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Thread Author: tyrednemotional	Replies: 15

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New Thu 6 Oct 22 22:12

Volvo - ....A Few Less Chips - tyrednemotional

...I wish my car had....

On return from my three week sojourn sur le Continent, the initial year's subscription for my car's data SIM had expired, and there was a map update waiting for the built-in Satnav.

In anticipation of the SIM expiring, I'd bought a replacement from EE, at rather less than half the cost of continuing with the existing Vodafone SIM.

Maps can be updated OTA (subject to size) but I prefer to do them by download via the PC to a USB stick and update from that (rather more reliable, and the data is already paid for on the home broadband).

I decided, however, that updating OTA would be a reasonable test of the new connection, and updating the UK segment is not too data heavy.

So, I fitted the new SIM, and tested it was working by checking the online weather - all fine. Set off the OTA download, which counted up to 100%, but no subsequent update happened. Installation can take some time (for a single map segment it installs in parallel to the existing version, and only switches over at next engine off - it means mapping remains available during update. There is an accompanying "Installing" message, or more correctly, in this case, there wasn't). For the UK it's usually about 25 minutes.

The map didn't update, and a message appeared in the "download centre" saying "installing software", which persisted for 5 days!). Looking online, it is not entirely a rare occurrence, but the means of fixing it is not clear.

I finally cracked, and used the USB method, which successfully updated the UK map......but, the "installing software" message persisted.

Incidentally, the USB method installs a full 2.7GB map; OTA however uses 144MB of incremental change data.

I phoned the servicing dealer (they're the closest to me, aren't the selling dealer, and are in fact an authorised service dealer only, no sales). "Bring it in first thing tomorrow morning and we'll look at it straight away". So I did. It took 5 minutes for the tech to say "we've seen this before, and cleared it with a full Europe map update". The service receptionist said "you can leave it with us to do that if you want, but it will be a long job, or, given you know how to use the USB method, you can do it yourself, and if it doesn't work, we'll book it in for a longer look" - which, given the circumstances, I elected to do.

The full map download is 55GB! The Volvo servers are slow, and it took 6 hours (left to it's own devices) to download. Then copy to USB, verify, and stick it in the car.

It took quite a bit of fiddling to get the installation started ("go away, I'm busy" messages and the like) but eventually it started. Oddly enough, it was much quicker than a single 2GB or so map segment, and only took about 25 minutes for the whole thing. It did, however, completely disable Navigation and associated functions, so was patently using a different methodology.

Engine off, and on restart, the update of all European countries was complete.

....but, of course, the "installing software" message (along with an annoying circling icon) was still there. Something is borked and it looks like it will need a full day hooked up somewhere.

(The system doesn't take "push" updates OTA, only map and apps selected from in the car, so it isn't anything but some corruption from the first, stalled, attempt at map update).

Luckily, the car is still well in warranty, but sometimes I thing we've over-complicated things.