Becker Map Pilot Update Drama

Some cars have a satnav called Becker Map Pilot. Somewhere in it’s name there also appears “Harman”. It’s unclear to me if they’re related to the audio equipment manufacturer.

Anyhoo, recently, I wanted to update the maps, having not done so for the past 3+ years. Time has really flown by, but USB continues to be an occasionally painful experience, and Becker doesn’t make it as easy as it should be to update the maps in 2018.

To start with, it was a pain to lay my hands on a mini-B USB cable (can’t blame them for that one). Once that was sorted, I discovered that the Content Manager Software doesn’t work on a Mac. No problem, I thought. Easy enough to lay my hands on a Windows machine.

If you want to update the Becker map pilot, you need the Content Manager software. When you google “becker content manager download”, you’re led to a link which gives you the wrong software. It installs and pretends to be searching, but it will never detect your module because your module is not compatible with this version (version 7).

If you install the Content manager software that shows up as a CDROM drive when you plug your module (lots of flakiness just getting this to detect and stay detected as mass storage in Windows 10), you will find out that it is unable to connect to any of the online services you need (the web store in particular). As the years have rolled by, SSL 3.0 has become obsolete, and Becker turned off support for this protocol on their website, and this leaves old versions unusable.

Download Becker Content Manager Version 6

Lucky for you, you can get yourself the Correct Becker Content Manager which uses a more modern version of SSL and can thus connect to the web store: https://www.beckermappilot.com/contentmanager/Setup.exe 

If you use a mac and wish to try (I didn’t test): https://www.beckermappilot.com/contentmanager/BeckerContentManager.dmg

You can select which version to download by yourself: https://www.beckermappilot.com/contentmanager/

USB Detection Issues

Getting a reliable USB connection was difficult and tedious in my experience. I found in most cases that if you reboot your computer (I used Windows 10), and clicked the Reset button on the Map Pilot Module before plugging it back in, you had higher chances of getting the device recognised correctly. Then you launch the content manager and perform your tasks.

If the Unit keeps dropping it’s connection and disappearing from the file explorer, chances are high that the battery is no longer able to hold a charge. You may wish to consider replacing it (and charging it fully before trying to re-sync). As far as I know, you can only charge it by driving around for a few hours, which for me means a few days of commuting. With a newer battery, the connection was stable long enough to synchronise the Europe 2018 maps in one go.

15 thoughts to “Becker Map Pilot Update Drama”

  1. Thank you for posting this information, I was going mad until i read your post. I hope this information is read by Becker and be posted for all other customers. Thank you very much again.

    Murdoch.

  2. Thanks for the research you did and posting this information it’s been a great help especially the links to Becker content manager version 6 thankyou

  3. So I managed to get my Mac to “see” the Becker unit. Now The content manager cant connect to the online shop. Great.

  4. The becker content manager is attempting to connect to your becker navigation device. Please ensure that your device is connected to the computer. Cancel search and close becker content manager. Any feedback on this please…?

  5. Same case waiting on a new battery to at least connect and restore the old but original gps files, I was mad until i got the connection needs a full battery in the device

  6. Same problem with mine,
    Now it is not detect by my computer. So impossible to update even with a new battery.

  7. I tried to do a firmware update on mine and it failed (Froze) before the end. My unit is now a brick.
    Neither the van or the computer will see it. On the van screen I see a brief message saying: “Can’t find the upgrade packages” before displaying that there is no module connected.

    Anyone has a solution?

    1. Sorry if you’ve already got rid of this product, but you need to contact Becker, this is a common issue when buying second hand units… basically they cannot handle being registered twice so acts as a theft protocol and shuts down. Their instruction will help you resolve it.

      1. Thanks for your suggestion.
        I will contact them about that but I’m afraid that since it crashed during a firmware update it’s now a brick…

        1. I had similar issues, but persisted time & time again to try & get it seen by computer, I ended up instantly formatting it & my persistence paid off when Becker program re synced it, I then just copied & pasted my old maps back on & all good. Every single unit can be fixed with knowledge because company’s out there advertise the service to reload maps to any unit working or not.

          1. Any advice in my case?
            My units file structure got corrupted and I’m trying to do a total factory reset but with no luck.
            I don’t have a backup of the maps but I have no issues getting Content Manager to recognize the unit in the PC.
            Only it cannot do anything with it.
            I have tried the GCMRecovery.exe file but the reinstall process stops with a “Package Dependency Failure Detected”.
            I was then adviced by the friendly but not really helpful support phone to purchase the latest maps but the purchase process (from within content manager) ends with an error after I have provided my credit card details.

  8. Thanks for the info about the battery – my initial download kept hanging, and I didn’t notice that the USB device had become unavailable. New HJS100 ordered, so hopefully that will clear the problem and I can charge it up and purchase the new maps.

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