GO Essential back up

[PaulS]

I’m trying to back-up my TomTom onto my iMac (not previously attempted) but TomTom HOME insists that my GO Essential 6” is not connected. It clearly is, and indeed MyDrive Connect is perfectly happy with it, and the TomTom unit automatically fires-up when connected to the iMac ‘power source’.

For reasons I won’t go into here my iMac needs to run OS 10.12.6 (Sierra) and the HOME suitable for that is 2.26.10.0. That version downloaded, installed and launched without problem… except it believes my TomTom is not connected via USB. There is nothing wrong with the USB cable or the physical connection at each end, but I’ve just noticed in another thread that USB3 can be a problem and my iMac does indeed use USB3. Despite this being OK with the MyDrive I have, is this likely to be the problem? I now suspect it is. If so, has anyone any ideas about a solution?

I simply need to back up the data on the TomTom now that I have many, many GPS locations stored. I do at least have those as hard copy, but I wouldn’t want to type all those in again if something went wrong.

According to its serial number the GO Essential also seems to be known by TomTom as GO/GO Camper Tour.

 

[Willy875]

Tomtom Home is not compatible with GO Essential

You do not have to make a backup, the backup of your GPS is on the Tomtom servers so in case of concern connect your GPS to your Tomtom account.

 

[PaulS]

Following your suggestion, I’ve just been to my TomTom account but can’t see any evidence or notification that TomTom ‘central’ has a back up of my TomTom unit. If it is there, there is no indication of where that might be. Presumably I’d need to know if I wanted to initiate a reinstall after a data disaster.

Also, to be of any use, such a back up would have to be more than just the basic GO Essential system being reinstalled, it would need to include all the GPS data I’d inputted myself since buying the unit. You seem to be saying that TomTom ’central’ Hoovers up that information automatically without my knowing when it senses that my GO Essential is connected to my iMac (and thence to TomTom ‘central' via the Internet and MyDrive Connect). That would be fine, no problem with that, but I’ve still no idea how I’d get it back if I needed to.

I understand that the HOME app. is no use to me so will now delete it from my iMac.

 

[canderson]

@PaulS
I suppose most of the problem is in the loose use of the word backup here at the moment.

You've obviously owned an older Nav2 TomTom device that used Home at one time, and were expecting that things would function the same with these newer generation devices. Not the case, however.

Here's what exists in TomTom's cloud, waiting for you to retrieve it if ever necessary on your device:
1) Firmware: Even if you have to go through a worst case 'recovery' step on your device, the older recovery code that it contains will be immediately suggested for replacement by TomTom's server. You never have to worry about your device code being 'lost'.
2) Maps: Unlike the old days, you can also download and re-download your maps at will from the TT server. In the old Nav2 days, the LAST thing you ever wanted to do was lose your map(s), so these were the first thing you always needed to back up. We could always find a way to recover from whatever else. No longer an issue.
3) Personal info: Also different from the Nav2 days, if you have your accounts set up correctly on your device and at TomTom, any personal content (custom POI files, favorites, etc.) created or uploaded at the TomTom MyDrive web site are all stored on TT's server. And favorites and the like created on your device are also sent to TT's server for storage. In fact, you can share this content between devices by having a 2nd device login with your account information, at which time, TT's server will dump it all to the new device.

Knowing these things, are you feeling better about not doing full device backups like we once needed to do?

 

[PaulS]

Right. I think I understand! First thing though: my GO Essential (to judge by the serial number starting ZE) is part of the NAV4 series, subsection GO Series, but I’m guessing all you’ve described concerning NAV2 still applies. I bought it in June 2021 and it is the only SatNav device I’ve ever had. I’m well aware of the vital necessity of constantly backing up digital data and now that I have an extensive self-compiled GPS destinations list I have got very nervous about what seemed the lack of being able to do a back up.

My unit informs me when system updates are available, and easily downloads and installs those when I give the OK. So that shows an immediate and easily-done two-way communication going on between my GO Essential and the TomTom server.

But I note in your point no.3 that “…any personal content…created or uploaded at the TomTom MyDrive web site are all stored on TT's server”. The only thing I’ve ever done on the MyDrive web site is to create a custom route to somewhere, plus the route back, and that info automatically downloaded to my GO Essential the next time I switched it on. But all the GPS locations that I’ve inputted myself have been created on the GO Essential unit, while I was sat in an armchair and before I was even aware MyDrive existed. Although MyDrive has not been involved, does the TomTom server spot this new data on my GO Essential and grab it whenever I switch my unit on?

Conversely, does the TomTom server spot that some data has gone missing from my GO Essential (which could be vital system info, or just my own GPS data) and automatically replaces it from the back up it holds? You can see the problem there; I might not want it to do that if it was GPS data I’d deliberately deleted since I no longer needed it (I’m a ruthless clearer-out’er. My loft is empty).

I must thank you for taking an interest in this, and providing guidance and explanations. If only TomTom itself could do the same.

 

[canderson]

Right. I think I understand! First thing though: my GO Essential (to judge by the serial number starting ZE) is part of the NAV4 series, subsection GO Series, but I’m guessing all you’ve described concerning NAV2 still applies.

NAV2 devices were definitely handled differently with regard to PC app (Home vs. MyDrive Connect). They also had an open file structure that you could see and manipulate. And again, the most worrisome thing was losing your maps since they were keyed to the device and not readily available to be downloaded from TomTom.

But I note in your point no.3 that “…any personal content…created or uploaded at the TomTom MyDrive web site are all stored on TT's server”. The only thing I’ve ever done on the MyDrive web site is to create a custom route to somewhere, plus the route back, and that info automatically downloaded to my GO Essential the next time I switched it on. But all the GPS locations that I’ve inputted myself have been created on the GO Essential unit, while I was sat in an armchair and before I was even aware MyDrive existed. Although MyDrive has not been involved, does the TomTom server spot this new data on my GO Essential and grab it whenever I switch my unit on?

Conversely, does the TomTom server spot that some data has gone missing from my GO Essential (which could be vital system info, or just my own GPS data) and automatically replaces it from the back up it holds? You can see the problem there; I might not want it to do that if it was GPS data I’d deliberately deleted since I no longer needed it (I’m a ruthless clearer-out’er. My loft is empty).

Yes. If, for example, you create a new "Favorites" item on your TomTom device, and it's configured to be logged into the TT cloud service, that will transfer to MyDrive at TT as soon as that connection is made.
If you create a new item on MyDrive at TT, it will transfer to your device if it's logged into the cloud.
Likewise, deletions on either end are expected to behave similarly.