TomTom Traffic services intermittent available...

Alex9719

Hi all.

Am a proud owner of a Rider 550 and desperately trying to connect it with my iPhone 8.
I'm running into some strange behaviour and I can't pinpoint the root cause.

Here are the symptoms, most often, the bluetooth connection between Rider and iPhone does not "unlock" the Traffic information, in the Rider, it states that the phone is connected, but it seems stuck with the accessing life services message.

When starting a trip, I notice that no traffic information is displayed, even when, after a while, the Rider states it's connected to the Traffic services.... In the navigation screen, I keep seeing the grey bar with a car and little x in it.

I've been looking for a solution online, but there's "confusing" information out there. For instance, I've found that I have to enable the Hotspot function on the phone, so, logically, do I need to connect the Rider to my particular wifi hotspot?

And is it normal to see the Rider listed twice in the bluetooth list?


My experience so far is quite disappointing, for this price, a "little" convenience should be expected right?

Levisp

Hi. I have just come off the phone to support about this same problem. I have Rider 550 connected with iPhone 8 plus via BT. Have two Rider 550 listed in BT list. When you go to the BT menu phone is connected. Tap on this and the traffic says unable to connect and you get the greyed car symbol with cross. To solve this you have to connected your Rider to your iPhone using the phones hotspot feature as well as BT ! The manual is not very clear on this. To do this on your iPhone go to Settings -> Personal Hotspot -> toggle Hotspot ON. On you Rider go to Menu -> Settings -> Wi-Fi and then click on iPhone. Now enter the same password thats on your iPhone. Once its connected traffic should be available. To check on Rider Menu -> Settings -> BT then tap on iPhone paired device and Data for Traffic & other services should be connected. If it says unable to connect then on your iPhone toggle Hotspot switch Off -> On. It should then connect.

Hope thats clear.

Alex9719

Hi Levisp,

I completely forgot about this topic... What did the trick for me is to make sure that the TomTom Mydrive app is always running, this makes all the services available over 99% of the time. The only times it got stuck, was when switching borders, and not even all the times.

So, (for me) no need to have the iphone as a wireless hotspot (that saves me a lot of hassle, since I have other dependencies with this hotspot....)

Nice to hear that you have it working too, although on a different way... You would believe in todays connected world, TomTom could spare a few cents to have a sim card built in...

Levisp

Actually since posting my original reply I have noticed if I turn off my home wi-fi then I get traffic to connect. I will check this out with MyDrive running on my iPhone. Hope this works. The Hotspot trick is a pain.

Nigel A

Given up on the wifi bit on my rider550. found that the hot spot connection goes "out of range " if you turn off or move my phone away from the 550 and wont reconnect unless you turn off/ reset/hit with a large hammer. (have a number of posts / support requests etc going) Did find that since the last wifi update I can now get Bluetooth traffic working (If I turn / disable the wifi - yes I know...) I found that if I clear all Bluetooth connections, then connect up NOT using the my drive app - this gives one Bluetooth channel / connection, then connect again via my drive (this takes some time and appears to be doing nothing) I then I get 2 tt rider connections on my phone (iphone SE) and get phone messages, callers, and traffic. This lasted for some time, until I stupidly enabled wifi for an update, even after disabling wifi Bluetooth would not work until I deleted all connections and repeated the above.
This is really ridiculous. The rider 550 is great to actually use and as £99.00 Aldi special is a bargain. Regretfully I paid more like £500 for a load of rubbish. Have fun !!

Levisp

Nigel how did you disable wi-fi on your Rider ?

Nigel A

Settings, wifi, select your connection, tell it to forget. This does mean re inserting your password all over again if you need to use the wifi or hot spot. Did find the direct wifi connection great for updates etc but always seemed to bugger up the Bluetooth. gone back to USB off the computer.

Levisp

Thanks found the forget function. Disabled Rider connection to wi-fi and then checked BT connection and traffic is connected ! Brill. So home network connected to Rider is the cause of my problems. Will keep MyDrive app open and check that traffic works next time I'm out for a ride.

Levisp

Result it worked today with no problems. The issue for me appears to be the wi-fi connection. Disable home wi-fi with Forget option, keep MyDrive app open and check that BT connects before putting phone to sleep in pocket. Got Traffic to showed on Rider and I also got a text message to appear. Brill !

If anyone from TomTom reads this then maybe a switch to toggle wi-fi On / Off would be useful.

To forget network on Rider 550 do the following. Tap on wi-fi connection -> Modify -> Forget. Then check that the wi-fi symbol has a cross against it.

Hope this helps someone else.

Nigel A

Glad you got there !

Annoying really though, I found the home network great for updates and transferring route planning, both work OK with USB but that's not what I paid for

Levisp

Disabling wi-fi before going for a ride is no big deal but a simple switch to toggle wi-fi off would be nice. The only thing that bugs me is why this isn't documented. Guess others have no issue unless its an iPhone only issue. However I bought the Rider for the route/track syncing over wi-fi from myDrive and thats works flawlessly. It beats Garmin and Basecamp ! However I do wonder my the Rider 550 4.3 in screen is so much more expensive than the top of range 6 in screen GO 6200.

Looking through the forum there does seem to be a lot of negative criticisms of TomTom which is a pity because from what I have seen of the Rider 550 its 90% there as far as usability is concerned. A few firmware updates could improve it so much. Lets hope TomTom listen but I'm not holding my breath.

Nigel A

the problem I had with the home wifi was that one the 550 had conected to it, the 550 would thjen log my iphone as "out of range" and I would need to turn fully off / perform a reset for it to see my iphone again. this seemed to upset the Bluetooth settings as well, and I would have to remove and reinstall Bluetooth.

Levisp

Not sure I understand your problem - iPhone as "out of range". Are you connecting your iPhone to Rider using the iPhone Hotspot function ?