Favorites lost AGAIN !

[Lainchir]

Hi Forum,

Once more, after a map update on my TomTom One 30 series, I've lost all my favorites.

It's the principle of it all. I have a second fault into TomTom support and they keep saying it's design intent.

Is it just the 30 series that does this ? Copying mapsettings.cfg to the new map doesn't restore them.

Can I suggest that everyone who has this issue raises it with TomTom as a fault ?

Cheers

Lainchy

 

[mikealder]

Stop using Favourites to store regular destinations and use a custom POI file instead, much more reliable and will survive map updates with no issue - Mike

 

[telemike]

Went from V845 to V850 on my 335TM and did not lose favorites.

 

[Arno]

Once more, after a map update on my TomTom One 30 series, I've lost all my favorites.
[ ... ]
Is it just the 30 series that does this ? Copying mapsettings.cfg to the new map doesn't restore them.

No problems on my 930 with copying back from the Windows Explorer back up made before the upgrade.

In spite of that, as Mike said, convert your favorites to POIs in a custom category.

 

[Lainchir]

...only affects One Series 30

This only affects one series 30 as far as I'm aware.

There is no manage favourites on the device, so you can't convert it to POI.

Currently, they've told me that because the One series 30 is a budget unit, it doesn't support "Manage POI's", but they've ref'd it off finally. Strange that the "Start" is not mentioned in the FAQ on tomtom's site.

Very annoying !

 

[canderson]

It can and will happen on lots of TT devices -- perhaps all of them at one time or another -- depending upon the specifics of a given map update. I always back up my mapsettings.cfg file before updating maps, then copy it back after the update. My GO720 is no more immune to the problem than any of the ONE series.

While it's a good idea to keep favorites as a POI, that's not all that is being saved in mapsettings.cfg, so that doesn't entirely deal with the problem.

 

[mvl]

This doesn't happen on app 9.x devices, and "retention of favorites" was published as a new feature in app 9.022 here.

App 9.x has been offered as an update on all Tomtom models that were launched in 2009 or later.

And it hasn't been offered on any models launched in 2008 or earlier (like the 330 or 720). So there's a good chance there will never be an upgrade to this capability on the older models.

 

[canderson]

I'd always hoped that they would simply resolve this for the older models in the scripting for Home -- it is, afterall, Home that has access to the original mapsettings.cfg file, could preserve it on the PC side, and rewrite it to the unit at the end of the map update.

 

[mvl]

I'd always hoped that they would simply resolve this for the older models in the scripting for Home -- it is, afterall, Home that has access to the original mapsettings.cfg file, could preserve it on the PC side, and rewrite it to the unit at the end of the map update.

That's what happens on app 9.x

The issue is that after retaining mapsettings.cfg, many times the devices go into a continual reboot cycle that has to be fixed by these steps. And the reboot bug wasn't fixed until app 9.x.

Home did retain mapsettings.cfg for 8.x devices briefly with map 835, but presumably after all the reboot support calls they programmed home to retain it only for app 9.x models only.

 

[Lainchir]

The latest from TomTom themselves is that they have constantly tried to close the fault, saying that it is design intent, basically because it is a "budget" unit. I've argued this as the "Start" is also a budget unit, but strangely, due to the lack of exclusion, includes the ability to manage POI's ?? Haven't had this confirmed yet as I don't know anyone with a "Start".

They've told me to write to the Customer Relations Dept in the Netherlands.

I don't want the fault closing though until it's resolved.

As another user has said, a software feature must be available either in Home, or via a genuine TomTom app to convert Favorites to POI's.... other people have written them, namely poiedit... but that's an unofficial app. If someone else can write one, then so can TomTom !!

It's the principle of it now. If it can be backed up, then you should be able to restore it, with the new maps that you've paid TomTom for !!

Lainchy

 

[mikealder]

As long as its not a "Start-2" you should still have the option to Navigate To/ POI where you can call up a custom POI file and its contents.
Just use POI Edit to edit and convert the MapSettings.cfg file to a useable ov2 file and drop it in your UK&ROI or Western_Europe map folder - Mike

 

[bagpuss]

I moved my favourites from my 940 to my 950, which worked ok. A few months later, I think at the same time as a map upgrade, they no longer work on the 950.

TomTom support simply say "save them as POI". Well, it's a bit late for that.

Is there a way to convert a whole mapsettings.cfg file to a POI file in one go? On a computer? Website service? Hell, iPhone app?

I don't really want to have to go through the each favourite on the old 940 and one by one convert them to POI.

Thanks!

 

[mikealder]

Easy to do with POIEdit on the PC:

If you use the Favourites option on the device this can be a problem as they will all have disappeared, assuming you have a backup of the old MapSettings.cfg file taken prior to the update help is at hand:

Firstly go to your map folder on the device and copy the "MapSettings.cfg" file from your map folder on the device to the PC.

Next you will need to download and install POIEdit which can be found on This Web page.

With the software your PC simply open the MapSettings.cfg file using the POIEdit application and you will see your old favourite locations displayed:



You can right click any of the locations and choose delete if there are duplicates or old entries you no longer require. Once the list contains what you want select File/ Save As and make sure the "Save as type" is set to "TomTom Binary (ov2), choose your file name "_FAVS" is a good one as this puts the favs POI file at the top of the list when searching on the device.



Finally copy the _FAVS.ov2 file to your map folder and you now have the option to navigate to all your old favourites, they just happen to be stored in a slightly different (better) way.

You have to use the option Navigate To/ POI then select the custom POI file named FAVs which will be at the top of the list, then select the location from the options offered.

Should you want to add more locations to the list whilst using the device use the Change Preferences/ Manage POI/ Add POI select your _FAVS category from the list and enter the location details as required - Mike

 

[bagpuss]

You, Sir, are a legend!

Thank you very much, job done.

Fired up Parallels on my Mac and sorted it all out.

I can see that it's clearly a better way to store them (more of an open format, less likely to be lost) but they're not as convenient to access on the device. Am I missing something?

As far as I can tell, I can't just browse through all the POIs in my FAV group on the device. Choosing Navigate to, POI near you, FAVS shows only the first 48 (8 pages with 6 on each). So I can't actually see any POIs that are more than 6.1miles from me! I know I can search for strings, but sometimes one wants to browse, instead of remembering a title.

Got any hot tips for a better way to manage it?

The TomTom is also "designed" to be quicker with favourites: Navigate to/Favourite/choose favourite is faster than Navigate to/next page/Point of Interest/POI near me/FAVS/find/type in name/tap to choose/Select.

The number of times I've thought to myself "I could design the interface better than this" doesn't bear thinking about!

Thanks again for your help.

Dominic

 

[mikealder]

When using Favourites you can only have 48 locations stored, with Custom POI files the limit is in to the thousands, try using the Browse Map function, put the cursor where you need to center the search on the map then tap the cursor sign at the bottom of the screen (The four leaf clover), from here chose "Find POI Nearby" the device will then list the 48 locations nearest this position for you to select from - Mike

 

[RonWard]

This would be useful if it was included with every TT, that POIs store is greater and Favourites are limited.

A screen warning before updating on those devices/models which have this fault would be great!!!!!

Many thanks for the help.

Ron

 

[ewjax]

When using Favourites you can only have 48 locations stored, with Custom POI files the limit is in to the thousands,

I think you can have more than 48 favorites total, but it will only display the nearest 48.

I bumped into this while I was trying to move/convert my favorites from my old Garmin Nuvi onto my new TT 540. Turns out that process is not the most straightforward thing to do, and although there are various websites and various utility programs that will help you do it, they each work to a varying degree of success, and all have little issues or problems, like they will convert your garmin file, but they also add hundreds of bogus trash entries that have to be manually cleaned up, etc (that's just one example). Another of the confusing bits was this particular limitation on how many favorites TT will display - I was convinced something was going wrong and that only some of my Garmin favorites were being converted and installed, until I finally figured out that they were all there, it was just that the TT was only showing me the nearest 48.

Anyway. The point of this reply = you can have more than 48 favorites, but it will only show you the nearest 48 when you try to pick one to drive to.

 

[Arno]

You may find out that they are rolling over with the 49th Favourite entered replacing the 1st.

You can make a little test without loosing your current Favourites by setting up a custom POI category and copying them to there.

Now you can add more Favourites and see if you will be able to get to the 50th.

 

[ewjax]

You may find out that they are rolling over with the 49th Favourite entered replacing the 1st.

The 49th doesn't replace the 1st. I currently have ~70 favorites, but to see the ones far from me, I have to do a search from a location nearer the distant ones.

I live in Pennsylvania, and have lots of favorites (~40) around here. I also have family in Kansas and both Carolinas, and work destinations (client offices, the hotels we stay at when we travel there, etc) scattered from Minnesota to Chicago to New York to New Jersey to Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. They are all in there, I just don't see some of them unless I kick off a POI search from somewhere near them.

 

[mikealder]

AFAIK the Favourites limit has been 48 for quite some time but I guess it might have been increased without me or plenty of others even spotting such a change as we have long since abandoned using Favourites, use of Favourites is still a danger as the file they are stored in is far more susceptible to being deleted/ damaged in which case you lose all your stored locations, a custom POI file doesn't suffer from the same issue which is why I advise users to put frequently used destinations in to a single ov2 file - Mike