Not possible to start TTGo Nav app without internet connection

[piertomhito]

Exactly the same problem here but in addition, even if the app stays for hours on "Loading app" screen of my Android smartphone (Android 11), it works in the background when phone is plugged through USB into my car to Android Auto, which simply shows the working screen of Tomtom Go Navigation app on the Android Auto screen of the car and all the buttons and the navigation work by touching the screen of Android Auto !
But of course this situation does not help in anything to solve the fact that the app is not useable on the smartphone.
The only solution I have to restart the app so I can use it on the smartphone is to be at home to connect on my home WiFi.
When I am not at home, restart the phone and switch on mobile data does not help, it stays on "Loading app" screen.
Immediately after a phone restart and successful app restart with home WiFi ON, if I exit the app and I shutdown the WiFi on the phone then I start the app with only mobile data, it starts.
But later, for example next day, if I am outside without WiFi and only mobile data, when I start the app it stays on "Loading app" screen.
My be a workaround would be to switch off the option MyDrive in the menu "TomTom Services", still to be confirmed with few tries ... Then it could be switched on from time to time at home with WiFi when need to resynchronize the last favourites.

I confirm my solution above, each try was successful :
Switch OFF the option MyDrive in the menu "TomTom Services".
After that, each start of the Tomtom Go Navigation app on my Android smartphone "in the street" with only mobile data and without home WiFi works fine, even if it can take few seconds.
That means there is a bug with the option MyDrive in the app, at least on Android 11 smartphones with TomTom Go v3.6.274.
The option MyDrive ON works only this way, two solutions :
1- the app is already started and you turn on MyDrive
2- the app is not started and you are still at home with WiFi, you turn on the WiFi on your phone before to start the app, otherwise the app stays on screen "Loading app"

 

[BL_BL]

I tried it now, I disabled MyDrive in the menu "TomTom Services", closed app, disabled WiFi and mobile data, started TomTomGO, and it works.

After that I enabled MyDrive, and it still works , even with disabled WiFi and mobile data

Maybe we need to "reset" something about MyDrive, and after that it works, app starts without internet connection.
Maybe that is the reason why it worked for someone.

And TomTomGo starts a bit faster with disabled WiFi and mobile data.

 

[JimJay40]

Doesn't work for me - I have MyDrive off all the time but the app will only load if I have an active WiFi connection; like others, even a normal internet connection via my SIM won't get GO to load...

Does anyone know what, if anything, TomTom is doing to rectify this - it's by far the best satnav app for my purposes, when it's working!

 

[Willy875]

Unless you want to save mobile data?
No mobile data, no traffic, no live radar alerts.

Is it the right choice?

 

[Naviuser67]

@Willy875 Don't ask yourself WHY we want to use TomTom Go! without mobile data.

Ask yourself WHY TomTom is taking away a key feature

Ask yourself what YOU can do to make Go! keep working without an Internet connection.

Mine doesn't start without an Internet connection if MyDrive is turned off, either.

 

[Willy875]

@Willy875 Don't ask yourself WHY we want to use TomTom Go! without mobile data.

Ask yourself WHY TomTom is taking away a key feature

Ask yourself what YOU can do to make Go! keep working without an Internet connection.

Mine doesn't start without an Internet connection if MyDrive is turned off, either.

On my side, the TomTom GO application works without an internet connection.

 

[mkz]

Unless you want to save mobile data?
No mobile data, no traffic, no live radar alerts.

Is it the right choice?

Sometimes yes - that can be the reason when you drive outside EU countries where costs of mobile data are substantial. But the most important reason is to have the straightforward possibility to start navigation in places with no reception at all (or just 2G signal which is not usable for internet nowadays) which can easily happen during the trips in mountains. In my case (OnePlus12 Android 15) application doesn't start when there's no internet connection without mentioned here workarounds, so now I need to remember to turn of MyDrive sync. or log out from TomTom account (which also turns of MyDrive sync.) before the trip to be sure that accidentally I won't end up without navigation "in the middle of nowhere" (where navigation is actually needed the most) despite having off-line navigation...

 

[lexus]

It seems that you have to create account for this program to work properly without internet connection. I will check that later in time if tt go still starts without internet. Btw willy, thanks for nothing, the most useless poster ever.

 

[Willy875]

Btw willy, thanks for nothing, the most useless poster ever.

What poster are you talking about?

 

[Willy875]

It seems that you have to create account for this program to work properly without internet connection.

To use the Tomtom GO app with or without an internet connection, you need to purchase the app from the Play Store. Creating a Tomtom account is not a requirement.

 

[JimJay40]

I assume that no-one from TomTom bothers to read posts on this site, and their "Assistant" is worse than useless. It seems that we just have to grin and bear things while the app we've paid a subscription for is totally unusable - and no doubt there will be no extension of the subscription for the time that it's inaccessible apart from navigating us around our own homes!

 

[JuergenAMS]

their "Assistant" is worse than useless

If you type "contact" you skip the bot.

 

[JuergenAMS]

Those who experience this, can you please contact us with a reference to CCARE-3626?

Go to https://help.tomtom.com/hc (it should open in your browser's language) and click the Contact us button in the bottom right corner. Type "contact" since the bot cannot cover this. Make sure you mention the above ticket number. Also include your phone model and Android version and the app version. Preferably, attach a video.

I've tried this on two Android devices and one iOS but cannot reproduce it.

 

[kacnje]

Do you think this is the same problem?

I already wrote that TomTom GO Navigation doesn't start without an internet connection. At least when I tried it.

I received an update to version 3.6.283-beta on my Samsung Galaxy S21 FE (Android 14) some days ago. Yesterday I noticed that the start takes very long. But today it simply doesn’t start anymore.

The internet connection is fine, I restarted the phone, and cleared the cache of the application ... but it stays on the splash screen with "Loading app".

Any idea? The application is now unusable.
Maybe I can clear the data also and uninstall/install the app.

UPDATE POST:
I delete cache, uninstall the app, leave the beta program and install "normal" version. It works.
Can beta version be the problem for problem in this topic?

 

[kacnje]

After some more investigation, my conclusion is that the problem is when the internet connection goes through a VPN.
In some locations, I use a VPN and then I noticed that this is connected. Besides this, I noticed that TomTom works on Android Auto every time, but it doesn't load on the phone. And yes, my Android Auto is always connected without a VPN.

My suggestion to all users with problems is to check if the connection goes through a VPN.

 

[mkz]

I'm not using VPN on the phone - but my only problem is starting application without internet access. My new observation is that if application was started properly not long time before next start (couple/dozen of minutes - I don't know) then it starts without any problem even if it is set to be logged in an MyDrive synchronization is set to on. But when time goes on then starting application without internet access is not possible...

 

[Willy875]

With or without an internet connection, the application does not start?
"Loading the app" is what it says.

Edit: I can't close the app to cancel anymore?

You don't need to move.

 

[kacnje]

I'm not using VPN on the phone - but my only problem is starting application without internet access. My new observation is that if application was started properly not long time before next start (couple/dozen of minutes - I don't know) then it starts without any problem even if it is set to be logged in an MyDrive synchronization is set to on. But when time goes on then starting application without internet access is not possible...

In my case, it looks like TomTom doesn't like a VPN connection to the internet. So, it is the same as the TomTom app doesn't have internet access. It always works if I disable VPN (or put TomTom on the excluding list).
There are two questions in my head:
1. What the hell TomTom doesn't like on a VPN connection? I've been using my own VPN server for years and all programs, so I know nothing strange is on the way to the world.
2. Why doesn't TomTom work without an internet connection? To be more precise - it works, but only after it is loaded. There has to be some check on the internet while starting which is important to TomTom.

 

[canderson]

@kacnje
I wonder if it matters which VPN you're using? I run the GO app here all the time with NordVPN running.

 

[kacnje]

I don't know. I have almost all the time Wireguard routed to my server on DigitalOcean. The server has only Pi-Hole installed and maybe some DNS query from TomTom goes to the bin (advertisement, spying ...)
But TomTom should work even without those not-friendly stuff.
I will check this.