Satnav map update for 2017 model?

[DrivenToDistraction]

I got slightly caught out travelling down to London at the weekend when I discovered that there is a whole section of the M11 that my satnav doesn't know about ("Off road" displayed on dash for about 20 minutes). On the way south, it actually directed me off the M11 towards Huntington because it didn't know that I could just carry on! I hadn't realised that the native VW system was so out of date, so was looking to do an an update. For 2021 cars onwards, there is a diy procedure but for 2015-2020 cars this VW website says that map updates must be done at the dealership. Is this true?
https://www.vwserviceandparts.com/car-care/vw-navigation-map-updates/

I can see genuine VW microSD cards available online for about £45, but I guess that these may not work in my car?
I know I could just use Android Auto/Google maps but my phone wasn't plugged in when I ran into the problem!
I would like to get the native system updated if I can do it cheaply as I plan to keep the car for a few years yet.

Thanks, Phil

[madstaff]

Not sure about needing the dealership for this, ive always done it myself.

Create an account here - https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/en/myvolkswagen/navigation-map-update.html follow the prompts to select car, year, etc and headunit and see if yours comes up.

Download onto an SD card and install updates, be sure to format the card to the required format.

Edit - looks like a 2017 Golf with either Discover Media or Discover Pro have maps to download, latest update 27/11/23.

[BillSan]

Not sure about needing the dealership for this, ive always done it myself.

Create an account here - https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/en/myvolkswagen/navigation-map-update.html follow the prompts to select car, year, etc and headunit and see if yours comes up.

Download onto an SD card and install updates, be sure to format the card to the required format.

I've done exactly this for my daughter's 2017 Tiguan.   Sat nav maps all updated fine. 

[DrivenToDistraction]

Not sure about needing the dealership for this, ive always done it myself.

Create an account here - https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/en/myvolkswagen/navigation-map-update.html follow the prompts to select car, year, etc and headunit and see if yours comes up.

Download onto an SD card and install updates, be sure to format the card to the required format.

Edit - looks like a 2017 Golf with either Discover Media or Discover Pro have maps to download, latest update 27/11/23.

Many thanks. I suspected it would be a DIY job. I found my car year/system on the website and have downloaded the data (Euro countries - Bundle 1). Just now need to get a blank 32MB SD card.

It was interesting to note in passing that the map data used by VW is sourced from TomTom.

[BillSan]

It's a good idea to download the data to a new card rather than overwrite your old one.....then at least you can revert to that if it fails.

Alternatively copy the data from the old card to your PC, before you put the new map data on.

Good luck!

[Al1040]

Just a thought as you are proceeding with this, I am led to believe that you need a VW SD card as it has some sort of encryption on it? A normal bog standard SD card might not work, hence the high price for the VW ones.

[BillSan]

Just a thought as you are proceeding with this, I am led to believe that you need a VW SD card as it has some sort of encryption on it? A normal bog standard SD card might not work, hence the high price for the VW ones.

That makes sense, as I tried a new SD card initially but it did not work.  I then transferred the data off the VW card (as a back up!) and copied the new data on to it. 

It worked fine that way.

[madstaff]

My Nav Pro has no SD card installed, i only use an SD card as a means of updating the maps themselves.

The maps are uploaded to the internal HD in the headunit.

If there is no SD card installed you just copy the map data onto one and upload the new data.

[mcmaddy]

My Nav Pro has no SD card installed, i only use an SD card as a means of updating the maps themselves.

The maps are uploaded to the internal HD in the headunit.

If there is no SD card installed you just copy the map data onto one and upload the new data.

Nav Pro uses any SD card but Discover media units need a VW one with an encryption log on it 👍🏻

[DrivenToDistraction]

Nav Pro uses any SD card but Discover media units need a VW one with an encryption log on it 👍🏻
[/quote]

Interesting. That would explain why the official VW instructions for the Discover Media gen.2 maps update talks about the SD-CDA card (I have no idea what the CDA refers to) and recommends backing up the data from the existing card onto your computer, then reformatting it. Its just hard to imagine how any protection that VW has put on the disk can survive the reformatting process.

Anyway, when I re-read the instructions there was no mention of using a blank third party SD card. I had however already copied all the new map data onto a new SanDisk SD Ultra card so I may just try it tomorrow. If it fails, I will just go through the suggested procedure, but I would have liked to have kept the original disk intact.

PS. Just a note for anyone else trying this. The native file extraction facility that is part of Windows 11 file manager will not be able to extract the compressed file (.7z) supplied by VW. You will need the 7-zip utility itself or something (like Winzip) capable of unzipping 7z files.