For other newbies: "TomTom HOME" vs "MyTomTom"

[Mike_2012]

Hi there,
first post by this TomTom newbe: I just bought a TomTom 45tm with maps for North America. This is my second GPS unit. My first one was a Garmin nuvu 660.

I'm sure many on this site are aware of this but it took me an hour to figure it out: TomTom made some things more complicated than necessary which likely explains why so many people mention trouble with updating maps etc in online posts and reviews (on this forum, and also on other forums or on Amazon.

This is what I found out: Everyone can register with TomTom for an account. It's called "MyTomTom". That is just an online account (useful).
https://www.tomtom.com/myTomTom/login.php

Then there are two different software downloads for you computer. One is called "TomTom HOME" the other one is ALSO called "MyTomTom". Which one you need depends on the model. Info at:
http://www.tomtom.com/getstarted

For USA:
https://tomtom.com/en_us/mytomtom/getstarted/

For USA they first point you to "MyTomTom" but there is a small text saying: "Different device? Download TomTom HOME 2"

Once you have the correct software on your home computer you should be able to establish a connection between your computer and your TomTom and start updating the firmware and maps of your TomTom.

Cheers,

 

[canderson]

For a while, TomTom was only releasing new units that used MyTomTom. This software is required to talk to these new units because they are built on an entirely different internal software platform.

We were surprised that the 40/45/50/55 models were subsequently released built upon the old platform that requires TomTom Home, but indeed, that's the right software for those particular models.