Hi All

Having an issue with maps in my car and was wondering if anyone seen it before or at least can confirm the same is not happening to them.

I have a 2020 C-Class C300 Convertible (A205) facelift model with NTG5.5 and Excellence package that should give me pretty much all digital extras.

There are two issues that I am having, one is that I cannot activate online map update in Mercedes portal an the other one is being constantly nagged to update the maps in the app.

When following the the map update in the portal I am being presented with the map and message that the car was last time synchronised nearly 1500 days ago. As I bought it used it looks like something that happened in car early years an was never noticed/fixed

I can do manual update but every time there is a new map update I have to download nearly 60GB of maps and sit through 2h update in the car.

Dealer is saying that the car might not be compatible with online map update but MB support are saying otherwise, both don't offer any solutions though :/

Would be great to resolve this but at least confirm this is happening/not happening to others ...

Thanks

 

Are you getting any online services at all, is the HERMES (mb calls it) module working?

 

Yes, everything else is working, remote locking/unlocking, flashing lights, geolocation, stats, send address to car, etc. Its just maps that are not.
If i could get a screenshot of someone elseses system showing their car is synced i would have a stronger case with MB

 

Ok that does means you have a working module. Do you need all those areas, if you only need a specific region the update could be way smaller. You could also try another MB dealership.

 

Thats the second one already, first one was not even able to check the version :/
Of course i can but thats not the point, i paid a lot of money for this and was assured all those digital extras are compatible with the car. If that's not the case and everyone has the same problem its ok, I will get a refund but if there is a problem with my car I want it fixed as I really like it as this has been going for a while now it become a matter of principle as well ...

 

You can do the update yourself using the Mercedes DLM on your computer and a USB drive. Only works if you have a COMMAND ONLINE headunit, not AUDIO20 (garmin sd card navigation)

https://dm.mercedes-benz-customer-so...navigation.exe

 

Fair enough although part of your subscription is the maps itself. Without the subscription you can't get the maps so can't download it manually either.

 

OP understands and just want OTA updates and not having to manually download updates.

 

Like I mentioned in a previous post, OTA depends on Mercedes's servers rollout for OTA. If a map update is really needed, they can either perform the update themselves or go pay the dealer to do it for them.

 

That is true except OP haven't got an OTA update for a few years now, OTA updates are a staged roll out but in OP's specific case, it is like a student (OP's car) shown up to class and the student is not on the attendance list and the server (the teacher) is unaware of this student/not registered.

 

When I still had an active subscription the OTA map updates worked here in the USA. However, I rarely updated the map that way, because OTA only updates the home region. So I almost always downloaded them manually to an SD card and then updated the maps in the car. You don’t have to sit through the update. You can just leave the SD card or USB stick connected and it will perform the update in the background while the car is driven. It pauses the update when you park and then resumes it again next time you drive. Depending on how much you drive the update will complete sooner or later. The subscription includes the map updates, whether you install them via OTA or by manually downloading them.

 

If you enter your VIN on a Mercedes-database backed car lookup website (I don't want to break the rules by promoting...), you can see the SA codes of the vehicle.

Here is an example of a W213 with NTG5.5 (my fathers) with SA code "502", titled "Multi-year map updates":


This entitles the vehicle to three years of map updates from initial registration (so 1st owner) and then can be renewed again if you're a new owner, through Mercedes Me.

I am also typing this in a GENERIC point of view, in case other people come visit this thread.

Now let's look into why OP, outright did not receive any update. NTG5.5 (W213, W205F, W222F, etc), was one of* the first generation of cars to include what was called at the time "HERMES". This is a ECU with a eSIM that connects to a network provider and sends telemetry data for Mercedes Me, and can assist with performing OTA software updates. *(fully integrated end-to-end)

The issue with HERMES from what I've seen, and explained in other threads, that it might be that in the past 1400 days, your car might have been offline/not had Mercedes Me activation or a simple fault with the module, and the difference between the currently installed navigation in your car is low compared to the latest version and NTG5.5 has an issue with updating in some cases. The latest version for NTG5.5 in North America is V30, released in November 2025.

Now let's look back to the issue I described, perhaps the HERMES controller is making some prerequisite checks and deciding to not update the navigation on its own BECAUSE NTG5.5 high version jumps can result in the navigation getting completely corrupted. When this issue surfaced, Mercedes released a map update called "ERASE", that completely deletes the current data in the vehicle, and then you install whatever version you want, a dealer/service provider usually does this first before installing an update.

If OP is interested in going down the route of installing the update themselves, I am happy to provide a license key for the installation instead of needing to go to the dealer, and this can serve as an example of what someone should do if they encounter this issue. NOTE: This is only for this thread and issue, please do not spam me for free pins. Find them online by googling "mercedes navigation pin"

The benefit of manually installing the software yourself is that you are effectively updating ALL the data in the region, not specific parts, etc. You are using the Mercedes DLM to create a installation USB containing the full data that is then copied to the car.

 

The first thing that came to mind when OP say they didn't get any updates, was the HERMES retrofitted and done properly but they stated they are getting other connected features so not sure what happened.

 

First of all apologies to everyone for late reply and thank you for your messages

to reiterate i have a workaround for this problem, what I am looking for is either a fix or a confirmation that this is affecting every car with this system (as my dealer is stating)

few things to clarify
- the car came with hermes from factory, no retro fits etc. (Hardware: STAR2_3 - HERMES2FU2 Firmware: SOP - NTG55)
- there was a 3 year map update plan from new and I got that extended by another 3 years through digital extras Excellence Package
- the latest map that is showing for me in UK/Europe is v29 and this is the version that is currently installed in the car
- because of the sync issue I am being asked to do the update from V20 (for UK) or V17 (for Europe)

I suspect that the update was done at least once for UK from V17 to V20 and then it stopped working. How and if it was done I have no idea or proof. This week I have managed to get the info from a dealer what was looking after the car for first 3 years that they do not have any records of updating the map.

@DavidIlie can erase procedure be done by me? I could try reverting it to base version and then checking if the car will sync. Dealer done a hermes reset (I have seen all extras deactivating and activating) but that di not help.

Also am I right in thinking that even with expired subscription the car should be syncing with MB servers and notify about new map version in the app?



PS. probably something for a different thread but I cannot decode my VIN though any of the decoders I found online ...

 

OP, I think it is a general issue with MB's update logic, not your specific vehicle or model having the issue, some forum members are reporting that over the air map updates are not reliable https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w...ml#post9288561