Anyone else sick of updates screwing their TomTom up?

Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
8
I've had my 910 since just a few weeks after it hit the market. Being that this is my first GPS unit I love it and couldn't live without it, but...

The first update I ran for this kept the device from shutting off automatically when power is cut to it; this in my opinion is bad. Why do you ask? Because there is now the oppurtunity to forget to turn it off when you leave your car in a dark area in a questionable neighborhood, or maybe just downtown for a night out. No, that's not an oppurtunity for me, it's a 4 hour window of oppurtunity for the local meth/crack head to see the pretty $800 glowing light in the car to break the window and take the device to fulfill their chemical dependancy needs for the next few days/weeks.

...Not good.

I know why this change was made, the mount. However would not have been a better and possibly more intelligent solution to simply add a selection to the already plentiful menu's to either enable, or disable autoshutoff? I don't know, maybe TomTom feels that if we need a device like a TomTom to find our way around that we must be too stupid to make a decision like that on our own so they felt they would make it for us. Generous I suppose.

After much tinkering and online how-to's I managed to get an original copy of the software and loaded that back on, now my device again shuts off automatically...good...

Now, the September update. It didn't say anything about whether it corrected that fun little problem or not so I happily backed up my 910 and installed the September update...Ok, it stays on again, damn, oh well...A guy can hope a company like TomTom could grow a brain right? Oh, but wait! There's more! A NEW problem! The device no longer switches from day/night mode any longer! Woo hoo!!! Another bonus! I go into brightness and docked settings, what the heck, one of them should work right? Nope...Select switch to night view and pitch black middle of nowhere 2 in the morning kind of darkness and there's the day screen at 100% brightness! So, I manually select night mode and this incredibly intelligent device designed and supported by even more incredibly and intelligent twits asks me if I would like it to automatically switch to night mode when it's dark! WOW! Why YES! I select, and bam! I'm staring at the day screen at 100% brightness like I never did a thing!

...Oh, and yes, the opposite is true at high noon on a sunny day.

It's back to the backup I go, bye bye september update!...It shuts off now, but apparently it really didn't like switching to night/day mode automatically because that problem is still there!

COME ON!!!!!!!!!!

Every time there's a new Tom Tom update I don't know what to do, update or not to update...Chance getting even more pissed off for the slight and remote possibility this could end my TomTomTorture..., or hmmm...

$800 initial can't live without it device, for every update this thing is becomming a $700 device, then a $600 device, then a $500 device...when it gets to zero I'm throwing it out the window.
 
I can certainly understand your frustrations. The on/off concept was removed to correct the problem with the mount as you suggested if I understand what others here have said. I too am extremely irriated by that decision. I spoke to Tomtom and they have no plans to offer any solution. Tech support said to just manually turn it off, duh.
The day night problem seems to be affecting several of us. Mine was solved when I removed the 910 from the mount and replaced it. Have no clue if I did something or what it might have been. I will add that it came back, repeated the process for something else and boom the problem was solved.
The moderators tell us that tomtom does view this site so maybe they will hear the need to correct the on/off situation and some of the other gripes that might posssibly be corrected by yet another firmware update.
 
sorry if i am way off here, but from what you wrote it sounds like it's possible that the time got reset during the update? So now when it is night out for you the device thinks it is day? What happens if you tell it not to auto switch to night/day mode.
 
hmm, interesting thought...I know the time is right though except I've never checked AM vs PM, so unless it's exactly 12 hours off??? Thing is, I could have sworn this thing actually had a light sensor on it and that it didnt do it by the clock??? I've been in parking garages midday when it's switched to night mode. If I tell it not to switch then it stays on what it's then currently on all the time.
 
i think the day / night mode is determined by a small sensor on the top of the unit. could be wrong, I certainly have been before. But my unit comes on when I am in the garage and switches to night mode, I back out and it goes to day mode.
 
Ah, then it sounds like someone made a logic error in the software. Hopefully it will get fixed soon.
 
I've had this problem before. It turned out to be my original mount. When the replacement came in, no more problem. If the problem continues with the new mount, try switching to the old one.
 
I undocked it, turned it on, turned it off, redocked it...We'll see how tomorrow goes. Too lazy to mess with the lights to verify...or I guess you could consider that patient enough to wait until the next day to see if it worked...Either way...
 
Ok, try this:

Reset it, place on mount. Go to preferences, uncheck the switch to night view when. Turn it off

Undock it, reset it & turn on. Make sure the switch to night view is still uncheck or uncheck it, then turn it off.

Reset it again, and then check switch to night view when dark and finally do one last reset.
 
Grrrr. You can try asking TT support. I did but didn't have any luck. Here is their response.

Dear Pedro,

Thank you for contacting Tom Tom regarding the changing of the brightness on your screen during night and day hours. We are happy to help! At this time, we want you to know that this option is not an automatic response from your GO 910. It is an option through changing your preferences, but it does not do it automatically. Your unit should adjust slightly for optimum viewing capabilities, however. We apologize for any frustration this may have caused you.

Thank you again for taking the time to write us with this concern. Have a great day! Please feel free to contact us by phone also. We are available Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 7:00 PM ET. Our Customer Care number is:

1-866-486-6866

Tom Tom helps you find your way the easy way!

With best regards,

The Tom Tom Support Team
 
Yeah, I received no help from them. If you contacted them, I wonder if you would get a different answer.
 
Well the 6.51 update is somewhat annoying with the time constantly updating to the UDC time, which is -1 for me, so I constantly have put an hour ahead.
 
TomTom in general is proving to be lacking incredibly in the support field. I'm a real estate agent and I have clients in my car all the time...When I first got the device I recommended it to a lot of those clients and other people I deal with including other agents, quite a few of them ended up buying one on my recommendation. Going forward unless TomTom starts handling their support issues effectively and making intelligent decisions rather than dumbass ones as they are currently doing I'll be praising having a GPS at all in my car but will try to steer people away from TomTom...I know for a fact with how many people I've been in contact with that bought one on my recommendation that TomTom just lost the sale of at least 10 units in the next few months alone right there.

For anyone from TomTom reading this: Get a clue
 
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Referring to the support answer, is there not a box on one of the menues that you check if you want the unit to switch to night view when it gets dark? Why would that be there if the unit doesn't do it. Not I am confused because my unit is doing just that. Does that mean my unit is not working properly since it is ? LOL
 
I also thought if my sensor wasn't working or it was a software problem. I know that everytime I turned on my unit, I had to switch manually switch to day or night all the time.
So I was driving home one night. Of course it was on day view, GRRR. Instead of going through the hassle of switching it to night, I let it stay at day view. I did this because I knew in the morning, the unit would have to be in day view.
I wanted to notice if the unit will stay at day view or will it which to night view thinking it was a clock problem.
Well it stayed on day view while driving home that night and it switched to night on me! In the morning it switched from night to day! I didn't know what to think but I never go to go through that test. You might want to try it.
 

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