Hi.

So, I have a TomTom Go 520 Traffic. Quite useful, I bought it because of a specif job I was doing in London last year, and it's been pretty handy.

Today I need to go somewhere in Bristol I've not been to before. So I type in the postcode, and it's not recognised. After confirming that the postcode is correct, I decide to finally get around to updating the maps as I haven't done this since I bought the thing. £55.60 and twenty minutes later, I have a shiny new current map set in the thing.

However, it still doesn't recognise the (valid) postcode, and more to the point, HAS DELETED ALL MY DATA! All my favourites, setting, etc, gone. Their updater wasn't decent enough to mention this would happen, or give me a chance to save it for later restoration. It did tell me to back the new update up, which presumably has deleted everything from the previous backup.

I sent a complaint via their online support form, pointing out that it would at least be polite to warn that this would happen. Before I sent the complaint, I checked their FAQ list, and this problem was not in it. As soon as I submitted the query, the automated system gave me an automatic reply, which of course included the steps required to prevent this from happening by copying the specific file by hand, crucially before doing the update.

So they know this will happen, their installer is sufficiently broken to allow it to happen silently, and no mention is made anywhere before it happens. Good work, guys.

Twats.

Sorry, it was really annoying and I needed to get it off my chest

pca

Note - Remembering I'm a bit rabid about backups nowadays, I managed to find the appropriate MapSettings.cfg file in my system backup archive. It took a while to figure out where to put it, as the online documentation is obviously for a much older version of the software, but it seems to have worked. So that's good.

Doesn't invalidate my rant above, though

I'm with you - only I'm stupider. I hadn't backed up the tom-tom files, and I lost all my favourites and settings.

But even worse


I did it again the next time I updated the maps!

AAAAgggghhh!

numpty

Man. That's a QA problem, plain and simple.

They have terrible use cases.

My bet is that QA is either not, or perhaps too tightly, integrated with engineering. They either received a push back when they reported the implementation stinks or they passed it "as designed" ignoring the fact it was poorly/incorrectly designed.

By and large, Tom Tom software kind of sucks. To be fair, I only have experience with their PDA software, but the screenshots I've seen of their dedicated hardware seem to indicate the software is the same.

I think it's a real shame that Google didn't buy either Telenav (acquired by Tom Tom) or Navteq (acquired by Nokia). They're pretty much the two biggest map providers and the situation for the GPS market could take a bleak turn when/if licensing fees skyrocket.

What are you comparing it with? I find it easy to use and uniform across the range. The other stuff (Garmin, Navtek) seems retarded by comparison.

For me, Tomtom is the only choice. The PC software isn't great but I certainly haven't witnessed the problems that Patrick and Rory have had when updating/replacing maps.

The Garmin Nuvi is the last Nav-style GPS I've used for an extended period of time. It also has a ton of quirks but was mostly ok. Both of those companies IMO have really shitty software design though. It's unfortunate that being the best in this industry is still only the best of the worst.

One example of a Tom Tom PITA is when driving from here (in Canada) to a location in the US. Even though the maps for both may be loaded, you can only navigate a route up to the border. You then have to make a new route once you're in the US. In other words you can't pick a destination unless you're currently within the same country. This means its software is not suitable to pick the best border crossing location for you when multiple may be available.

I hate to say it, but my TomTom 100 software sucks. It's incredibly difficult to do simple things, like zoom in on my car on a map, to see what streets are around. It instead seems to zoom into a random portion of the map and I have to find myself on it.

Most of this I could deal with, but the total lack of 99% of all POI's or even a POI importer makes this device an epic fail. Granted, I bought the bottom end, and as such I figure I got what I paid for, but still...

I LOVED my Garmin 2710, but alas, the heat in my car finally killed the screen calibration to the point that I can no longer calibrate it at all, and it's interesting trying to guess where the letters really are on the screen when inputting a new address. Not to mention the last 2 rows on the right aren't pushable at all (They're calibrated somewhere off the screen).

I'm guessing you mean Tele Atlas, not Telenav.


This problem indeed existed with the very first versions of the maps they released with their TomTom GO range, and I agree it was a PITA. But they fixed that problem years ago and now you can use seamless maps without a problem. It works great.

I'll be the first to admit the TomTom software is badly designed though. Their HOME application sucks tremendously eg. And the problem Patrick experienced is too stupid for words. It has been reported to them for ages now yet it still continues to exist...

That's why my first advice to *any* new TomTom owner is always: before you do *anything*, make a complete backup of the thing by copy/pasting the entire contents of its internal flash/SD card to a safe location on your computer. Do this via Windows explorer as well, NOT via the backup option of the HOME software, because, as said before, it sucks. If something should go wrong, reviving your TomTom device is as easy as re-copying your 'backup' back to the device.

My brief experience with my Garmin Nuvi isn't exactly showing it to be much farther along than the Tom Tom. Its ability to navigate seemingly simple routes through local neighborhoods was surprisingly poor. It's clear the software is desperate to "snap" you onto the nearest road, which leads to unusual behavior when you leave the road to go in a driveway or something. I was in an apartment complex when I saved the location, and it's now convinced that the location in question is actually on the nearby freeway entrance ramp.

Part of the issue, I suppose, is that I've become spoiled by the iPhone. It's so much easier to type on the iPhone than the Garmin. Zooming and scrolling with gestures on the iPhone is so natural compared to monkeying with the Garmin's soft buttons. Apple really needs to engineer its own turn-by-turn nav software rather than just letting Tom Tom do the work.

I'd be amazed if someone at Apple hadn't had a quiet word with TomTom and said "If it ain't iPhoney it ain't getting approved"