to see my sister at Christmas last year. I am still waiting to be able to download it and I can't seem to get my money back. I would have thought that they would be able to tell if I had downloaded it because of the fact that you have to be connected as does your machine (in my case a Palm Treo). Or to be exact my SD Card for my Palm Treo.
Their Customer Service is very poor but they still have my money.
It didn't stop me buying the UK Map for the iPhone though. Using an Aquarius FM Transmitter (which I think you mentioned a few months ago) as the mount / charger it is an excellent Satnav and because it is an FM Transmitter you can play your Music and when it needs to tell you something it mutes the music and when it's finished the music comes on again.
Still want my money back for the Oz map, wonder if I can swap it for a USA map for the iPhone?
@Matthias Kloppmann
benutze eine andere Speicherkarte und / oder einen anderen Kartenleser. Meist sind dann solche Probleme verschwunden.
Wenn nicht neuistall von Navigon auf der Karte (vorher device.xml sichern und zurückspielen).
Sorry for your pain but thanks for the warning.
I was quite surprised when they offered to sell me a new US map for my TomTom GO 720 because I thought free map updates were part of the purchase price. Glad I didn't go for it.
David, these are only user updates to the map. They are free, and I don't know for how long. What TomTom is trying to sell here are four full updates a year. The process took four hours for each map, and both failed big time. I would have to do that four times a year. Well, actually since I have entered the activation code, TomTom Home should do that automatically. But I think it does not like me anymore, since I keep disconnecting the navigation device. It's all my fault.
Kein Kartenbackup in Time Machine??
TomTom software for Mac is crap - well that's all there's to say.
I bought a US Map and was able to install it on my SD cad last year. Nowe there's an updated one I have the right to, but t won't let me install it on the SD card, I have to use the internal storage. That means I have to delete the Euopean Map there ... even with backup - I will not do that ... I had the problem once that suddenly everything was gone - not again.
I love my TomTom for the navigation - the infrastructure around is total crap.
Und noch eine kleine Verständnisfrage: Wieso ist Dein TomTom HOME englischsprachig? Hast Du ein englisches OS X laufen?
Sounds like they are encouraging you to test out the usability of the torrentable maps...
Also ich konnte eben mein GO 720 vollkommen problemlos aktualisieren.
TomTom HOME speichert doch auch immer die alten Karten auf dem Mac, solange Du sie da nicht manuell entfernst. Was listet die Software denn unter Verwaltung des Navigationsgeräts > Inhalte auf dem Computer? Die alte und die neue Karte, nur die alte oder keine von beiden?
Hello Volker,
I like you comments on DRM. Really.
And thanks for the warning. I conidered looking at a TT, but the market just shrunk.
Until people turn to their vendors saying:
I am not leaving this room until YOU have fixed that SW, the situation won't get better.
People tend to do that with cars, HW in general, but not SW.
Everybody knows a "guru" who can help him fix it, and so vendors carry on with poor SW.
Try sending TT a bill for a day lost by using their misbehaved software.
At least you are known enough to get _some_ reaction.
Good luck!
Joe T. Hermann
I have the TT930T after having the 720 previously. It took 3 months and many calls to sort out the problem when I swapped devices on the Home application. It failed (crashed, if I recalled) and wouldn't allow my new device to register with TomTom services. When they finally resolved the problem, my map update (30 day upgrade option) had expired!! That was another battle to get them to accept the expiry was their fault.
I have also purchased the European map as part of the quarterly update option. No hassle here and the download/upgrade worked fine.
Being a 930, it also has the US map. The latest one is 1.65gb which is bigger than the installed one at 1.4gb. Problem is, the European map was also bigger than the last version with the result that these is insufficient space in the 4gb internal memory for both maps now. Had to use the external SD card! Whole idea of the 930 was it contained both maps.
Great device but support sucks.
Sean, that is a very good hint at why things fail big time. I have now removed both defunct maps from the device. Installed Europe, and cannot install North America since it won't fit. Asks me to install an SD card which I did. Now does not let me select the card for installation. Complete bollocks.
Strangely I had bought a Tom Tom because you had raved about them in the past. Naively I had not realized that TomTom operates under the same business principle as the printer manufacturers - the device is cheap but the supplies (maps) are not. The refurbished unit I bought had an outdated map and it took a lot of support call time and many white X screens to get it updated. Ultimately erasing the device and reloading the device software and map worked best.
Axel, I still like the TomToms best and recommend the smallest TomTom ONE. And still there is so much room for improvement.
Wow, what a mess! After reading this I will *NOT* update my outdated TomTom maps. Let's see how this whole update procedure will work out for the TomTom iPhone app... will there be independent application and map updates or will they make you buy the whole thing over and over once a major new version is out. I suspect the latter...
How often do roads move/change anyhow? Around here it takes years for the simplest road project.
Conclusion: Don't update your maps.
Bricked my Garnin before summer in a similar fashin while updatin Europe and North America in a similar way. They urgently need to fix these procedures, sending in the brick always due to their stupid update processes is not the way forward.
Just for reasons of doing justice to TT: At least their software (sort of) runs on a Mac. Navigon uses a completely screwed fat client for fresh maps, which requires you to use Windows.
Just when I happily trashed all windows instances I had virtual machines for, I got to get me a new one. Yes, dear customer, go and buy a windows copy to use the friggin thing. Then the SD card wouldn´t be accepted, neither in the nav-system nor in a reader. Sent back to Navigon. Weeks and weeks later (thanks god I made a backup before!) and after several reminders I got it back. Of course any subscription discount had expired. No one would help me getting it. Had to pay again.
I found out later, that deleting the invisible files (e.g. .DS_Store, .Trash and the spotlight directory) on the SD-card solves the problem.
And yes, why would a simpe download and copy process be made so difficult? I don´t know since when payment-services like Kagi are around, but instead they are forcing you to overcome these connectivities problems, or making me use crappy Windows software to do it is only caused by the DRM these companies use.
I had the same issue (disconnected device) with my XL31 last weekend, and now I have to send it to TomTom :-(((
But I can reproduce the issue easily : It happens always when Time Machine starts to backup my MacBook Pro to my Time Capsule, then it disconnects the XL.
Conclusion : Always turn off Time Machine when you synchronize your TomTom device !
Same problems here.... blinking red light.
The instructions on their web site SUCK (if you have a mac). Cannot disable spotlight for the device 130S!!!
A couple of computers later I got the thing reformatted and ... working ... of course the map is gone and has to be cobbled together from the various backups.
This is excruciatingly slow, such a waste of time, but at least it works .... (3h later!!)
In short the mac SW SUUUUUUCKS!
please help!
I recently got a tomtomgo 630, and bought a map from their site
without knowing of how this works.
I payed 89 euros for a map and I got their payment confirmation email and all
but I just don't get how to download and install the map I bought, on my device. The mail says I just have to connect to tomtomHOME and click update device/or go to tools 'Use latest map guarantee' and tomtomHOME would automatically recognize the map I purchased. But none of this works..it appears no where that I bought a map, and worse is that the map I wanted appeared in 'add maps', but it says I have to buy it again!! When you buy a map from tomtom's site, is there any downloading button right after the payment page? I'm scared I missed 'the download page' or something... is there a limited valid time for the download?
and when you download a map, do you first have to download on your computer and later download on my tomtom?
I'm lost I shouldve read more and thought better before buying...but I really dont want my 89 euros to go to waste now that I did):
Sorry for tons of questions...
Thanks so much for reading, ill be glad with any little help!
Can anyone tell me what I have to do to update my 940 Live to Western and central Europe Map without loosing my pre instaled maps thanks.
Ok - I bought a TomTom go 520 with the first map update free - but I never succeded in updating the device via the crappy homesoftware - it always caused errors - i contacted support also crappy ..the needed me to send in a copy of my receipt ect ect very poor service ..i later found out that when u have the tomtom setup to danish, and try updating it will cause an error ..
so now after a while i decided to update again resetting the device to native english ..but guess what my free card update has expired !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amazing i think ill get the unit back where i bought it and have a garmin instead ...
NEVER BUY A TOMTOM !
Sorry to read of your troubles - wish that I had thought to run a check before purchasing the TT Go520 and later the Western Europe map. Like others I bought the updates and although it installed initially now that I have tried to update it using the Home software - Guess What ---- it fails Big Time!
Will no doubt erase it all and then restart but totally unsatisfactory. Despite liking the TT navigation the software updates and support are so poor that I won't be buying another and would recommend anyone else to consider the alternatives.
Once bitten .. Twice shy....
