LIVE Traffic error code 1506

[Michael Quinlan]

August 26 was the last day of my subscription before it mysteriously advanced to September 26. It also happened to be the first day I started getting error code 1506 when attempting to view traffic information. Additionally, it happened to be the first day of my vacation, which I'm ironically spending in Burlington, MA - a stones throw from TomTom's US headquarters in Concord, MA. Every time I are a sign for Concord I want to stop by TT HQ and smack someone upside the head.

To add insult to injury, they seem to have gotten monthly billing working, and on August they gleefully went me an email telling me that they successfully charged my credit card - for the services I am currently unable to use.

Before I call TT when I get home I want to find out if LIVE traffic has been working for anyone during this time period, so I can call BS when they tell me that their servers are down.

BTW, all other LIVE services appear to be working fine, including fuel prices.

 

[mvl]

LIVE traffic continued to work for me today. But I'm still on my original long-term subscription and it hasn't renewed for months.

Perhaps TT caught on to your "buy 1 month, get 1 month free" backdoor?

 

[Michael Quinlan]

I'm reluctant to opt for long term service because of my recurring frustration with TT, but it seems that short term service is the cause of a lot of this frustration. Maybe the long term cost is worth the reduced frustration in the long run.

Either way it seems a call to TT is required.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

LIVE traffic continued to work for me today. But I'm still on my original long-term subscription and it hasn't renewed for months.

Perhaps TT caught on to your "buy 1 month, get 1 month free" backdoor?

I forgot to say thanks for the quick response the other day. The following morning I called TT support, and naturally there wasn't much they could do for me considering I had already performed a soft reset and hard reset before calling them, and that I had no access to TomTom Home or a PC.

Then I remembered reading somewhere a while back about TomTom Buddies being related to a "fix". So I Buddies from the LIVE Services menu, then selected Update on the next menu, and after returning to the map screen, within a few minutes my traffic started working.

Traffic still gets the same error after a while, but starting and refreshing Buddies seems to clear it right up.

Surprisingly, they made no claim that the servers or services were down, and immediately acknowledged an issue with the 9.x software and LIVE traffic. Unfortunately, with regard to the latter, they seemed extremely unconcerned about the whole issue.

Now that I'm back home, I'll be calling them this week, with PC and Home ready to go.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

FYI - the 855 map update seems to have corrected my issue.

 

[JCE0591]

Similar Problems

I've had similar problems and have been hesitant to go with a long term subscription. I'm on my fifth warranty unit GO 740 Live since January and have probably only had a functioning unit for one month during that time period. I have been using the Buddies update the same as you, but have still needed it with 855 map. On a one hour commute, half the time I'm connected to the traffic and the rest not and having to re-update buddies to get it back. This is in the Los Angeles area.
As for the monthly charges, they billed me twice for August on my credit card, but TT only showed one charge on their end. I had to send in a copy of my credit card statement to prove it. They replied in and email that a credit should show up on my next billing cycle. I don't know if that meant on my credit card or they are applying it to the next month's services.
Since the 855 map update, I no longer get map share updates. I have a "map hasn't been updated in 20 weeks...map share updates temporarily not available" message on the TT Home screen. Haven't seen any posts with anyone else having this problem.
Love the unit when it works, but the whole experience is getting REALLY tedious.

 

[dhn]

Everybody is seeing the faulty Home error regarding mapshare after updating to 855. Disregard it..........

 

[JCE0591]

Thanks, I appreciate the info.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

I have been using the Buddies update the same as you, but have still needed it with 855 map.

Mine hasn't been as reliable as I originally thought. Sometimes it works on its own, sometimes I need to update my Buddies.

I'm keeping my eyes open for a software update, but even when one comes out I'll be hesitant to install it for fear of trading one problem I can deal with for a different one that I can't deal with.

 

[JCE0591]

I hear ya, I've had the same thought. I always make the Explorer complete backup to fall back on. Then I can pick between the lesser of two evils.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

Several days ago I "upgraded" from 9.054 to 8.371. Aside from an initial problem that I think was caused by TomTom's servers being down (NONE of my LIVE services worked), it's been working fine since. As much as I'm a glutton for punishment, I'm going to stick with 8.371 until something later than 9.054 is released.

 

[JCE0591]

I have tried the rollback to 8.371 a few times and my unit will not even try to login to the server with the user name and password. It ends up being a bear bones GPS. At least with the 9.054 I can update the buddies and bring the traffic back.

The overall traffic connection in Southern California has been very inconsistent and much worse than when I first purchased the unit, actually this is my fifth warranty unit - SIM card issues, replacements that didn't work out of the box, etc., at the beginning of the year. The other LIVE services are fine, but the traffic is very hit and miss. Seems like the unit has some kind of internal refresh and when it kicks in I lose the traffic, because when I go to update the buddies it hunts for the server first from buddies and then lets you do the update.

Along the fifth unit theme, I wouldn't accept a re-manufactured unit from them. The one they sent me as my second unit on a warranty replacement was in terrible shape, scratched screen and case, didn't work and ended up not even being on their list of re-manufactured units. This all meant re-shipping it back and waiting for it to get there before they would send a (new) replacement.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

If I recall correctly, I had the same issue with not being able to login or even get to the point of specifying my name and password. I was able to work around the problem by using "Operate my Go" in Home, and going to "My Account" on the last or second to last menu page.under Change Preferences.

 

[mvl]

I've noticed disconnects on 9.054 (I'll see if 9.058 is any better tomorrow).

I've found Weather wakes up the connections too, not just buddies (and Weather is on my quickmenu)

8.371 is more reliable, but you can't call a Google POI with 8.371. That improvement alone is enough to keep me on 9.05x.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

8.371 is more reliable, but you can't call a Google POI with 8.371. That improvement alone is enough to keep me on 9.05x.

Last time I had bluetooth enabled I had problems with frequent reboots followed by up to 30 minutes of no GPS signal. Are you not having ant bluetooth related problems?

I've had much better luck with 8.371 also. 9.x was working fine for me for over a week, and then came my monthly LIVE renewal date. I haven't gotten LIVE traffic 9.x to work reliably since.

I know you're on a 6 or 12 month LIVE plan that doesn't renew, and you haven't had the same problems. I'm considering switching to that too, but I'm reluctant to pay them for 6 or 12 months worth of service that's already not working for me. Even if I did do this, it would take at least a month to see any change because of the way the billing works - it doesn't actually expire until 1-2 months after you cancel, so I would have to wait that long before getting 6 or 12 months service.

 

[JCE0591]

No bluetooth problems.
I'll give the Weather a go, that would be quicker and easier than the Buddies route.
9.058 didn't correct the LIVE traffic issue for Southern California.

 

[JCE0591]

Rolled back to 8.371, had to restore default settings on TTH to allow 'Operate My Device' to work. After that I could input my username and password through TTH. LIVE Traffic has worked flawlessly since. It comes up within the first minute and I have had no connection/coverage dropouts during use. The unit is performing the way it did when I got the GO 740 LIVE last January.

The overall speed of moving between screens, etc. is much quicker than with 9.05x.