Converting "MapSettings.cfg" file

dhn · Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 12:54 pm Post subject:

I suggested that tool to a US Forum member and he reported that unfortunately the app did not work with the mapsettings.cfg file.
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David

Calomax · Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 1:54 pm Post subject:

Sorry Araseachran, I wanted to be sure I had it right.

Go to "BROWSE MAP", press "FIND", select "POI" (it's on the second page) then press the blue button between "FIND" & "DONE", Go to the second page and select "ADD AS POI". Then choose your POI Category.

Sorry, you will need to create the POI category first in "Manage POIs"
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TT Go Essential

Araseachran · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 28, 2009 Posts: 4

Calomax · Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 7:08 pm Post subject:

Araseachran · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 28, 2009 Posts: 4

Thanks, I'll try it out. At the moment I'm busy despatching the people who wrote the TomTom software to the lowest and nastiest circle of hell for eternity.

sdm197 · Lifetime Member Joined: Dec 06, 2004 Posts: 227

Bother!

"jurowla wrote:

From my backup (which you have of course!) I copied my old mapsettings.cfg file and (after saving the new mapsettings.cfg to my desktop) pasted it into the WE map folder.

Doing this will cause the famous "Looping" scenario so I opened up Home and using "Operate My Device" function I saved a random POI to "Add to Favourites" which effectively re wrote the mapsettings.cfg file into an acceptable format.

Disconnected the TT and Voila! all the old settings back in-place. If this does not work for you just put the saved mapsettings.cfg file from the new download back into the map folder.

This saved me having to reset all the camera warnings and kept my Favourites as well."

I just tried this on the new map downloaded today, and home says it cannot let me operate my go as its not the right software version, application version or there isn't an "R" in the month.

How can we get round this?

Its such a pain having to re enter everything manually

regards

SDM197.

mikealder · Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 5:43 pm Post subject:

Either wait until the new dll file is available for download so the opperate my go will work or follow the first post in this thread to convert your Favourites to a custom POI and from then onwards stop using Favourites - settig up the custom POI files doesn't take too long - Mike

aerotec · Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 8:29 pm Post subject:

Mike,

Now I have calmed down and stopped kicking my Tomtom Software Designer voodoo doll I have followed these instructions and made my POI list. Thanks for the guidelines.

From the post above I take it I will have lost my Speed Camera alerts and will have to sit and set them all up again. Mad

Rich

sdm197 · Lifetime Member Joined: Dec 06, 2004 Posts: 227

Hi Mike,

Actually because of the advice here, I no longer have favourites, I just have them as POI's the thing that I loathe doing is setting up all the speedzoned camera warnings, mine are the excellent ones from here the spoken ones, but its tedious to set them all up again.

This is why I was delighted to find the work around with "Operate my Go" which now does not work.

Regards

SDM197.

XssaCutOR · Lifetime Member Joined: Jan 02, 2009 Posts: 3

Mike,

Thank you for the detailed instructions, although I found that my latest map upgrade did not mess with my Favourites.

I have a couple of questions:
1. The POIEdit programme has now been superceded and does not seem to offer the editing capability. However, I had a copy of the older version, so I was able to use your tutorial. But the AutoUpdate feature lists pocketgpsworld.com for providing updates; this link does not work. Is there an alternative address/link?
2. Do you know how to get a copy if the TT Favourites Star to create a .bmp to replace the default red square used to show the favourites included in the _FAV file?

TIA

Richard

mikealder · Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 5:42 pm Post subject:

The POI file download system used by this site is no longer capable of being used with POIEdit for dynamic downloads, you can still use it to edit POI files and the MapSettings.cfg file.
As for the gold star icon it's available somewhere on the forum, I will find it later and post a link or e-mail you the file when I get home.
Welcome to the forum Richard, I hope you find it of use - Mike

GT-Force · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 16, 2005 Posts: 4

Hello everyone,

After reading this and other forum threads, I cannot believe that TomTom (or other GPS brands' ?) coders were this narrow-sighted, and they did not think of an easy way of transferring Favorites from one device to another. Grrrr

Indeed, this may discourage some people from buying a new GPS device. If they came up with a way of transferring your settings, such as favorites, from one GPS device to another they'd encourage potential buyers to buy their GPS! I sure would go for a brand that would allow me to transfer my settings from ANY GPS device the theirs! What do you think?

Anyway, I tried this Favorites-to-POIs conversion, and yes it works. But there's a reason for Favorites: They're your favorites which means that you'll use them frequently, and you'd like to access them fast. When you convert Favorites to POIs, yes, it is better than loosing or having to enter them one by one, but you will loose the convenience of fast access. Sad

So, here's what I did (and I am aware that it may not be easy to do for some people, hence the advanced editing in the subject):

I've downloaded and installed a free HEX editor (in this case, Tiny Hexer), and opened my MapSettings.cfg files from both (old One 3rd edition and new XL 335S) of my GPS devices. Then, I looked for patterns in the contents! It was easy to see that both files have 0400 DD0F 0000 BFB5 FAA0 at the beginning. This suggested that the files are most likely somehow compatible. After this "header", it looks like the file stores your home address, followed by your favorites and recent destinations. Then, I looked for a point where this pattern ended or changed, finding my home address again somewhere later in the file. Going back from the first letter of my address, comparing the two files, I've found where the similarity ended (for me, both files had 5187 as the last common part). Then, in my new file, I selected starting from the first different point following the header, until this last common part later in the file and deleted it, and then selected the same part in the old file and copied and pasted it into the new file (inserting it into the new file) replacing the part that I deleted; essentially replacing the part of the file which should contain only the favorites and recent destinations, leaving the rest (which must be containing other map settings, such as color profiles, vocies, etc) alone.

When I disconnected and restarted my device, it did not pass the splash screen Shocked

so I had to hard-reset it and connect it to my computer (so, do not disconnect and restart it!). Once it connected to the computer, I launched TomTom Home, and went into "Operate my device" (I read this somewhere online), and tried navigating to one of my favorites, which I could see that they transferred! I also added a new favorite since someone said that this should rewrite the file mapsettings.cfg, correcting any mistakes in the file.

Finally, I disconnected it again, and then it rebooted just fine, retaining the settings (such as color and voices) for the new device and its map, but also showing my favorites from my old device! Very Happy

Yes, it was a major hassle, and yes GPS software engineers MUST include, not only transferring settings from one device of the same brand to another, but also converting and transferring them from one brand device to another (well, at least your favorites and custom POIs, since they only need to contain the name and coordinates)! How hard can this be really?

Anyway, if you feel adventurous (like I did), feel free to try some HEX editing, but be aware that you may risk not being able to boot your device (like it happened to me). Proceed with caution, and of course, I do not accept any responsibility if you brick your GPS or mess it up somehow.

Good luck!

Andy_P · Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2009 6:50 pm Post subject:

Nice bit of detective work!

But wouldn't it have been easier just to convert your "Favourites" POI entries back to real Favourites using the normal menus? Laughing

(I usually use: Browse map / Find / POI / Blue cursor / Add as Favourite, but I'm sure there are other ways)
sure it takes a few button presses, but it's a lot quicker then messing with hex editors AND Home.

I try to keep the favourites down to half a dozen or so of the most recent places I need a lot, everything else goes into one or other POI categories.

Also, do you know about the "underscore" trick?
If you name your POI file of favourites "_Favourites" it will always appear at the top of the alphabetical list, which makes it a bit quicker to find.

GT-Force · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 16, 2005 Posts: 4

Yes, I do know about the underscore trick.

Well, if I had half a dozen Favorites, yes, what you suggested might have worked. But with the number of favorites that I have, it would take me long time converting them one-by-one from POIs to Favs. And, what's the fun in doing that tedious monotonous repetitive work, while you can play with a HEX editor ;)

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