Touch And Go Update Problems?

[JSHarris]

I noticed that there was a map update available for my 9 month old Prius Plug In (with Touch and Go Plus) so followed the Toyota instructions, copied the System Information from the Touch and Go unit to a freshly formatted USB stick, logged in to the Toyota Touch and Go Toolbox and waited for an hour or so whilst it updated the USB stick with the latest maps etc.

I then followed the instructions carefully, had the car in "ready" mode (so there wouldn't be a risk of it shutting down part way through) and inserted the USB stick (a reasonable quality 8Gb Kingston one). After around 30 minutes or so the update stopped, leaving a blank screen. I turned the car off, then back on again and it prompted me to remove the USB stick because of an "SW error" and re-insert it. I did this and much the same happened again, except after a few minutes the "SW error" message came up, asking me to remove and re-insert the USB stick. I've now done this half a dozen times, getting the same problem every time.

I decided to try and start the process again, so formatted another new USB stick (to FAT32, as before) inserted it, turned the car on and tried to access the "General, System Information" page to download to the stick so I can try another download from the Toyota Toolbox.

Sadly, the system seems to now be partially bricked, with no access to that screen. All that seems to work is the radio, the nav system is dead and the head unit repeatedly asks me to insert the USB stick with the update on. I cannot use the Toyota Toolbox, as that needs a USB stick with the code on it from the head unit, and I can't get that code downloaded because that bit of the head unit seems to be bricked.

The car is under warranty, so I can presumably take it into a dealer and try and get it fixed, but I'm at a loss as to how on earth Toyota can make it so easy for someone to brick their car's systems like this?

I've spend the past two or three hours searching the web and have found several tales of Touch and Go updates failing or taking a very long time, but none that describe the Catch 22 I'm in where the system has apparently just partially bricked itself during an update.

Has anyone else had any similar experiences, and, perhaps more importantly, has anyone discovered some sort of way to recover the head unit back to the way it was (I'll happily forego the rest of the free updates I'm due!).

[kithmo]

The last update on mine took around 40 minutes and the screen went blank for a while when it was rebooting the system.

IIRC it does say somewhere in the instructions, not to turn the system off whilst the update is in progress, I think you turned it off whilst it was rebooting which has now corrupted the software.

The only way to fix your current system would be to re flash the software, that is if the dealer is even capable of doing that, I think you may have to replace the system with a new one.

Try Googling reset, there are a few interesting (but complicated) hits on there.

[JSHarris]

You're right, it does say not to turn it off, but it looked for all the world as if it had turned off, as nothing happened for around 10 minutes or so after the screen went blank. I didn't turn the car off straight away, but went back in and had a cup of tea so probably turned it off after an hour or from starting the process, but with the screen blank for most of that time, I think. IIRC, last time I checked (before the screen blanked) it was around 3/4s of the way through updating things, and that's about the place it fails every time I go through the "re-insert USB, resume update" etc process (when I do this the normal update screen comes up, and gets as far as the 6th package, then it crashes with the "SW stick" error).

I've tried resetting the unit with the hidden menu (hold down reset and switch the lights on and off three times) but that's not helped, the unit is stuck in the update cycle.

Looks like I'll have to pop in to the dealer tomorrow and see if there's anything they can do. I'm a bit annoyed, though, as I printed out the instructions and followed them to the letter, as I was a bit nervous that something like this might happen!

[kithmo]

Keep us posted, it will be interesting to if there is a fix due to the fact that, as you said, it's easy to come unstuck doing the update.

[JSHarris]

I went in to the Toyota dealer today and they spent an hour looking at it and reckon they need to "rebuild the system", so it's booked in for a whole day on Wednesday for them to to try and fix it. Right now they don't know the cause of the problem, but I can confirm that it kills all the functionality in the head unit except the radio, including the display (the radio still works, but with no display, just a blank screen).

I've asked the dealer to let me know the cause of the problem, as I don't want to make this mistake again. My feeling is that there must have been some corrupted data copied to the USB stick by the Touch and Go Toolbox, so my advice to anyone else would be to get two different USB sticks and make two copies of the system using the "copy to USB" option in "General", "System Information" on the unit. That way you will retain the ability to have a second go at downloading from the Toolbox, which might be useful.

[JSHarris]

My PiP has been in the dealer all day today, and wll be in for another day tomorrow whilst they fix this. I do have an answer as to what happened, and it is a unique problem to the PiP, so the answer may help someone else.

Unlike the normal hybrid Prius, the PiP has a third turn on mode, although this isn't at all obvious. The Prius normally has two turn on modes:

1) Foot off brake pedal, press the power button and it turns on in accessory mode. The audio/nav systems works, but the dash doesn't light up. After 30 minutes it turns off, to save the 12V Battery. This mode must NOT be used for firmware updates, as there is a risk the car could power off before the update has completed.

2) Foot on brake pedal, press the power button and it turns on in ready mode, where the dash lights up and all the instruments come on. In this mode the car stays on until the power button is pressed again.

The Plug in Prius has a third mode. If the charge cable is connected, or the charge connector door is open, and the car is turned on with the brake pedal depressed it appears to turn on in ready mode, as the whole dash lights up (although if you look very carefully it doesn't actually give the "ready" indication). In reality, it isn't in ready mode at all, it's really in an odd form of accessory mode where all the instruments are powered up. After 30 minutes the car will turn off, even if connected to the charge point, just as if it is in accessory mode.

It seems that my problem was caused by my turning the car on to start the update with the cable still plugged in. Unknown to me (or my dealer, or the update instructions) doing this will brick the head unit, by turning the power off before the map update has completed. There aren't many PiP's in the UK yet (just over 1000 last time I checked) so this isn't yet common knowledge.

Hopefully this post may raise awareness of this quirk.

If any PiP owners want to update their maps, then just make sure the charge lead is disconnected, the charge port door is closed and the car is started in ready mode, and all should be well. I understand that Toyota are going to add a note to this effect to the map update instructions for PiP owners as a result of my experience.

[kithmo]

I'm glad you found out what caused it and hope you get yours sorted.

The regular Prius (Gen3) and the Prius+ have this third turn on mode. Entering accessory mode, by pressing the start button with the foot off the brake, then pressing the button again, with or without the brake pedal pressed, puts all the dash lights on, which stay on and the ready light doesn't light up. I knew accessory mode turned off after 30 minutes, but I've never left mine in this 3rd mode so I wouldn't be aware that it turned off after 30 minutes.

They should incorporate a recovery mode boot on the NAV in case of power failure or configure it so it boots from a USB stick by downloading a boot file from the Toyota portal.

[JSHarris]

I think there must be a recovery mode, as the dealer called me late this afternoon to say that they were very sorry, but the recovery file download from Toyota was taking a long time. They asked me if I could leave the car with them, as they'd been warned that once the file was downloaded the car would take well over an hour to load the new system.

I can understand this. I have a reasonably fast broadband connection (I'm around 80m from a unbundled exchange) and it took around an hour to download the map update file (which was around 5GB, IIRC). The odd thing is that the actual size of the update files on the USB stick is only around 2.5GB, so goodness knows why Toyota need to use a 1/4 of my 20GB monthly download limit to send me this data. The dealer's broadband is probably slower than mine, as they are a fair way from the nearest exchange, so if they are having to download the whole system then I can understand the download taking a long time.

[johalareewi]

Entering accessory mode, by pressing the start button with the foot off the brake, then pressing the button again, with or without the brake pedal pressed, puts all the dash lights on, which stay on and the ready light doesn't light up.

On the gen3, if you are in accessory mode and press the start button again with your foot off the brake, you get into the third mode where it looks ready but it isn't. If you are in accessory mode and press the start button again with the main brake on, the car will start up as normal.

[MEP's Yaris GS]

Thanks for the heads up Jeremy, not planning on updating mine for a while (I'm lazy and it sounds a faf), but will make sure I follow the steps you've advised with my PiP.

[JSHarris]

Just to clarify what I did, and what seems to be the cause of my problem with doing the map update.

I had left the charge cable plugged in (although the car was fully charged, I leave it plugged in so that I can use the A/C button to remotely activate the screen demist from mains power).

I got in the car, plugged in the update USB stick, depressed the brake pedal and pressed the power button. The car appeared to start up as normal, in ready mode.

The Touch and Go started the update and displayed a couple of progress indicators, one for the total completed, the lower one for the completion state of each of the ten packages it was updating. As this was clearly going to take some time I left the car turned on, going back to check every ten minutes or so to see if all was OK.

It seems that the car turned off after 30 minutes, just as it would if started in accessory mode, and that this is what caused the system to crash. Had this been an ordinary hybrid, rather than the PiP, then the car would have stayed on and completed the update process.

The advice I've received is that if the charge cable is plugged in, or the charge port door is open, then the car appears to enter ready mode but in reality is in a third state where the dash lights up, everything seems to be on as if in ready mode, but the car is really still in a form of accessory mode.

Sadly there is nothing that relates to this in the update documentation and instructions from Toyota, so if you don't happen to know about this quirk (and even the dealer didn't know about it!) then you could get caught out. I guess it's only really an issue for people, like me, who leave the charge cable connected until they are about to get in the car and drive off. I like the remote A/C function, which is why I do it, as this pulls power from the charger, rather than the car, so reduces fuel use (the charge box turns on again and the charging light comes on by the connector when you use the remote A/C button).

[kithmo]

Entering accessory mode, by pressing the start button with the foot off the brake, then pressing the button again, with or without the brake pedal pressed, puts all the dash lights on, which stay on and the ready light doesn't light up.

On the gen3, if you are in accessory mode and press the start button again with your foot off the brake, you get into the third mode where it looks ready but it isn't. If you are in accessory mode and press the start button again with the main brake on, the car will start up as normal.

You're right, I must have pressed the start button slightly before I had the brake pedal fully pressed last time I did it.

[Pyrofer]

I recently tried to update the map in my PiP too, but didn't get this far.

I did the copy to USB, downloaded the update, took the stick to the car, Nothing.

I couldn't persuade it to do anything, it just didn't see the USB stick. I went back to the PC and the toolbox didn't recognise the USB stick either anymore and kept telling me it wasn't inserted!

I wiped the stick and went back to the car to start again but "Copy to USB" is now NOT FUNCTIONAL!!!

I can't start the process again. I have a blank stick and a car that won't do the copy to USB feature.

[Heidfirst]

try another USB stick.

Can you confirm whether you have Touch & Go or Touch 2 with Go?

[Chris Dance]

Trying to do an update on my Prius Touch & Go was very frustrating. The USB was satisfactory on the computer download but after putting the USB stick into the car socket and starting the update process the SAT/Nav locked up. Could not get maps or anything. I took the car to the dealer they also had major issues. In the end the whole SAT /Nav unit was changed; the dealer had the car for 3 days. I have been advised by the service manager to take the car to them for any further Touch & Go updates.

I had printed off the step by step process of updating so I knew I followed the procedure correctly.

If anybody has Touch & Go update problems I strongly recommend you get dealer help. My local dealer was great especially the service manager. I do not have a PIP.

[PeteB]

when you "wiped" it, did you do a full format rather than a quick one (delete the "quick" option if you're using Windows?

[Wesbach]

I had exactly the same problem as JSHarris. The car turned off itself and afterwards the toolbox didn't accept the USB and the update stopped with a SW Error.

Finally I managed to solve the problem by looking through the USB stick I had used: There I found a log file (txt so the Editor could open it). The last line said, that there was an error with a file (belgium.spc) because the md5 checksum wasn't correct. Luckily the toolbox had downloaded the files and saved them in a cache (in my case: C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Roaming\toyota\workingdir, this path can be found under "settings"). There I had to look through a lot of subdirectories (starting in C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Roaming\toyota\workingdir\download_cache\linefit-toyotaeu-nq) with different numbers and finally found belgium.spc. To be sure I checked the md5 sum and it was the correct sum as mentioned in the log file. I replaced this corrupt file on my USB stick (in my case J:\NaviFolder\update\DEV-MD5\content\speedcam), inserted it in my car (this time while driving!) and the update went through without problems.

I hope this might help someone in the future. Good luck for you!