2019 - Map update available for NAV units!

gumbobtr said:

Mine was a USB 2.0 and it seems that it took about 60 to 75 minutes to write the drive. Copwriter, I would be curious to know if this updates the head unit firmware. If you have not had yours done with the dealer update last week can you check your Version info and see if it matches my 1st post?

Click to expand...

I haven't been back to the dealer since the day I took delivery of the car.

The Map Downloader application allowed me to transfer the files again, so I went with a 32GB USB 3.0 drive this time. It took about 1/3 the time the other flash drive (not sure what generation, but not 3.0) did.

Plugging in the prepared flash drive into the Forester USB slot immediately brought up the "Do you want to update?" screen (the one with red and green buttons, below). I also saw a notice that the infotainment system would be disabled during the update, so don't start this before you've heard the end of that "driveway story" on NPR.

The "map update" appears to refresh several aspects of the firmware. There were nine updates listed in the upload process, and only one was labeled "maps." It was the largest, the second-to-last to install, and the one that took the longest--at least ten minutes. The others took a few seconds only. The last update section was for Sirius/XM, and it went by so fast I barely had time to read it. The Sirius/XM update appears to have enabled some new channel and category listings I hadn't seen before.

I took a photo of the new software/map version screen, which appears to have an updated version number. Curiously, the map version number starts with "2017." I would have expected something more recent.

When the update was done, the head unit rebooted, and everything worked again, as expected. My radio station presets were still in place, as were my saved address destinations in the Nav system. The whole process took about 20 minutes.

Ok, kind of bummed out. Bought a 2020 Forester Touring and brought home from Wisconsin to Illinois on Monday, the 27th. Good thing I remembered where we lived, because the Navigation Map couldn't even find the street we lived on ... even though we've lived here four years.

The Tom Tom map installed didn't even have the street shown in our neighborhood.

Not to be deterred, I checked and found that my brand new Subaru, manufacturered on Jan. 20 in Japan, was delivered to me with old mapping software. Checking info, I found that Rel_UA.19.1.70 NAFTA was installed. So, I ran the map updater, and learned that the current version was Rel_UA.19.42.70 NAFTA .

So I downloaded it, installed on thumb drive, placed in car ... and like magic, all 9 updates were installed in less than 20 minutes.

Waited excitedly until system rebooted, clicked on navigation, saw the cursor on my my street ... but oh no, the street is drawn, but no name. Tried to set "home" to our address ... no joy, since the street is nameless. Had to set "home" to a nearby street and will have to try to remember how to get home from there by myself.

I've been looking high and low for a way to report a map error to the powers-to-be and can't find any info. I know I could call Subaru customer service ... but they aren't the map creators. I've helped Garmin and Google Maps add corrections to their maps. Have always thought Tom-Tom was not on par with them.

And now I have a brand new car that doesn't know where I live!