The TomTom map update bug (mapsettings.cfg)
Wolf | August 25th, 2009 - 11:21
In a recent post I questioned whether TomTom had lost its ethos. The post was written against the background of a long list of unsatisfactory dealings with TomTom – one issue took a year to resolve – and a current problem with the map update service.
I have written this post because it may help other TomTom users to resolve similar problems.
Update 19 April 10: If you are looking for background information on this bug and a permanent solution, please read this post. If you want a quick fix, please page down and read the very useful comment by Philippe Teuwen.
Update 7 June 10: When I tried to operate my TomTom from TomTom Home v. 2.7.4.1962, I received an error and was unable to carry out the procedure sent in by Philippe (see above). Looks like I am back to deleting mapsettings.cfg and following the more cumbersome procedure explained below.
Update 14 December 10: After updating maps on my TomTom, I noticed that manual deletion of mapsettings.cfg (as described below) seems no longer necessary. TomTom loses this file all by itself. Still without warning to the unsuspecting user, though.
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I am using a TomTom Go 940 Live and have subscribed to the map update service, which entitles me to four map updates a year. A few days ago, I updated my maps using TomTom’s own software, TomTom Home. The process itself was painless but also unsuccessful. After the update, my device was stuck in a loop at the start-up screen and stopped working.
Looking at the support pages on the TomTom website, the scenario of SatNav devices not starting up is a common and frequent problem. The website hosts a list of procedures for this situation, which follows a trial and error system: Try this, if it does not work try that, …
TomTom insists on demanding that users should be their own software engineers. Myself, I am not too bad with computers but there should not be the assumption that computer proficiency is required to operate a device that is supposed to work out of the box.
I tried all of TomTom’s procedures without any luck and got into touch with TomTom customer services. They suggested that I delete my maps from the device and my computer, downloaded and re-installed the lot. This is a simple procedure, if time consuming, even over a reasonably fast Broadband Internet connection, and it solved the problem. As a side effect, I had lost all my favourites, custom points of interest (POIs) and home address. Restoring all of my personal information manually would take hours. I know because I have had to do it before.
With experience gained from previous problems, I know that the home address is quickly input and the POIs are easily copied across from the backup on my computer onto the device. The problem re-occurred, however, when I also copied the mapsettings.cfg file back onto my TomTom.
This leads me to suspect that the culprit was an incompatibility of my new maps with the existing mapsettings.cfg file. The problem could have been resolved much easier and in far less time by simply deleting the mapsettings.cfg file from the device. If the file is missing, the device creates a new, blank mapsettings.cfg file. As this simple task was not suggested to me by TomTom support, I suspect that TomTom are not aware of the cause of this problem. Annoyingly, TomTom support did not warn me that I would lose my custom POI files, too.
Would it be too much to ask that TomTom makes the mapsettings.cfg file compatible with map updates, routinely told customers what information will be lost and how to restore it?
Mapsettings.cfg is a small file, which contains the home address, favourites and recent destinations. Seasoned TomTom users will know that mapsettings.cfg is a troublesome file, which is lost just about every time a problem occurs and some problem solving procedure or other has to be carried out. In the past, copying an existing mapsettings.cfg file back onto the device worked, but not now.
I have actually long stopped using favourites for storing my addresses and use custom POIs instead, which are easier and more reliably restored in case of something going wrong. My only grievance with POIs is that they are slightly more awkward to access than favourites and that it is not possible to sort them alphabetically rather than by distance from the current location.
I wish that TomTom support would start offering solutions, which do not always involve deleting large chunks or everything as a first step and which are not randomly trial and error but based on a more sound analysis of the problem. And I really wish that TomTom would stop being so liberal with my time.
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Ethos? They never had one. TomTom are absolutely the worst company in the world for customer service. I’ve had known bad designs of cradles break within warranty and they still refused to do anything about it. I’ve had a device fail within 30 days of buying it and, were it not for the kind intervention of my then local Currys Digital store manager, they would have tried to crawl out of paying for that too. Oh and despite finding that the maps installed were out of date about 2 months in, I got a “can’t help, you must pay” message from TT when querying why they sold devices out of date and refused to support them. I’m lucky, in that I’m fairly techie – god knows what the poor sods who aren’t do to fix what TT should have.
Their “ethos”, such as it is, is to rip their customers off for as much money as is humanly possible – they don’t care about fixing bugs in their software, they don’t care if their devices aren’t fit for purpose – all they “care” about is looting your wallet, after which they couldn’t give a damn.
I’ll never buy another TomTom device again, and as soon as my current 910 stops working or becomes obsolete I’ll be buying something, anything, else.
Rant over
What I’ve learned to do is use windows explorer to get the MapSettings.cfg from the device’s memory and save a copy to my desktop. After the update I just drag and drop it back on the TomTom overwriting the file. Then, I disconnect and start the TomTom. So far that’s been working for me. Just as a heads up, if you did a back-up of your device you can also find the file on your PC’s hard drive in the event you didn’t make a copy before updating.
It can be found here:
C:\Documents and Settings\XXXX\My Documents\TomTom\HOME\
But it’s usually easier to just search for the file by name on the C drive.
You will obviously not have any favorites since the last back up but better than having to start from scratch I suppose. After all these years I thought they would have fixed it by now.
I deleted the MapSettings.cfg from my TomTom One XL and my device then showed that it had no maps at all. Also, mine only started looping when I tried to enter in a destination street address. Anyone know a possible solution? Tried everything from the website but nothing worked.
Thanks Philippe, your workaround worked nicely on my TomTom XL Live IQ Routes.
According to the help on the tomtom site for my unit, the favorites etc should now be saved across map updates, but it didn’t work on mine.
Thanks. The mapsettings.cfg bug bit me today with a map update on a new TomTom 750.
The device would stay at the start up screen for ages, then reboot. This process looped. I did a full restore and reapplied the update. Same problem. Deleting mapsettings.cfg solved the problem. I had to reset my Home location and create new Favourites…
Hi, i am not a very techy person, help please, i have updated my tom tom go910 and have lost all my favourites. this is my first update……. can i get them back? i did not backup before i downloaded the updates………………any way i can retrieve them, i dont think there is, because if i can get into my favourites by adding another one, its the only one there. would appreciate an answer……even if its no chance. lol. i will be the silly woman wandering around saying, well its around here somewhere, i just dont know where……thank you
Thanks for having this available. I agree TomTom leaves much to be desired, though I do not know if Garmin is as bad. I was given quite a runaround when I tried to use my “register for trial applications” number when I first purchased it. Now, I decided to finally update my map – and it happened just as described above. What a pisser! So, …..thank-you all so much for this post and the assistance. I am back in business, and as much as I like this thing, I consider these problems/bugs – easily avoidable. Thanks again you wizards out there!
Thanks for the advice. i had the same problem after a map update and the solution mentioned cured the problem perfectly; really shouldn’t happen in the first place though!
Interesting post. I thought to let you know that you website isn’t getting displayed properly on blazer web browser on my mobile phone.
I hope that increasingly number of web site owners would deliberate upon the fact that there is an ever growing number of users browsing webpages on the mobile.
cheers
Hello, I stumbled upon your blog post while I was looking for a solution to exactly the same problem.
I found this forum discussion with a solution:
http://www.tomtomforums.com/tomtom-go-630-720-720t-730-730t-740/16385-favorites-restore-question.html
In a few words:
* Copy again MapSettings.cfg to the device
* Launch Tomtom HOME
* Choose to operate your device remotely
* Now on your remote Tomtom screen, add a favorite & delete it, this “fixes” the file
* Disconnects, now problem should be fixed, you’re back with your favorites!