[Impala]

@lundavra - you need to provide some more details of your car and exactly what you did in the download/update process. First off, I assume that you didn't actually use a CF (Compact Flash) card and that you mean an SD (Secure Digital) card. Although both contain flash memory, a CF card is quite different from an SD card and will not even fit into an SD card slot.

I see from you signature that you joined the forum in Dec 2020 but that doesn't really define when your car was built, which in turn will determine what type of infotainment system is fitted. But reading between the lines, I will hazard a guess that your car has an Mib2 infotainment unit with a CD player and twin SD card slots in a sub-system fitted in the glove box. This can be easily confirmed if you are able to remove the SD card(s) and verify that one is a genuine VW branded card with SatNav data.

Didi you download the new map data manually from the VW web site, or did you use the VW DiscoverCare utility ? Did you use a Windows or Mac computer to do the download and copy the files to the SD card ? If you did this manually, which map bundle did you download and what is the full name of the file. After unpacking the compressed download file (eg using 7-Zip), did you copy the data to the original VW branded card (after deleting the old files or formatting the card ?). Although you can copy the data files to a non-VW card, it will not work in the infotainment system.

If you can provide answers to the above, then we can start looking at what might be causing your problem.

 

[Impala]

Hi Martin - your reply reveals a number of issues, so here goes ...

1. SD1 and SD2 in glove compartment below the CD player and two more to the left

   A minor point, but the ones 'to the left' are just for storing cards and are non functional.
   

2. EUR_8PR073_FCT3WS-211G8_Offline_Update.tar

   That is actually for the later Mib3 system and is not compatible with your Mib2. You need to select an earlier model year then select one of the Europe bundles.
   
   Go to this web site ... Default Title
   
   Select 'T-Roc from 2019' and 'Discover Media'
   
   Now select a map bundle ... Note, Bundle 1 requires a 32GB card but your original VW card is only 16GB, so Europe Bundle 2 (DiscoverMedia2_EU1_1910_V16.7z) or Bundle 7 (DiscoverMedia2_EU-DL3_1910_V16.7z) will probably be the one to choose. The countries included are shown on the maps and are also listed.
   
   1910 v16 is currently the latest version.
   
   
3. As you have already picked up from my previous post, only official VW cards will work. This is due to special identification data in the card circuitry which is not removed by formatting and cannot be added to non VW branded cards. I have reformatted and overwritten my cards for many years without any problems, and before doing so you can simply copy all the files from the card to your computer if you want to keep a backup.
   
   If you don't want to use your current card, you can find VW cards on sale on Amazon or eBay. MAke sure you buy a 16GB or 32GB card and don't worry about what if any map data comes already on these cards, as you should format (use FAT32 or extFAT format) the card before copying your new map data.
   
   VW dealers will update your map data but will charge you for doing so. They will also sell you a new SD card, but probably charge £100 or more, but the ones on Amazon and eBay start around £20 .
   
   

 

[Impala]

As I mentioned I have a spare VW card so can use that - About a year ago I tried to update, failed so just bought an update online so I can use my original card without risking compromising the updated one I bought.

OK, so whichever card you choose to use, these are the steps to follow;

• The card should have a small slide switch on the side for write protecting the card. First, slide this AWAY from the Lock position.
• Insert the card into your Windows computer and quick format the card as FAT32. It doesn't matter if you give the card a label or not.
• Locate the downloaded .7z file (eg DiscoverMedia2_EU1_1910_V16.7z) on your computer. Right-click on the file and select '7-Zip > Open archive' in the context menu which appears. When 7-Zip opens, there should be a single folder named 'maps' shown.
• Click once on the 'maps' folder to select it and then click the 'Extract' button on the tool bar.
• A 'Copy' pop-up window will appear with a text box labelled 'Copy to:'
• Delete anything already in this box and enter the drive letter of the target SD card on your computer (eg E:\), then click OK
• Once the extract is complete, unmount the SD card before removing it from the drive on the computer, then slide the switch to the Lock position.
• Fit the card in either drive slot in your car and switch on.
  

NOTE: When you select the .7z file, it is important that you select 'Open archive' in the 7-Zip context menu and do NOT select 'Extract files...' or any of the other 7-Zip 'Extract' options as doing so will create a folder with the name of the .7z file (eg DiscoverMedia2_EU1_1910_V16) on the SD card and then extract the 'maps' folder into that. The 'maps' folder MUST be in the top-level (root) of the SD card otherwise the car will not find the map data. The good news is that if you do find 'maps' has been placed inside another folder, you can simpy drag the 'maps' folder and drop it into the top level of the SD card, then delete the now empty erroneous folder.

 

[Impala]

FAT32 format 🤔

If you can't format the card try the other vag SD card you have.

I never format my card, just delete previous files then add the new nav files.

I alway do a quick format as it is much much faster than Windows deleting files & folders. Sometimes, I use a command prompt (DOS) window and use 'rd /s /q e:\' assuming my card is the E: drive at the time ... that's quickest of all.

 

[Impala]

This should fit, unpacked into a spare folder


View attachment 4579

Like @Vernerbongo2 , I usually extract to a local temp folder and then just copy & paste the 'maps' folder to the card. Doing it that way means that if there is any problem writing to the card then you don't have to go through the 7-Zip extract again.

Your problem sounds like a hardware issue if the card isn't 'ready'.

 

[Impala]

Another suggestion ... try copying the 'maps' folder from your computer to a non VW branded SD card, eg Lexar or SanDisk. It won't work in the car, but at least it will show whether the problem is with the VW cards or the SD card drive in your computer.

Also, make sure that the SD drive is not set to use write caching. To check, insert and SD card into the drive then click on the search tool (magnifier) on the Windows task bar and type Computer Management and the select and run the app shown in the search results. When Computer Management opens, expand the Storage branch in the tree shown in the left-pane, then click on Disk Management. When the disk details appear in the centre (main) pane, right click on the drive corresponding to the SD card and select Properties in the pop-up menu. Finally, in the properties panel, select the Policies tab and check the caching options. See the screen shots below, but bear in mind the the logical drive letters and disk numbers will probably be different on your computer. In my case, my SD drive is shown as Disk 2, and make sure you examine the properties of the disk and NOT of the partition or logical drive (D: in my case).

 

[Impala]

@lundavra - you didn't say if you managed to copy the 'maps' folder from your computer to the SD card without error.

To answer the points you raised ... read on.

I tried my SanDisk 128GB SDXC card
...
I did not get an option to format as FAT32

MS Windows will only offer FAT32 for SD cards up to 32GB. Above that, it will offer exFAT and NTFS. I believe the VW Mib2 and Mib3 systems will work with exFAT but I'm not sure about NTFS and would neeed to check as I can't recall if I've fitted an NTFS formatted card.

When I look at Computer Management
...
There is no Policies tab?

You have selected the properties of the logical drive H:

If you read my post above again, you will see I specifically warned against doing that. So you need to right-click on the 'Disk 4' tile as circled in this image and select properties ... that is where you will find the Policies tab.

 

[Impala]

I got some 32GB cards and tried one, just the same.

I think I will just have to buy an update.

What do you mean by 'the same' ?

We know that generic SD cards won't be recognised by the car's infotainment system, so do you mean that you got 'the same' device not ready or similar error message when simply trying to copy the 'maps' folder from the computer to the SD card, or when using 7-Zip and extracting directly to the SD card ?

If the problem is with your computer, can't you try a different computer ? Seems a bit drastic paying over the odds to buy a card from VW which may not even have the latest map data.

 

[Impala]

Car displays Navigational Database not found (or something like that).

Someone asked that I try a standard (non-VW) memory car.

I do have another PC so I can try with that but not optimistic. I might also try copying the contents of my working card in case whatever VW do to them has been corrupted.

The protection employed by VW is in special hardware registers in the card electronics and is in an area which can't be overwritten by formatting or writing data. Also, this does not interfere in any way with the operation of the card when attached to your computer and it is highly unlikely that you could have damaged it in some way. Try doing a FULL format of the VW card(s) using either FAT32 and accepting the default block size (Windows should detect the capacity of the card and offer the format types it supports and adjust the default block size accordingly). A quick format simply rewrites the directory tables rendering the old files inaccessible, but you need to do a FULL format to actually clear the entire card, not just the directories, and reconstruct all the data blocks, which should correct any which have been corrupted.

I apologise if my earlier posts weren't clear, but my suggestion to try a non-VW card was ONLY to test that the SD drive on your computer wasn't causing the device not ready message when extracting the data using 7-Zip. The fact that you did this and got as far as trying it in that car, despite that being pointless, suggests that the extract and write to the SD card was successful.

There are probably dozens of people on this forum who download map updates and copy them to their VW SD cards. The process is intended to be available for customers to do their own updates and VW have even published a guide (I've attached 2 versions, but they are essentially the same).

 

[Impala]

@lundavra
Depending on you internet connection the download process may have been interrupted which will cause some "holes" in the data for the maps. Basically you have corrupted segments within the files of the map data.
The use of a 3rd party download manager will prevent this from happening, as it will pause the process if there are breaks while you downloading.

Once the files are downloaded you then follow the process to unZip and transfer to the VW original SD card. Before you clean anything off the VW SD card copy its contents to your computer as you may need to restore them later if everything turns to a brown colour.

I have had the same issue you are describing where the vehicle's main screen can't find the contents to allow an update to go ahead - (MIB2 Discover Media in a Golf 7 using VW SD card).

To find a suitable download manager just search and see what is better for your system and needs. You should find heaps of free ones that are fine.

None of that should be needed, apart from the backup which has already been advised. Certainly a download manager is not needed in this instance, and I don't know if the VW server even supports stopping and resuming downloads.

The map update consists of a single large file ( a 7-Zip archive) which will be about 6 or 7GB and does take some time to download, so probably best to make sure the computer doesn't go to sleep, but if the download is interrupted then the entire 7-Zip archive will be corrupted and not individual files within it.

A simple check is to right click on the .7z file, expand the 7-Zip section of the pop-up menu and then click on 'Test archive'. That runs a full check on the integrity of the .7z file, and if it tests OK then there were no problems with the download and the archive should be good to use.

The issue here is that the 7-Zip extract failed due to a 'device not ready' state, but there were prior attempts using non-VW branded SD cards which will not work even with a perfect download, extract and writing the data to the card.

 

[Impala]

That is correct, unfortunately. I had to set up an account to update my Passat maps.
Apart from obtaining more data about customers, I'm wondering if its to prevent non VW from getting free map updates - seem to remember reading that Skoda folk have to pay for updates, but used the VW update site (unsure about rest of VAG group).

Two points -

a) By having to select your country during the login (which is stored in your account) I noticed that the web site now limits map coverage for the Mib2 DiscoverMedia to your own geography. So for UK, this means that only Europe bundles are offered for download. Previously, we could download maps for North America. South America, Australia etc.

b) My guess is that sooner rather than later, this will move to a subscription model. Already the Car-Net Guide & inform and Security & Service Plus services are offered as 1 or 2 year subscriptions, after the initial 3 year from time of purchase expires.

 

[Impala]

Think I'd use Waze or similar before paying VW for their SatNav.

When downloading for my Passat, I also noticed the maps were now provided by TomTom. Seem to think they used to use a VW owned firm - can't remember it's name. Probably got fed up of complaints about errors in mapping and speed limits...

I'd hoped the mapping and speed limit errors would be fixed by the move to TomTom but they just seem the same. Both probably get the raw data from the same source.