Columbus sat. nav. - replacement SD card.

[ColinCattle]

I’ve been a proud and extremely satisfied owner of SKODA Kodiaq SE L TDI SCR DSG DIESEL for coming up to 4 years. After last years MOT the Columbus Sat. Nav stopped working. After checking a little while later whilst the vehicle was having it’s annual service with my local dealer I was informed that the reason the car was displaying “Navigation database not available” message was that there currently isn’t a SD card in the relevant slot!!!  To be truly honest and by virtue of the fact that the Sat. Nav had always worked and performed impeccably I’d never noticed if there ever was a card in the appropriate slot, but I certainly have never removed one. So it the card has mysteriously disappeared!!!

 

I have raised this problem about purchasing a replacement with both my local dealer and Skoda customer services and received the following response. “They are unable to assist with the supply of an SD card as the part is not available for this vehicle through ŠKODA.

 

Could anyone please suggest how to fix this Sat Nav conundrum and give me a clue on how to purchase the relevant Columbus data programmed to SD card.

 

 

Phew!!!!

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Colin

[Rustynuts]

Dealer talking *******s I'm afraid. The Columbus doesn't use maps from an sd card, they're stored on the internal memory. The absence of an sd card is not relevant.

[VRS_White_Hatch]

 Could it be you have an Amundsen unit? f it does need a card, ie not Columbus then try this. 

 

Before i risked trying to update my nav (2019 MY Octavia) I decided to buy an SD card from ebay and download to that so that if I messed it up I could put the OE card back in, the ebay card was a genuine Skoda card and worked, including the update, and my own card works too, so I just flip the cards when I update so I can just go back 1 set of maps if the worst happens. 

 

So I'd suspect someone who needed a card nicked yours, and if you buy one from ebay it will work as long as its a genuine cars. (My seller was from Czech repuplic - cheap there.)

Edited 10 February, 2022 by VRS_White_Hatch
spelling, mistakes, general stupidity from me

[Rustynuts]

That could be correct, but the fact remains that Skoda dealers & Customer Services have stated that the system doesn't use an sd card.

[Yogi-Bear]

1 hour ago, VRS_White_Hatch said:

Could it be you have an Amundsen unit?

 

The SEL came with Columbus as standard in 2018 (and still does / always has done, as far as I know).

 

@ColinCattle - It sounds to me as though the data has been corrupted. If the dealer can't sort it out, I'd find another dealer. But it definitely doesn't need an SD card (the unit in the glove box will have 2 SD slots, both empty unless you put something in them, and a SIM card slot, also empty unless you've provided a SIM card).

[ColinCattle]

3 hours ago, Rustynuts said:

Dealer talking *******s I'm afraid. The Columbus doesn't use maps from an sd card, they're stored on the internal memory. The absence of an sd card is not relevant.

Thanks everyone for the heads up, the brilliant, bravo!!!!

 

That’s interesting from all parties and very helpful because my dealer told me the exact opposite!!! To be honest I unfortunately now have little faith in the service dept. anyway.

 

How do I get my beloved Columus sat. nav. to work? I’m obviously assuming that I don’t need an SD card, my dealer seems is unhelpful and appears to be pretty clueless.

 

Thanks again.

 

Colin

[Rustynuts]

First thing to try is a maps update. Free to do (you'll need a 32Gb usb drive) and reinstall the maps.

See here...

 

 

Edited 10 February, 2022 by Rustynuts

[ColinCattle]

Thanks again - Yep I’ve got a 32Gb usb drive. I’ll give it a try tomorrow.🤞

 

I’m a Mac guy hopeful that shouldn’t encode the download with anything my Kodiaq can’t read or cope with! I’ve also got a sim. card in the vehicle with unlimited data can I  download the map updates straight into the Columbus database?

 

Thanks again, wish my dealer was as clued up as you guys.🥸

[Yogi-Bear]

1 hour ago, ColinCattle said:

I’m a Mac guy hopeful that shouldn’t encode the download with anything my Kodiaq can’t read or cope with!

 

You might want to check out BlueHarvest... (available direct from the author as well as through the App Store):

 

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/blueharvest/id739483376?mt=12

 

Automatically keeps removable drives free of dot files, which macOS still insists on polluting things with. Been using it for years (not the App Store version) and it's brilliant - a must for ensuring things like a Skoda SatNav system doesn't get confused by lots of extra files it wasn't expecting!

 

1 hour ago, ColinCattle said:

I’ve also got a sim. card in the vehicle with unlimited data can I  download the map updates straight into the Columbus database?

 

You could... but I'd try the USB route given the state your system is in. If that doesn't work, I'd find another dealer who should be able to reload the system software completely.

[westie38]

1 hour ago, ColinCattle said:

Thanks again - Yep I’ve got a 32Gb usb drive. I’ll give it a try tomorrow.🤞

 

I’m a Mac guy hopeful that shouldn’t encode the download with anything my Kodiaq can’t read or cope with! I’ve also got a sim. card in the vehicle with unlimited data can I  download the map updates straight into the Columbus database?

 

Thanks again, wish my dealer was as clued up as you guys.🥸

This is the method I use to update with the latest map versions:

 

Download the latest map files

Reformat SD card

Open - Disk Utility

Erase - MS FAT32 - this clears the SD card

Close it all down.

Extract  downloaded files

Copy all (3) metainfo, Mib1, Mib2 to SD drive

When done, open and run CleanMy Drive2 (probably similar to blueharvest (above) )

This cleans the SD drive of any unwanted MAC files

This should then load up ok onto the Columbus unit.

 

Hope this helps.  

[ColinCattle]

Thank you for the links you've kindly sent me for the Columbus update, I’ve downloaded the data. Unfortunately I’m unable to unzip the downloaded Columbus file on my Mac - I have to run the latest OS because of my work, perhaps that’s confusing matters? I’ve tried  transferring the zip to my 32Gb usb drive and them unzipping but it doesn’t like that either, after a few minutes it gives me an error message, screen shot attached, help!!!

 

Does anyone have any further suggestions that may help? 

 

Gosh I wish my dealer was up to speed with all this, I honestly think it’d be easier locating the Maltese Falcon!!!!

 

Thanks so much the Briskoda community for all your help.

 

Colin.
 

Skoda - Columbus download..pdf

[Yogi-Bear]

1 hour ago, ColinCattle said:

Unfortunately I’m unable to unzip the downloaded Columbus file on my Mac

 

That's because the built-in zip handling is utter crap and useless at big files. There are plenty of alternatives on the App Store... I use Keka.