July 9, 2008

TomTom full postcode update

In Misc, Technology | Tags: , , | 55 comments | permalink

Written by
The Monkey

So for a while now I’ve been struggling with the fact that my TomTom One Classic has only accepted the first part of a postcode, rather than the full thing. When entering a postcode I’ve only been able to add the part before the space (e.g. TS6) and then manually select the street. This was causing me no end of frustration, and it happened that a throwaway conversation with one of my colleagues here at the banana patch alerted me to the fact that something was wrong.

You see he also has a One Classic yet he can search against full postcodes. Very strange, thought I. And from a quick Google of the problem it appears that I’m not alone! There are quite a lot of people reporting the same problem. However help is at hand.

If you suffer from the same problem as I did then the solution can be found at http://www.tomtom.com/updates/great_britainpostal_all.zip. All you need to do is download the file and unzip it. Remove the SD card from your TomTom and insert it into a card reader, then run the setup.exe file that you’ve just unzipped. Follow the instructions on-screen and tell the program to update the memory card. Once the installation is done, pop the memory card back into your TomTom and you’re away. Full postcode searching goodness is now your to enjoy. Now you’ve got no excuse when you end up on the wrong street…

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55 comments for this post.

  1. Comment from Mike on August 16th, 2008 :

    This was a great help

    Thanks

  2. Comment from Tony on December 8th, 2008 :

    Absolute magic! I’ve been talking by E-Mail to TomTom for 2 weeks about missing post codes and getting nowhere. This fix worked instantly. Thanks for your help.

  3. Comment from Shaggy on January 24th, 2009 :

    Great help,

    Many thanks for the tip as TomTom’s site was of no help with such matters.

  4. Comment from phill everett on March 30th, 2009 :

    Great – worked like a charm on my GO 710

  5. Comment from Crockett on March 31st, 2009 :

    Problem solved. Thanks!

  6. Comment from Matt on April 18th, 2009 :

    Being doing my head in for ages,fantastic fix thankyou
    520T

  7. Comment from driss on April 30th, 2009 :

    thanks very much you saved me a lot of time take care

  8. Comment from Tony on May 12th, 2009 :

    Thanks for that. A great help.
    Worked on my HP PDA. Did not have to remove the SD card just ran the setup and selected Pocket PC and installed to SD card.

  9. Comment from sundar on May 26th, 2009 :

    Superb! My 1-month headache is gone now.
    Its strange that TomTom have the file on their website without mentioning it on support pages.
    Thanks

  10. Comment from Steve B on June 15th, 2009 :

    Thanks a lot – worked well.

  11. Comment from Kevin S on June 23rd, 2009 :

    Fantastic, months of pain and bum steers, sorted. Thanks

  12. Comment from Richard B on June 30th, 2009 :

    A+ searched for two days after update removed this feature on my 710.

    Fantastic cheers.

  13. Comment from Zaiti on June 30th, 2009 :

    u are a star!!!!!!! (my tomtom nearly learned how to fly)

  14. Comment from Ian T on August 3rd, 2009 :

    I thought I’d tried everything – BUT- this sorted it! Very many thanks

  15. Comment from Phil Pointon on September 5th, 2009 :

    Hi

    Great, having a real problem with only part Post codes after updating maps, now all solved, thanks once again

  16. Comment from vince on September 10th, 2009 :

    Hi
    Many many thanks you’re a star. problem solved.

  17. Comment from David on September 11th, 2009 :

    Excellent, thanks – why could tomtom not be as helpful!

  18. Comment from Andrew on September 13th, 2009 :

    This sounds great but not clear how to use to solve problem on a TomTom one attached to an apple mac. exe file will not run but TomTom supports mac

  19. Comment from The Monkey on September 22nd, 2009 :

    Hi Andrew. Unfortunately I can’t help as I’m not a Mac user myself. Perhaps someone else who finds this can help you out?

    Cheers
    The Monkey

  20. Comment from Nytin on October 10th, 2009 :

    HI i’ve recently bought a TomTom start. Would this update work for that!?

  21. Comment from lesley white on October 28th, 2009 :

    Thank you for the link to the postcode up date. It has been bugging us for years. I had to get a bigger SD card as the one that came with the Tom Tom Go is only 128MB and even stripping it down there was no room for the Postcode file. Whilst doing this I discovered that it must be an SD card and not the HD version as I have the very early TOMTOM. I backed up the card manually to a folder on my computer (having changed the settings to show all hidden files and folders) copied it all over to the new card via a card reader on a usb stick then after that I unzipped the postcode file on to the new SD card. Crossed my finger and it worked. If you have TomTom Home on the computer you need to get it not to load automatically otherwise it all gets a bit messy. Thanks again
    Lesley

  22. Comment from Eric on November 11th, 2009 :

    The updates will work for the new Start product(s), but really these should be fixed at manufacturing shouldn’t they?

  23. Comment from Kevin on December 3rd, 2009 :

    Fantastic!….I backed up my device, swapped cards in the Tom Tom and then restored the settings to new card, followed by the post code up date…all worked like a dream. Thanks very much for the advice

  24. Comment from Kevin on December 3rd, 2009 :

    Forgot to add….needed to follow Lesley’s advice about an new card as the original was too small to take all the info

  25. Comment from John on December 5th, 2009 :

    Thanks so much for this, works a dream. Couldnt understand how I’d lost this critical info. Crazy that TomTom doesn’t do this as part of an update; almost makes TomTom useless without it.
    As to Tony’s problem using TomTom to solve problems – dont get me started!

  26. Comment from kiran on December 19th, 2009 :

    Hey! thanks a lot for the help worked great on my windows ce gps device running tom tom! :)

  27. Comment from James Newman on January 1st, 2010 :

    Awesome!

    It’s been cheesing me off for months!!!!!

    Back to good old postcode search- I nearly put it on ebay because of the problem with no postcode search!

    Thanks!

  28. Comment from Andrew Noel on February 24th, 2010 :

    Thanks, worked brilliantly on my Go 510. This problem has been driving me nuts!

  29. Comment from Kevin Proffitt on February 26th, 2010 :

    EXCELLENT! – I updated my TOMTOM ONE map a few months ago only to discover I could no longer search using full post codes – pretty useless when using for business, co’s if you do not know / have a street name…your stuffed..BUT, after downloading this file and updating as suggested, worked like a charm..I can now search by FULL post codes again…great stuff…..

  30. Comment from Matt Taylor on February 26th, 2010 :

    Superb !! I thought was doing something wrong as only half the postcode could be entered on my new Tomtom Start.

    This fix works perfect!

    Thanks very much !!

  31. Comment from Jim Lycett on February 27th, 2010 :

    I have just spent around a day getting my TomTom (One 3rd Edition) to work again after updating Maps (legally subscribed to from TomTom).I have had to reformat it about four times and took about twelve tries before I got it working.When I finally got it opperational it would not do the postcode bit correctly! I was just about to go shopping for a Garmin :( when I found this fix which worked a dream :)

    Many Thanks

  32. Comment from Alex on February 27th, 2010 :

    Thanks. Worked on my TomTom One. Nearly junked it out of frustration.

  33. Comment from Alex on March 11th, 2010 :

    Here’s a link for any Mac users out there with the same problems:

    http://uk.support.tomtom.com/cgi-bin/tomtom_uk.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=9852&p_created=1213182416&p_sid=Qob_8BWj&prod_lvl1=&prod_lvl2=&cat_lvl1=&p_accessibility=&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD0xOTksMTk5JnBfcHJvZHM9JnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9mbmwmcF9wYWdlPTE*&p_li=&p_topview=1

  34. Comment from andy e on March 24th, 2010 :

    SORTED Fantastic thankyou my headaches have gone

  35. Comment from Tee on April 3rd, 2010 :

    Thank you soo much.

  36. Comment from Carll0s41 on April 6th, 2010 :

    Bloody marvellous – thanks

  37. Comment from Judy on April 8th, 2010 :

    Thank you thank you thank you, lost the postcodes when I updated my new Tomtom start recently, nothing worked except this fix.

  38. Comment from Sue on April 25th, 2010 :

    Thank you so much. This was annoying me all day yesterday. It still took me a while to open the postal code file – had to download WinRAR then make space on my SD card, tricky to know what to delete!

  39. Comment from Brendan on May 10th, 2010 :

    Fantastic. Quick and Easy to download and works too which is great.

    Many thanks.

  40. Comment from Val on May 12th, 2010 :

    I updated the maps on my GO 510 and was left with the same really annoying problem. I tried the downloads recommended on the TomTom website and they didn’t work. I was so relieved to find this easy fix which solved the problem immediately. Thank you very much!!!!

  41. Comment from Stan G on May 14th, 2010 :

    Thanks Psychotic,
    Off and on I have been trying to fix the problem on my Go500 for six months. This morning I tried to blitz it. After two hours using instructions from the Tomtom support page and having stuck zip and extracted files into the root directory, I came across your solution. Thankfully I have an SD card reader and after only a few minutes I had it fixed. Well done PM and a giant raspberry with added disgust to Tomtom Support.

  42. Comment from elizabeth on May 15th, 2010 :

    OMG!!! Thank you so much, it worked!!! :) xxx

  43. Comment from John on June 10th, 2010 :

    Thank you so much. Is it me or do TomTom have complete idiots working for them. Purchased new UK map tried for 24 hrs to update device numerous call to support and eventually find out they had allocated the wrong map and then when I downloaded only half a postcode the rest is history thanks to your excellent help. good work MONKEY and have a lovely cup ?? tips :) :):)

  44. Comment from Maurice on June 20th, 2010 :

    You’re spot on. Thank you so very much.

  45. Comment from Matt on June 24th, 2010 :

    This is brilliant thankyou!!!

  46. Comment from Sue on June 25th, 2010 :

    Having installed usa maps for holiday we found that we could not use full post code after we reinstalled UK maps – our device seems to have retained usa settings even though usa maps uninstalled. Could not find anything at all on Tom Tom help. This advice solved the problem. My Tom Tom One V3 does not have removable SD card but file installation worked fine – just needed to follow on-screen instructions. Thank you so much!!!!

  47. Comment from victor on July 5th, 2010 :

    Works like charm..thanks a lot.

  48. Comment from DD on July 31st, 2010 :

    Many thanks for this – this page came up as the 3rd entry on Google after I had given up trying negotiate my way through TomTom help. On running the setup file, the onscreen instructions direct it directly to the TomTom – no need to remove the SD card.

  49. Comment from Graham on July 31st, 2010 :

    Having lost the map on my TomTom GO 530 I eventually resorted to downloading a new map from the TomTom website. The new map has, as has been described, only the basic post code information. Following the advice given here I have downloaded and installed the TomTom post code file. Whilst it did the trick, when I entered my home post code it then asked me for my house number. I entered 11 but it kept telling me that I could only pick a house number between 37 and 101! The nearest is number 37 so I picked that. Therefore as far as my TomTom is concerned I now live at number 37 and not number 11! Overall it is better but by no means perfect. When I bought the TomTom about 18 months ago I had no problem with any post code including my own. It all worked perfectly straight out of the box. It seems that TomTom might have gone backwards in the meantime!

  50. Comment from Paul Roddick on August 1st, 2010 :

    The file linked to in this article is old and may not include recent postcodes. See this link for a more recent version (may require new map) -

    http://uk.support.tomtom.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9852

  51. Comment from Keith on August 4th, 2010 :

    I lost postcodes after updating my 710. This fix restored them.

    I had to get the 2mb card though because the original was only 1mb and the new map update was 1.8mb – they must have built a lot of new roads in Western Europe in the last 3 yrs !

    Many thanks

  52. Comment from Angel on August 8th, 2010 :

    Ha! I’ve had this problem for an entire year! It sucked when I didn’t know the cross street to where I was going, now I can just punch in the post code. Thanks BUNCHES!

  53. Comment from Steve on August 15th, 2010 :

    Hi mate, thanks so much for this fix, its been doing my head in big time lol……cheers

  54. Comment from Richard on August 17th, 2010 :

    Still working just fine for old TomTomOne. Amazing it’s caused rather than fixed by updates and can’t be found on TomTom site. Thanks mate – lifesaver!

  55. Comment from Stokos on August 25th, 2010 :

    When I bought my TomTom XL IQ Routes in May 2009, I was extremely disappointed to discover I couldn’t do full postcode search. I couldn’t believe it, but rather than spending more money on a replacement, I reluctantly sucked it up, thinking it’s “one of those things”.

    When I decided to google if anyone else was experiencing the same problem, this article popped up top of the list. Very informative and, above all, 100% effective! I’m keeping the zip file safe, in case a firmware update messes everything up.

    Thank you so much!

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