So I just bought my 2020 F-150. No one had started a Ford pass account or logged it onto a Wi-Fi and updated sync since it was new from the factory. I'm the fourth owner unfortunately.

Anyway so I went hard to work on that the first day. I've got it all updated and at some point I stumbled on a Navi download from Ford that you actually put on a USB and then you have to sit in the truck with it running for an hour to download. But I see that in the two days it took to download all the updates for sync 3 I have a new version of maps. What is showing is 2 21. The previous version was 118.

Does anyone know if this is the most current maps? Is there any reason for me to go to all that trouble of downloading on a USB? Probably going to use Android Auto and my phone when I'm really navigating most of the time anyway.

 

NA 2.21 is the current map version. New maps usually come out in early fall and have the last year as the name. So the maps coming out this fall will be NA 2.22.

 

Hey thanks man! I was hoping that was the case. It hardly seems worth it to download into a USB drive. I couldn't figure out why I would have to do that when it was taken hours and hours to download such a massive file over Wi-Fi. Surely it's getting all the maps it needs!

 

Early Sync 3 updates OTA (over the air) didn't work more often than they worked, so up until the last year or so USB was generally the way to go. Also not sure how Ford is handling map updates in general, as the map update website will offer a "free" update for a period of time, but then it switches to paid. I never quite figured out if you got a certain number of "free" download updates, or if it went off of Model Year, etc. but then throwing the OTA updates in the mix also adds some questions there on how they are handling the updates. In short, when the new maps come out this fall, see if they download OTA like they just did, or check the site to see if you are still offered the USB download for free, or if it's switched to paid.

 

You know I've asked the question somewhere else about how to keep the truck logged into the Wi-Fi so that it can do its business without prompting from the owner. This may be the answer as to why the OTA updates are unreliable.

When I solve it this truck had not been updated since it left the factory the first thing I did was use my home Wi-Fi password and get it started. Well even if you started to download if you turn the truck off and take the key in the house it disconnects and it doesn't continue. It says somewhere in the literature that it would continue at the same place but I don't know that it did that either. I basically had to sit there in the truck with the key in the own position if not with the engine running until these updates downloaded and started installing.

Three different updates I did this with over the last few days. Most owners aren't going to go to the trouble.

You would think the processor would be smart enough to stay powered up and connected to finish a task like this but apparently that's not in the programming.