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Map Loader for Nokia N900 (Windows 7 and Vista fix included)

Home » Tutorials » Map Loader for Nokia N900 (Windows 7 and Vista fix included)

Map Loader for Nokia N900

If you have previously used a Nokia NSeries device or some other smartphone that had support for Ovi or Nokia Maps you know that you can preload maps for the countries you want on your device. Now this feature is available for Nokia N900 too. Why it is useful, well it not only speeds up the process of using maps on your device, but also cuts costs on your data plan for loading the maps as you go. So it is quite useful to have the maps for the countries you use the most preloaded on your Nokia N900.

How to preload maps on your Nokia N900

Download and install Nokia PC Suite if you don't have it already on your device
Download and install Nokia Maps Loader
Open the Maps app on your N900 wait for it to load and close it.
Connect your N900 in PC Suite Mode via the USB cable
Run Map Loader App on your PC and load the maps you want

Windows 7 and Vista problems possible fix

Now this works great on Windows XP but on Vista and Windows 7 64bit there are problems that prevent the Map Loader from working properly. (This might be the case with other operating systems or even the bug might be non OS related but on XP Map Loader worked fine) So what to do if you get this error:

Map Loader for Nokia N900 Error

"You have connected at least one phone without a valid Maps drive. Either you are using an old Maps version - then you must update your Maps application or reconnect your phone in mass storage mode - or you have never started your Maps application..."

After rebooting preinstalling and reinstalling I still got the same error from Map Loader. So I did a little poking around and found out that it was actually looking for a file in the /home/user/MyDocs/ folder named qf I already had a .qf file but why it was looking for a one without the dot in front of it, I have no idea. I opened the .qf file with Vim (a text editor for N900) and here is what I got:

Map Loader for Nokia N900 Error

It seems like the file contained some kind of info for the Maps app that the Map Loader needed. So, if it is looking for a non dot file, I will give it one. I made a copy of the file without the dot and started Map Loader again. And it worked. So what to do if you are unable to start your Map Loader to load maps on Nokia N900. Open X Terminal and execute the following command:

cp /home/user/MyDocs/.qf /home/user/MyDocs/qf

Start Map Loader again and load all the maps you need. Just make sure before you run this command you have opened the Maps app at least once and when you run it, the Maps app is closed.

Map Loader for Nokia N900 (Windows 7 and Vista fix included)

Comments: Map Loader for Nokia N900 (Windows 7 and Vista fix included)

Posted by jarandehie on Saturday, March 06, 2010 17:45

it doesn't work

Posted by Dimitar on Saturday, March 06, 2010 18:02

It does work for me,cheers for the tutorial :) There is one thing that is missing though...the turn-by-turn voice navigation.You can download various voices, but can't really use them.Hope they implement this feature soon :)

Posted by Mikele on Saturday, March 06, 2010 18:04

A bit more info would be appreciated what OS what you did? Anything? I have vista and this worked find.

Posted by Goce Bonev on Saturday, March 06, 2010 18:10

The turn by turn navigation is available for Nokia N97 if I recall right and it will be soon available for N900 I think

Posted by X2m on Saturday, March 06, 2010 18:13

i have xp and I had the same problem thanks for this tip on how ti fix it works for xp too

Posted by SharkMachine on Sunday, March 07, 2010 11:58

Cool... Thanks for the help. Works fine for me :D.

Posted by Megajuan17 on Sunday, March 07, 2010 16:40

Does work for me, but maps apears with few street and i can´t see other view as saltelite, land, etc. I load maps of Venezuela y Colombia and i can see them without internet conexion. I didn´t find the voice´s opcion. Thank you

Posted by Goce Bonev on Sunday, March 07, 2010 16:47

@Megajuan17 the maps are the same you use via internet connection. But for the terrain and satellite maps you still need the connection. After preloading the maps I noticed that the Maps app is working faster, simply because it does not require loading them via the net every time I scroll to a place.

Posted by n900_my_thing on Sunday, March 07, 2010 21:26

thanks man..worked for me..

Posted by Th on Monday, March 08, 2010 10:08

How to execute that command? should i change my phone in english?

Posted by X2m on Monday, March 08, 2010 10:35

@Th Click the menu on your home screen go to More... and click the X Terminal icon. After that enter the command! No need to change your phone to English or any other language.

Posted by pez on Tuesday, March 09, 2010 22:41

worked for me. thanks heaps

Posted by amir on Friday, March 12, 2010 20:54

it works for me too! tnx great R&D

Posted by mario on Saturday, March 13, 2010 18:56

Yes, this worked for me too. (win7x64)

Posted by SharkMachine on Saturday, March 13, 2010 20:04

Works fine...

Posted by rasit on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 20:10

Thanks for the tutorial/fix. I was wondering if anyone tried to upload *all* the maps to N900? For some reason, Maps Loader thinks that there is only 5.5GB sotrage (I have 16GB microSD)...

Posted by Angel on Thursday, March 18, 2010 18:12

works fine for me. Thanks a lot

Posted by hans on Saturday, March 20, 2010 10:09

how do I actually execute this command? putting "exec" in front of it, doesn't work :(

Posted by eksu on Sunday, March 21, 2010 17:44

cheers mate worked like a charm! :)

Posted by Carl on Sunday, March 21, 2010 18:29

It works! Thank you very much.

Posted by erkk on Monday, March 22, 2010 09:29

will this work without a data connection now. ?

Posted by batjargal on Monday, March 22, 2010 11:03

Thank you very much. It worked.

Posted by Micke on Monday, March 22, 2010 15:26

Does not work for me. :(

Posted by Robert on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 23:32

It is working now! Thanx

Posted by Alexander on Saturday, March 27, 2010 21:31

thx a lot. it works perfectly on my windows 7

Posted by mavericke on Monday, March 29, 2010 14:59

Good work!!! Many thanks!!!

Posted by Rasit on Monday, March 29, 2010 16:46

good work!

Posted by Hussian Berro on Wednesday, March 31, 2010 04:12

Thanks Man it worked it :)

Posted by Russo on Wednesday, March 31, 2010 06:15

Worked like a charm!!! Now I can use without 3G.

Posted by thamcore on Friday, April 02, 2010 15:52

same problem with e71 for 3 years tried all suggestions. qf files do not have dot

Posted by stephen woodhouse on Saturday, April 03, 2010 01:44

Based on this post I found a fix for this on an E71. I copied the QF file from the memory card to the phone memory (root directory) and it worked fine. Now I'm downloading a 2GB file...

Posted by Raj on Sunday, April 04, 2010 00:24

Excellent. Worked very well.

Posted by Rishi on Sunday, April 04, 2010 10:07

Yes, it worked for me. I have to select Nokia PC Suite Mode after the change of qf file and start the Map Loader. Thanks.

Posted by Mr.Gosh on Sunday, April 04, 2010 13:05

Works fine - also over "Mass Storage" you can connect to the N900 and just copy the ".qf" over to "qf". In Windows or MacOS you have to enable the "show hidden Files" Option...

Posted by advark on Thursday, April 08, 2010 06:07

sweet....this works....ur the man!!

Posted by seip on Monday, April 12, 2010 12:47

worked, just need put spaces, how there is shown

Posted by Victor on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 16:23

Well, I have no .qf file. There is no /home/user/MyDocs/ directory either... so this does not work for me.

Posted by il noddi on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 16:59

Yeah, il works fine! Love this xterminal thing, reminds me of good ole' days spent in front of a linux station...

Posted by concrete_sample on Monday, April 19, 2010 22:19

It works fine. For N900 and Win7 I did following: openned .qf from windows (use for example FAR file manager); copied content from .qf to qf text file; 3) connected N900 in PC Suite mode; run Map Loader as administrator in Win XP SP3 compatibility mode. If you want to upload all the maps (do not understand for what are you doing it) you should change the disk quota described as quota:5868709120, this size is in bytes (1 kb = 1024 b, 1 Mb = 1024 kb and so on). But better you do not. I do not think you ever come to Belarus or something like that. BR

Posted by Jouni on Tuesday, May 04, 2010 02:11

Thanks, your instructions worked GREAT!

Posted by Tran Phu on Tuesday, May 04, 2010 06:35

i can't do any good,can anybody show me step by step please?

Posted by Hrvoje on Sunday, May 09, 2010 22:27

Great job man... That solved my problem and I could update my maps... It's not 3.03 program, but at least I have new maps... You have my vote to be employee of the century in Nokia headquoter

Posted by rfa on Thursday, May 13, 2010 14:09

Thank you!

Posted by farzad on Friday, May 14, 2010 08:34

if it doesn't work for you, just restart your phone and pc ( laptop) and change your usb port , after this of course it works.

Posted by Lakshman on Thursday, June 24, 2010 13:08

Works splendidly. Thanks mate! :-)

Posted by n900newuser on Monday, September 27, 2010 15:43

I did all that you said. Worked excellently. So once this is done, can I use the maps offline? Do I need to sync my phone with the PC to do this? How can I make it work can you explain please?

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Posted by Prakash R on Thursday, February 17, 2011 10:15

Worked like charm.. Thanks a lot..

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