How to back up the TomTom device to the computer.

mikealder

For quite some time TomTom devices have been shipped with no software disk, the only copy of the map is the one loaded to your device.

Should things go wrong, or through modifying/ customising your device you accidentally delete some files you must have a backup of the data to recover the situation.

The backup should be done before you do anything to the device, this way you can always recover the unit to the exact same standard it was when purchased.

You can either use your TomTom unit as a card reader or remove the memory card from the device and insert it to a card reader (this method can offer a higher speed).
In the case of the 700 or 910 device you have no option but to connect the device to the computer.

You can use the TomTom Home application to perform the back-up it is a simple as clicking the "Make Backup" button. Or you can use Windows Explorer to achieve the same data backup.

If using Windows Explorer please go to Tools/ Folder Options, select the "View" tab and make sure:

Show hidden files and folders IS Selected
Hide extensions for known file types IS NOT Selected

Create a folder on your PC, where you know you can find it again afterwards, the desktop is great for this, but you might inadvertently delete it if placed there.

Highlight all the files and folders on the TomTom card then right click and select "Copy" from the pop-up box.

Now go to your new folder created above open it, right click and from the pop-up box select "Paste" this will copy all the data from the card to the PC.

Once you have the data on the PC you can copy the backup data to CD of DVD - just in case (PC's do go wrong from time to time, at least with a removable disk you have independent data storage).

Users of the 910 device can use either method, but if using the TomTom Home method make an additional copy of the LoquendoTTS folder using Windows Explorer.

This is required due to the Home application messing up the capital letters in the folder names which results in an unusable part of the backup, basically if you only use TomTom Home and have to install the all important backup your Text To Speech won't work without messing around re-naming folders etc.
The easy way is to take a copy of the LoquendoTTS folder using Windows Explorer.

How to re-install a backup from Windows Explorer to your TomTom:

To re-install from a backup should the worst case scenario happen, simply copy all the files from your recent backup and overwrite those on your device using Explorer.

Click HERE to return to the FAQ page.

jymhall · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 22, 2008 Posts: 12

I can't restore my TomTom, I backed it up using tomtom homeAND onto an external disk.

When I try it says something about an error not to and when I copy the files over it says theres an error too.

I'm usng a mac mini and its a tomtom go 730

I was only updating the maps using tomtom home and they wouldn'y fit!!! I even deleted ALL my mp3s!

Andy_P · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 2:22 am Post subject:

Can you be a bit more specific about the error messages....

Cuddy · Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 7:29 pm Post subject:

I will be getting my new TT XL IQ Routes Regional in the next couple of days.
I intend, as advised by your good selves, to make a backup before I start downloading your Speed Cam databases etc.
I notice that the advice here was given in 2006 and recommends using Windqws Explorer to do this.
Has TT Home improved since then or should I heed your advice?

mikealder · Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 7:50 pm Post subject:

Follow the above advice before you do anything with the device, the TT Home application is still not trusted by most users of this forum - Mike

Cuddy · Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 9:55 pm Post subject:

Much appreciated.

rival · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 29, 2009 Posts: 4

I've read several times that I should be updating my TomTom One using Windows Explorer rather than relying on the TomTom Home backup utility.

If that is still recommended, please can someone advise how I can copy the twenty or so files that have names like "A*B*C*D*.E*F" (where * is a box in the Explorer file listing).

Because these files have non-ASCII characters in the filename, I get the following error message:

"Cannot copy file: Cannot read from the source file or disk."

I can copy everything else from the TomTom.

Grateful for any help,

James

chrisjr · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 26, 2006 Posts: 32

You have a corrupt device I am afraid. There should be NO files on the device with anything other than A-Z,a-x,0-9 in the file name. Plus the odd underscore and hyphen.

So any files with odd characters in them have to be corrupted in some way.

If the device is working OK then I would be tempted to copy all the files that you can copy then attempt to delete those with the odd characters. Though that might not be so easy, likely to get the same error.

I hesitate to suggest formatting the device. I also hesitate to suggest calling TomTom support, having had my fair share of what they laughingly call "customer service" but if all else fails.

Andy_P

rival · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 29, 2009 Posts: 4

Thanks for the responses.

Yes, exactly like that screengrab. (And I did mean to write backup not updating in original post).

The unit is a week old. I did one Backup using TT Home (where does it put that?) when I first got it, and then found all the oddly-named files when I used Explorer to try and copy the files across as recommended here.

Since it's working ok, I'm not keen to format the unit. But as long as those aren't important files, I guess the fact that I can't back them up doesn't matter, so I'll just ignore them as and when I backup the unit again.

aerotec · Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:52 am Post subject:

I am trying to resolve a freezing 940 and have this techno babble email with about 5 things to do to reset the device.

I worked through the list last night but stooopidly interpreted a "manual" back up as meaning to manually instigate a back up using TT Home. I then reformatted the device.

I then realised my error. I have managed to copy files back from the "Tomtom" backup folder in "My Documents" and seem to have it working again but when I go to do a Home restore at brings up an error message that:

Some volumes (for example a storage card) that were present during a previous back up are not currently present on your navigation device, and cannot be restored or backed up.

Any suggestions on the cause of this message? I have a 1Gb MicroSD in the unit and that has not been removed.

Andy_P · Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 12:06 pm Post subject:

To me, that message sounds like Home cannot find the location you told it to store TO on the PC, rather then where to put it back to on the TomTom.

Are you sure that you COPIED the files from Home's backup folder to My Documents?
If you MOVED them, then Home won't know where to find them.

There's not a lot of point copying them to My Docs anyway... The reason we suggest you do a manual backup using Windows Explorer is because Home has a history of not creating perfect backups. All you've done is make another version of the possibly suspect backup Home has now made.

But, PROBABLY the backup made with Home would be fine, if you leave it where it was.

Take a look at the FAQs on this site.
They should explain exactly how to make backups and how to manually re-install software.

aerotec · Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:56 pm Post subject:

Thanks Andy,

I just let Tomtom Home do a backup when I got the device and the default location for the file on my PC is My Documents/Tomtom/.

I have managed to restore the Home backup manually. If I had not had a back up and accidentally formatted my device would I have had to pay to buy new maps even though the device is 6 weeks old!

Andy_P · Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:10 pm Post subject:

Calomax · Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 9:06 am Post subject:

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