Modifying your custom POI file, iGO.db

[Chromenut]

I'm going to try and make the process as easy as possible, but no matter what, it looks worse than it really is. Once you've done these steps a couple of time you'll see that creating custom POI's is much easier than you would think.

In this section I'm going to discuss how to pull the file from your Mio that stores your custom POI's, how to update and modify that file, and how to put it back into your Mio, but for now I won't be going into details on how to create a POI list itself. There are many many POI editor programs out there to assist in the creation of a POI list, and my examples here are using Google Earth to create a POI list.  Again, you can obtain many POI's in csv format on the internet, and later on I will discuss converting those to a useable format.

So, to get started, you'll need to download a copy of Google Earth (www.earth.google.com) and have it set up on your computer. You need to be somewhat familiar with it to be able to properly create a POI list.

STEP 1
Create a POI list in Google Earth, then save that list in KML format (KMZ also works, but is just a zipped version of KML, so might as well go with KML. In this example I've created a file "NASCAR Race Shops.kml".

STEP 2
Connect your Mio to your PC, and have Mio Transfer on and active and connected (I suggest the hack here as the stock Mio Transfer won't help).  Save the iGO.db file from your Mio device to your computer. You can do this via MioTransfer if you have the Mio Transfer Hack.exe program, or you can do this via MS ActiveSync and unlocking your Mio to access the file system. In our example here we've used the Mio Transfer hack to access the file system directly from the PC. How to load and use the Mio Transfer hack will be discussed in upcoming releases.  To find your iGO.db file, go to \My Flash Disk\MioMap\MioMap and you will see the file there. 

STEP 3
Open the iGO POI Explorer program. Import the iGO.db file into iGO POI Explorer. This is done by selecting File > Import > Import database from file...(offline) and selecting the iGO.db that you saved to your hard drive (iGO.db in this example).

This should be similar to what you see once you've uploaded iGO.db to POI Explorer (assuming your iGO.db file was already populated with some custom POIs):

STEP 4
Now Import the POI file into iGO POI Explorer. This is done by selecting File > Import > POIs from file... and selecting the NASCAR Race Shops.kml file that you saved to your hard drive in step 1.

This should be similar to what you see once you've uploaded the POI file:

So now you've got your iGO.db file loaded, and your POI file loaded (and by the way you can import multiple POI files into this, don't have to do just one), you can drag and drop to your iGO.db file and/or create folders for this.

Before combining your POI's with your iGO.db I suggest that you clean them up a bit, and by that I'd suggest you set up the appropriate Icons for them and put them in some kind of order. 

Here's a shot of how you can right-click and Select All of your POI's, then right-click again and select Change Icon....  In my example, I've changed from the default POI icon to the car icon.

Notice that in my iGO.db, under step 3 above, I've created a folder for Nascar, this equates to a Group in your Mio's My POI folder.  You will want to create a folder for each type of custom POI that you are going to define.  I suggest you place the folders in alphabetical order as I've done above. Makes it so much easier to find your POI's when your My POI groups are alphabetical.  The order shown here is the order displayed on your Mio when you click on My POIs.

STEP 5
Now, you've highlighted all your new custom POI's, and you've adjusted the icons appropriately, so while they are all highlighted simply left-click and drag and drop them into the iGO.db folder that you created. In this case I'd drag from the bottom to the Nascar folder in the top.  Now your iGO.db file is updated!

STEP 6
Okay, you've taken your POI's and added them to your iGO.db file, now you need to save it.  Click on the iGO POI Database at the top where you dropped your new POIs too, then simply follow similar steps as in step 3 above, File > Export > iGO database to file (offline)....  You overwrite your existing iGO.db, which is why I always keep a copy as backup.  Now all you have to do is go back to your MioTransferHack and reload your iGO.db back onto your Mio.

Once you've got them loaded, you should be able to go to your Mio, start up MioMap, go to My POI, and see your new folder.  In my example you can now see a Nascar folder, and in the second example are the POI's that were transferred to that folder.

Important item to note - I found out tonight in preparing this tutorial that the iGO POI Explorer program has some icons that do not coincide with the Mio icons.  If you happen to select one of these icons (and I don't know which ones they are), and load the iGO.db up, it will seem to be working fine, then when you try to select that POI, you will get a "Fatal Error" and your Mio will restart.  If this happens, go back to step 4 and change the icons to something else.

Note that the screenshots above show my Mio using the new Quicksilver v1.0 skin from Roscoe.

[navillust]

Thanks for the information so nicely laid out.   I have a problem however.    When I put the changed igo.db file back on the C310x (after I have added additional poi's ) I then exit CE environment and load Mio Maps.   I look at the "my poi" file and all of my added POI's are there...great,  but if I try to search I get a "fatal error" and it reboots.   Has this occured with you?   Thanks

[gopomo]

Thanks for the information so nicely laid out.   I have a problem however.    When I put the changed igo.db file back on the C310x (after I have added additional poi's ) I then exit CE environment and load Mio Maps.   I look at the "my poi" file and all of my added POI's are there...great,  but if I try to search I get a "fatal error" and it reboots.   Has this occured with you?   Thanks

I've had the same issues with fiddling with the iGo.db file, following Robin's instructions. Robin spent considerable time holding my hand thru efforts to get it right. I finally found that always using the original iGo.db file as the starting point, then adding POIs to that, a set at a time, finally saving and uploading the resulting iGo.db file, things worked OK. I thing the IGOEXPLORER is pretty buggy, and nearly completely intolerant of almost any little glitch. It also seems to "like" .kml file formats much better than .csv file inputs. I used IGOEXPLORER to change the convert the .csv files to .kml files, and it's been a lot more stable ever since.

[Chromenut]

I agree, any blank space, any hitch at all, in the conversion from iGO Explorer to your iGO.db file will corrupt it. It's got almost zero tolerance. 

I also firmly agree that it doesn't like to import POIs from CSV format.  I convert all of mine to KML first, and ever since then I've not had a single problem.

Remember something else too, if you are storing POI's manually (meaning you're adding POI's directly from the touch screen on your Mio), you want to back up that iGO.db file as it'll have those new POI's in there.  I usually back mine up to PC about once a month, more often if I'm working on it a lot.

I am going to try and finish my tutorial here in this thread today if at all possible. I got carried away doing other things and am trying to get to it.

[Chromenut]

Thanks for the information so nicely laid out.   I have a problem however.    When I put the changed igo.db file back on the C310x (after I have added additional poi's ) I then exit CE environment and load Mio Maps.   I look at the "my poi" file and all of my added POI's are there...great,  but if I try to search I get a "fatal error" and it reboots.   Has this occured with you?   Thanks

I did have this happen tonight.  As I said in my amended procedure way up above, I found out that there are certain icons that don't cross over from iGO Explorer to your Mio.  In my example, I had one icon for Lake Norman State Park, that was a good icon on the Explorer program, but when I searched for that it rebooted, and when I tried to open it, it rebooted, and when I tried to edit it, it rebooted.  All with the same "Fatal Error".  I pulled the file, changed the icon, reinstalled the iGO.db and now it's fine.  You might want to try that.

[dokotak]

hmm, it worked fine with a glitch.

Igo.db is updated correctly using igo explorer. However, after I upload the updated Igo.db, I went to my poi and new pois there, however, in the wrong group. I look at the igo.db in the igo explorer, the data is in the right group. I do not  now what is proble.

however, search is fine. I added wifi pois. when I search wifi, it does find wifi locatons. but. why it went in to the wrong group. All I need to edit the group name in MIO manually. but I still don't get it why it is doing that.

[Chromenut]

If you tried re-ordering the folders in the iGO.db then the POI's end up in the wrong place.  So let's say you want POI's 1 thru 3 in folder A, and they are in folder B, so you just move the folder, then your POI's will be in the wrong group.  The only way to reorder is to create a new file, create all your folders in the order you want them, then import from your current, dragging and dropping the POI's into their respective folders.

Not sure if I'm real clear there, but I had the same experience.

[dokotak]

well, I finally resolve the issue.
This is what I did.

Initially, I had 2POI groups in my MIO, Family and Friends.
I open the IGO.db with family and friends and save them as .KML file.

Then I deleted family and friends groups in IGO.db and imported 3 POI files that I downloaded. Exported the IGO.db with these 3 new POI groups.

Then I reimported IGO.db (with 3 POIs group saved). On top of them, I imported KML files and re-exported to generated IGO.db with all 5 POI Groups.

Synchonized back to my MIO. then it looked good.

I do not know still why it was not synchronized correctly with my initial tries, but at least I worked out good.

[JeffLHebert]

I've found that I have to start the description field in the POI Explorer with a NUMBER.  I wonder if when it exports the info back to the db, it is putting it into a field designed for phone numbers?  Luckily it seems to be a big field, and can hold a lot of text.

works fine:
     781-555-1212:Cell 

doesn't work:
    Cell: 781-555-1212

An open parenthesis seems to work too - if followed by a number:
   (781)-555-1212

I can also insert a line break using Ctrl/Enter.   The MIO draws a little square, but it does the line feed, so I'm happy.

[Chromenut]

Oh my, you may have answered my long burning dilemma on why I couldn't expand the description fields to fit all the data I wanted in them!!!

[JeffLHebert]

I can get two lines, and at 40 characters per line it looks good.  That was plenty for me to put in a land line and husband/wife cell phones for each contact.  If your line is longer than that, the MIO scales the text to fit the width of the screen.

YMMV, but at anything more than about 50 characters per line, it is too small for me to read.


-- Jeff

[A2Andrew]

Thanks for the fantastic tutorial/info on this - I got my C220 over the weekend and instantly fell in love - except that I wanted to load in all my friends' addresses, etc.  Now I can do it easily!

... Except.

I don't seem to have an iGo.db file *anywhere*.  I've saved some POIs "by hand" on the Mio, it stores them fine, I can call them up and navigate to them etc.  But there's no iGo.db file on the device at all - it just doesn't get created.

This is really bugging me - not quite to the "return it for the nuvi I can't afford" level, yet, but it's getting up there.  Any help would be greatly appreciated...

[Chromenut]

I've heard that iGo POI Explorer is hard to find on the internet, so I've uploaded a link here in step 3 of the tutorial to it so you can directly download it.