How important is TomTom Home?

[Buckeye Steve]

How important is it to use TomTom Home? Is it really necessary to get GPSFix updates? Is it really necessary to get map updates, or MapShare updates?

I have a TomTom XL330S (my fifth one in 3 months), and can't get any real help (except to send me a refurbished model), from Customer "Service".

Maybe, the issue is with TomTom Home?

 

[canderson]

How important is it to use TomTom Home? Is it really necessary to get GPSFix updates? Is it really necessary to get map updates, or MapShare updates?

I have a TomTom XL330S (my fifth one in 3 months), and can't get any real help (except to send me a refurbished model), from Customer "Service".

Maybe, the issue is with TomTom Home?

For your model, it's the only way to get mapshare and gpsfix info and the like. Unless you work directly with tech support on an alternative method, it's also the only way to get new maps and updates.

You CAN do without any of that. What you'll miss will be any new information that corrects errors and adds new streets to the areas you visit, and your TomTom will take somewhat longer to obtain a satellite lock than necessary.

Home is and has always been a scary thing to depend upon for backups, so I hope you haven't used it that way nor plan to. If you don't use Home for that, you're actually ahead of the game.

When we were discussing this in a previous thread, I was very specific in my question about how many of these were "out of box" failures -- units that failed before you ever hooked them up to Home and allowed it to fiddle with your unit, or units that failed even before that. It would help to understand what might be going wrong. The odds of 5 busted units in a row just runs way too far down the bell curve not to cause some concern about how they're getting that way.

 

[Buckeye Steve]

OK, now I understand..... Based on what you are saying, none of the issues were out of the box. All of them were after hooking up to TomTom Home, which led me to think that maybe the issue IS with TomTom Home.

How does one get in touch with Tech Support? Certainly not the 866 (toll free) number, all they know how to do is send a refurbished unit out. I have asked for help from Tech Support, that was 3 days ago.

Honestly, I am so frustrated with TomTom as a whole. I drive a truck and need the device daily, and don't know where to turn to next.

 

[canderson]

OK, now I understand..... Based on what you are saying, none of the issues were out of the box. All of them were after hooking up to TomTom Home, which led me to think that maybe the issue IS with TomTom Home.

How does one get in touch with Tech Support? Certainly not the 866 (toll free) number, all they know how to do is send a refurbished unit out. I have asked for help from Tech Support, that was 3 days ago.

Honestly, I am so frustrated with TomTom as a whole. I drive a truck and need the device daily, and don't know where to turn to next.

I'd be hard pressed to find anyone in these forums who has any real love for Home. That said, I've never heard of units getting bricked by it right and left, either, but at this point, it seems a more likely possibility than a run of bad luck as long as yours.

So let's take it easy with this next one and see if we can keep it from going south, or at least make an easy recovery for you if it does. There's very little that Home can do to your unit that we can't resolve between us IF you have a full backup of your unit before we start.

It is important that before you do ANYTHING else, we make sure you have a full backup of your unit. So here's the deal. Connect your unit via USB. Yes, let it connect to your computer. Yes, Home will start up when you connect your unit. That's OK. JUST DON'T ASK IT TO DO ANYTHING! In fact, as soon as it comes up fully, SHUT DOWN Home with the little "X" in the upper right corner. Your unit still has a USB connection to your computer, and you can use Windoze to make a better backup than Home might.

If you haven't already seen the instructions on doing the backup (there's a trick or two to the process), here's the thread you want to read first:

https://www.tomtomforums.com/genera...4-how-backup-contents-your-unit-computer.html

Once you're backed up, we can take this step by step and try to see why you're having so many problems, and (fingers crossed) get it resolved for you.

 

[Buckeye Steve]

The replacement refurbished unit is due here on Monday. I'll do what you suggest. Should I not download a current map when it gets here?

 

[canderson]

The replacement refurbished unit is due here on Monday. I'll do what you suggest. Should I not download a current map when it gets here?

NO!

Given your truly strange history with these things, we need to take a measured, step-by-step approach to this. If there really is some strange interaction between your system with Home and the units they have been sending you, we need to avoid bricking another one before we can determine the cause.

So when you receive your unit, go ahead and connect to Home. Let it find your unit. Once it's done settling down, it may offer you a new map and other updates such as a gpsfix and perhaps other items. AT THAT POINT, HIT THAT "X" IN THE UPPER RIGHT CORNER AND SHUT HOME DOWN!

Then use Windows to back up your unit to your hard drive per the link in my last message.

Then use your normal USB "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in your system tray (lower right corner) to cleanly disconnect your unit's USB connection from your PC.

Let your unit sit in the charger overnight to be sure it's all charged up.

THEN take it out and try using it for a week or two. If all goes well (and we want to hear your reports here, good or bad, as often as you like), THEN we can talk about letting Home modify the contents of your unit. By then, you'll have some operating experience with it AND a clean backup we can work with if things go badly. At a minimum, if Home does something strange, we'll be able to put you back to where you started with this new unit.

 

[Buckeye Steve]

OK, message clearly received! Will keep you posted on how things progress. Keep your fingers (and toes) crossed!

 

[Buckeye Steve]

"Error Message: Could Not copy Cline"

Whatever the Hell that means???

Other than that, it is sitting being charged, as we speak....... Should I let it update my account information with the new device info?? I don't want to take ANY chances with this one!!!

 

[canderson]

You had shut Home down with the 'x' in the upper right corner before starting the backup, right? It sounds like the cline.dat file from your unit's map folder was not backed up successfully for some reason. Did other files AFTER that back up successfully - in other words, the backup didn't stop there, did it?

We need to be sure that everything is backed up before moving along with any connections with Home that will be allowed to change data on your unit.

Take a look into the backup folder where your North American map resides. cline.dat would be by far the largest file in there if it had copied. [um, you didn't run out of disk space during the backup, did you?] The version I have is about 647MB. Try copying the contents of your unit's map folder to your PC backup's map folder one more time.

We need to make sure your backups are good before we proceed.

 

[Buckeye Steve]

OK, everything is backed up....no apparent issues. Amazingly enough the unit came re-furbished, with no map installed. Shocking!

I now have a backup (via Windoze) of the unit, as it originally came.

Unfortunately I had to contact TomTom, again by phone, to register my 5th TomTom and get a current map.

That being done, I created a second backup on my PC named TomTom original with maps.

OK....Let's go to the next step......

For those of you following this thread.... we may offer popcorn and refreshments at intermission!

 

[canderson]

OK, everything is backed up....no apparent issues. Amazingly enough the unit came re-furbished, with no map installed. Shocking!

Eh?

The cline.dat file that didn't want to copy for you is a file FROM the map folder, and when that didn't copy for you (above), the map folder was evidently there or there wouldn't have been a cline.dat file to complain about. We really should sort that out.

Please help me understand ... when you powered up the unit that they just sent to you, it was the unit that advised that there was no map?

I now have a backup (via Windoze) of the unit, as it originally came.

Much appreciated, and that will make my next question relevant. Do you see a folder in your original backup that appears to be your North American map folder? I ask because I've never heard of a refurb unit being shipped without a map - although they are often a version downlevel. It sounds as though you received a unit with a corrupt cline.dat file that Windoze couldn't copy during your first backup. That would also show up as a map problem when you first turned on your unit - quite possibly a "No Maps Found" error.

My concern isn't that your latest unit came "without" a map, but that there was something not right with the one that was loaded (sigh).

Unfortunately I had to contact TomTom, again by phone, to register my 5th TomTom and get a current map.

That being done, I created a second backup on my PC named TomTom original with maps.

OK....Let's go to the next step......

By now, your unit is considerably different than what was shipped to you. MVL had you change your firmware (and as a result, your bootloader), and you've now got a map that probably isn't the same as what was shipped (whatever was shipped).

For the time being, DO NOTHING that will change your unit's contents and let's see how it operates for you for a few days.

I take it that Windoze did not complain about any of the backup process this last time after you had Home load the new map?

 

[Buckeye Steve]

Eh?

The cline.dat file that didn't want to copy for you is a file FROM the map folder, and when that didn't copy for you (above), the map folder was evidently there or there wouldn't have been a cline.dat file to complain about. We really should sort that out.

Please help me understand ... when you powered up the unit that they just sent to you, it was the unit that advised that there was no map? No, it was the Customer Service Person, combiined with the fact that the backup I tried to do was incomplete, that led me/us to see that there was no map installed.

Much appreciated, and that will make my next question relevant. Do you see a folder in your original backup that appears to be your North American map folder? No, again. I/we looked all through the original "G" folder (TomTom drive and found no such reference. I ask because I've never heard of a refurb unit being shipped without a map - although they are often a version downlevel. It sounds as though you received a unit with a corrupt cline.dat file that Windoze couldn't copy during your first backup. That would also show up as a map problem when you first turned on your unit - quite possibly a "No Maps Found" error.

My concern isn't that your latest unit came "without" a map, but that there was something not right with the one that was loaded (sigh).

By now, your unit is considerably different than what was shipped to you. MVL had you change your firmware (and as a result, your bootloader), and you've now got a map that probably isn't the same as what was shipped (whatever was shipped).

For the time being, DO NOTHING that will change your unit's contents and let's see how it operates for you for a few days.

I take it that Windoze did not complain about any of the backup process this last time after you had Home load the new map?

Correct.

See my comments, posted in Red.

Taking the newest unit out for a test drive tomorrow...... we'll update with the outcome for everyone.

 

[Buckeye Steve]

Well, so far so good, after one day.

It's a shame that I am afraid to update, and get some POI's. But.....

I am curious as to why, whne I plug my TomTom in to the USB port Windows Explorer opens with the contents of my G drive........

 

[dhn]

Connect your unit to the computer. Don't start Home.

With Explorer, highlight the drive shown by the unit. Right click. Properties. Autoplay. As you scroll through the various types: Music, Pictures, Video, Mixed. (especially the last one). You will likely see that you've set it to open with Explorer. You can change to prompt every time, do nothing, etc.

 

[canderson]

Well, so far so good, after one day.

It's a shame that I am afraid to update, and get some POI's. But.....

I am curious as to why, whne I plug my TomTom in to the USB port Windows Explorer opens with the contents of my G drive........

Your TomTom looks like any other USB drive - thumb drive, digital camera, etc. As dhn noted above, you can control what happens when a USB drive is connected.

Keep us posted on your progress.

 

[mickeybutler]

Should I connect to Home

After reading about all the problems with Home, I have downloaded it but after owning my xl330 S for over 2 weeks and road-testing it locally but successfully, I am reluctant to use TT Home for anything. If I connect my device when Home asks me to, is there any danger and is there any purpose in doing it? I know not to backup on that site, but I may want to remove some of the foreign voices thinking I would gain space. Please let me know if there are any other reasons. I probably will want newer maps and POI's at some time, but I don't want to mess up what's working OK. The old saying, if it ain't broke don't fix it. One problem I have is I can't follow the instructions I've seen to backup using wndows explorer, and I also don't want to have to use the backup if I have it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[canderson]

One problem I have is I can't follow the instructions I've seen to backup using wndows explorer, and I also don't want to have to use the backup if I have it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Let's start with your first issue, and then perhaps you'll be more comfortable with the second. Having a decent backup is never optional.

OK - refresh my memory. What operating system are you running?

 

[Buckeye Steve]

Mickey,

FWIW,these guys here are GREAT! All the problems I have had and I just wish I had known about this forum before going through all of the angst with TomTom!

Stick with their help and suggestions! I'm going to learn, right along with you.

Steve

 

[mickeybutler]

Operating system is windows XP. I currently use Firefox as my browser. My problem, I believe, is that when I go to windows explorer I don't see the things I'm supposed to click on as suggested in this forum. What's next?

 

[mickeybutler]

Hi Buckeye Steve: When you got updates from Tomtom, did your get map updates and POI's that were more current than those that came with your unit. If so, was it worth the effort? I ask because I bought a XL 330-s 2 weeks ago, and I'm wondering if my stuff could be appreciably updated.