Broken Nokia Maps - is it just me?

Tut tut Steve, if you were really prepared, you would have a backup satnav program on your phone.

Oh yeah, an app called Garmin Mobile XT - very useful.

Now I think about it, Im sure I saw a similar problem on another forum.

I think they wiped Maps (both app and the data) and reinstalled, and it worked.

I'm having the same problem n95 8gb v30, I've reload the maps, that seems to help it but then it went coocoou again. I've reloaded the maps again, cross my fingers. I thinks its the maps or the program writing to the maps. I've check nokia forum nothing there yet.

Nokia maps is great when you want to find something in a city. The online nature of the POIs and the search both work well. However as a navigation tool I think it's utterly outclassed by TomTom and the likes.

That is not new to me...

I think the problem is in the maps... We download a new version (obviously better) and we lose roads, connections between roads and much other information...

I have learned some tricks to work with Nokia (and especially with Maps 2): I use 2 phones E50 and E90 (the last one for all the work, the first one for calls); I do the new map data download to E50, if they are ok, I repeat the download to E90 and use them in my daily trips...

I use Maps 2 (I am in Portugal) everyday with no major problems... Actually I think Maps is the best navigation software for mobile phones...

I agree with MaciekBora, use Garmin MobileXT. beats Nokia Maps easily, presently use it on E71, previously on E90.

Steve - I recently participated in a very small group (6 people) market research session that had a Nokia Maps team member present, and was part of a very few sessions in a very few countries (i.e. our opinions were going to potentially be very influential) looking at the latest version of Nokia Maps 2.0. We had to do fairly extensive prep for this, trying various features out over a week or so. We also all happened to be power users, of both smartphones, and S60, and Nokia Maps, and other mapping solutions (e.g. TomTom, Google, and others).

We spent a couple of hours going in depth (with us giving demos) of what we thought was wrong with Maps. General conclusion? There is a LOT wrong with Maps. I came in with a list of 26 separate points (that I passed to the Maps team) where Maps was significantly (not slightly) deficient.

Maps has HUGE potential, because it is being preinstalled on so many phones, and because it has Nokia behind it. But right now, even in 2.0 it is no more than an alpha-level release. The UI is VERY poorly thought out and designed, in comparison with competing products. There are multiple bad bugs, and many minor ones. It is, quite frankly, shoddy and unusable, if one has access to competing products.

That said, I would like Maps to be the winner, to be the best there is, and so it should be. But there is quite some way to go. It is typical of Nokia that this has a "2.0" moniker. It should be 0.2
However, there is light on the horizon - Maps 3.0 will address (hopefully) many of these concerns, and although I would avoid Maps currently in favour of TomTom for driving and Google Maps for walking, I will take a fresh unbiased look at 3.0 when it eventually arrives.

We all know that Maps routes us in some pretty creative ways at times, but I've noticed it's a lot worse lately. Thank goodness I have a general idea of where I'm going. I was headed to the freeway the other day. I needed to go south, towards the shore. Maps wanted me to head north on the freeway. That's a pretty bad mixup. I don't know how much I would trust it in a really unfamiliar place.

That said, I have not experienced many problems with the maps themselves.

Steve, I experienced a similar issue a while back. In my case, most of the roads were treated as pedestrian areas only, so normaly car navigation was impossible.
From what I was able to gather, the preloaded map data was somehow messed up - reinstalling via maploader fixed the issue.
On a side note, downloading the map data directly off the servers and putting it on the memory card seems to increase the chance of this issue happening.

Totally agree that Maps 2.0 is rather 0.2
Using gmaps, tomtom and garmin mobile xt instead

Steve
Updated N82 with v30.0.019 which reverts to Maps v2.0_2602 and it all went pear-shaped with application freezing, necessitating removal of the battery. Probably unusually I was using SIM without GPRS data connection here and the solution was to disable "Assisted GPS' feature.

I used Maps 2.0 recently in Croatia and yesterday in my city (Rome) without any problem. The navigation has been fluid and the instructions were perfect. I have also Garmin XT but I think it is too slow in navigation mode.
I have a N95-1 with fw20 and I upgraded manually to maps 2.0 then I downloaded the new maps. Perhaps your problem is due the version of Maps you have in the new fw or the problem is the fw itself.

Regards
Umberto

We have the same problem with the New Zealand maps.

I used the navigation on Maps yesterday to get me from home down to a town in East Sussex. It took me down all the one track and narrow country lanes instead of doing the simple thing and following the A275 all the way there. I wasn't very impressed!

Yes Mapperz has experienced this lately, there seems to be an interruption in the nokia maps servers when downloading to the memory card.
On the N82 the files seem to be missing even when the download is complete.

Maybe this will be fixed with a firmware update. Reports say that there is a newer version for the N82. But yet to be convinced. NSU says no.

http://blogsearch.google.co.uk/blogsearch?hl=en&client=news&q=n82+firmware+update&ie=UTF8.

Mapperz
http://mapperz.blogspot.com/

Mapperz

there is a new firmware update for the N82 it is V30.0.019 but it is only available at present for the UK CV Sim Free Product codes 0558756 & 0558752

It does add Nokia Maps 2, but not the latest version.

steve, ever tried the free nav4all.com? you will be surprised! check it out!
nokia maps is crap. don't waste your time with it.

I live in a region of Norway where I have to use several ferries. Nokia maps does not know about these ferries and is unable to use them in routes. For my purpose Nokia Maps are unusable.

Same (similar?) problem here in Poland. Nokia Maps 1.0 had my street, Nokia Maps 2.0 shows it like it is under construction (only half of the street is showing). So, for me Nokia Maps 1.0 was better.

You say maploader offered you new maps? When should it tell me if my maps are out of date??

How do i check etc?

I just grabbed the latest version of Maps from maps.nokia.com and installed over the top of the v30 firmware version... and no difference. So I think we can say that it's definitely the maps that are broken. Sigh.

Also, MapLoader is a bit broken here, refusing to see my memory card in any of my phones (Windows sees it OK as disk F)...

8-(

I had serious problems with maps 2 and the navigation. The GPS dropped out, at least on Maps it did all the time, and then it crashed everytime it tried to access the internet. Also the navigation was very questionable, and hard to work out how to do it. Also the traffic didn't work.

In short it was awful and I want my money back!

David - Lightwater

On my N82 v20 I had similar problem after I updated Maps from version 1 to 2 and reloaded the maps. The navigation would not find any route and zooming out on the map would generate random lakes where there really were none. Removing and reloading the maps once again after a couple of days fixed everything for me.

I quess Nokia had some faulty maps on the servers at some point.

steve, have you tried to delete the cities file from your memory card and start over again? if it is the maps this will clear them out and just download them again

oh boy, where 2 start..
been using nokia maps since it existed. IT seems everytime there's an "update" they bloody remove a feature <grrrr>

First they remove the "tracking" during route preview so you can't see your live position WHILE seeing the planned route, then they stuff up the POI search. NOW I've got dots and "pedestrian only" parts on random roads (including primary roads and even highways!). Routinely I'll be told to turn around DURING a straight drive and then to put the cherry on top route summary starts to leave out critical turns!!!

What began as rare irritation now is forcing me to pull off the road and swear at the greed and idiocy of the finnish ego that is nokLa

in case you didn't know you could report and add POI via navteq mapreporter. Well in any case they actually get back to me (sometimes 12 months later) and tell me "we're not adding businesses at this time" -- this is referring to GAS STATIONS!!!!

<sigh>

just carry on, leave the users behind.. see where it gets you, they never learn

Same experience with Maps 2.0 and Australia. Roads look great when used as an atlas, pedestrian navigation works fine, but try to get driving directions and it all goes to pot. The software gets stuck on "calculating route" and the streets go all thin/thick as you've described.

Well, I wiped my map data (MapLoader started working again!) and redownloaded all maps from scratch - and all is well again.

It seems that Nokia had corrupt maps for much of the world for a short time on their servers but that this has now been resolved....

Problem over... until the next time!

I always used Maps 1 on my E61 with a bluetooth GPS without issues, except for the odd wierd bit of routing. Recently I upgraded to the N82 and immediately installed Maps 2. Then I went for a ride to my parents place, a journey of about 60km, with both phones navigating me there for a bit of comparison.

The E61 did a faultless job of it but the N82 spent the vast majority of the time "Calculating A New Route". If I'd not known the route I would have been screwed.

I've been thinking that I should format the N82 and live with Maps 1 but with the new firmware that's out I think that'll probably not be possible and I'm going to be stuck with Maps 2...ie no useable GPS at all.

I don't want to buy some 3rd party mapping application for this phone. Thats really not the idea I had when I aquired the N82.