How to change the Home address on the Mazda Connect Maps App

Setting the Home address on Mazda’s Connect Navigation App is done during the first-time setup of the navigation App, set it and forget, but it’s not obvious how to change the Home address at a later time.

Here’s how to update the Home address on the MZD Connect Navigation App:

  1. Start your Mazda car and wait for the Mazda Connect platform to load
  2. Open the Navigation App
  3. Select Favourites from the Navigation menu
  4. Highlight the Home menu option
  5. Press and hold down the Commander button down for up to 5 seconds *
  6. Select Edit to update the Home address
  7. Set your City/Suburb, followed by Street and Number
  8. Save your changes

That’s it! 🙂

* The Commander button is shown as the main dial in the lead image above this Post that you use to interact with the Connect platform whilst driving.

Source: Mazdas247.com

How to turn off the Mazda Connect watchdog (auto-reboot)

By default Mazda Connect’s Watchdog service restarts the CMU on any error, to the general public this is a god send as the Watchdog resolves common issues by rebooting the system (e.g. Navi going silent, any screen lock-ups, etc.) but for developers this can have the unintended action of locking us out of SSH access from a simple mistyped character.

Here’s how to turn the Mazda Connect Watchdog service off, keep in mind this command only persists until the Mazda Connect system is rebooted (e.g. after turning the engine off for a short period of time).

echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio/Watchdog\ Disable/value

You can check if the Watchdog service is now inactive by running:

cat /sys/class/gpio/Watchdog\ Disable/value

There are ample instructions online for how to set up the above command to persist even after rebooting but I won’t provide this here.

That’s it! 🙂

How to download map updates for your 2017 Mazda 3 Maxx

  1. Visit the Mazda Connect update website
  2. Click the Download Mazda Toolbox menu link
  3. Click the Download for Windows button *1
  4. While the download is running click the Register link from the top menu to create a new Mazda Toolkit user account
  5. Open the confirmation e-mail and hit the link to verify your user account
  6. Open the installer once it has completed downloading (~20MB) and run it
  7. Retrieve the SD-card installed in your Mazda 3 from the center console, above the USB ports; it is protected by a rubber holder
  8. Insert the SD-card into your computer and ensure it is detected as a hard drive
  9. Open Mazda Toolbox from your computer
  10. Click Login from the opening screen using the user details entered above
  11. Click Available Updates to check for new map updates
  12. Click Install if a new map update is available
  13. Click Backup to save a backup of the existing map files on the SD-card
  14. Click Updates to load the latest map files onto the SD-card, be patient, this can take awhile…
  15. When the download and transfer is complete hit Exit to close Mazda Toolkit
  16. Remove the SD-card from your computer and re-insert it in the SD-card port of your Mazda 3
  17. Press the Start engine button once to initialize the infotainment system

That’s it! 🙂

*1 If you’re using a Mac then hit the Download for OS X button

Screenshots

How to soft reset the Mazda Connect infotainment system

If the Mazda CMU freezes or locks up while driving – or if for any reason you need to reset the CMU – you can reset it without turning off the ignition by pressing the following button combination and holding it for 10 seconds:

BACK + MUTE + NAV

The infotainment screen will go black then display the Mazda logo as the unit finishes rebooting.