A guide on manually updating your Ford Sync 3 based car to the latest Sync 3.4 version with the latest available maps.

REQUIREMENTS

A Ford/Lincoln vehicle with SYNC 3 installed

A USB Drive, depending on region and maps between 8-32GB

Revision:
3.0 (6th Dec 2023)
Published Date:
1st March 2020
Difficulty: 

Updating your car to SYNC 3.4

Introduction

The below instructions will guide you to easily and safely update your car to the latest version of SYNC 3, this is currently SYNC 3.4

Before continuing please review the below image.

If your car screen looks like the left side you are able to upgrade
if it looks like the right side you will need to replace your SYNC 2 unit with a SYNC 3 system.

If you need to replace your unit with SYNC 3 we recommend the upgrade kits available at NaviUpgrade

WARNING!

THIS WILL NOT WORK ON CARS MANUFACTURED ON OR AFTER 2020 (MY20), IT WILL “BRICK” YOUR UNIT.

You can use Syn3 Updater v2.6+ to update MY20 APIM's without reformatting
IF YOU PROCEED YOU WILL BE UNABLE TO RETURN TO ANYTHING BELOW 3.2 AFTER FOLLOWING THIS PROCEDURE.
I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR ACTIONS. THIS HAS BEEN EXTENSIVELY TESTED BY MANY PEOPLE WITH MANY DIFFERENT CARS WITH NO ISSUES.

NOTICE!

ONCE YOU HAVE INSERTED THE USB YOU WILL HAVE FORCED YOUR STEREO IN TO “FACTORY MODE” IT WILL NO LONGER BOOT NORMALLY UNTIL YOU COMPLETE THIS PROCESS!

Why Update?

  • Android Auto / Apple CarPlay (if you are on a really old version you may not already have this)
  • Android Auto navigation on the small screen in the Dash (IPC)
  • Much snappier and more responsive user interface
  • A nicer looking stock blue theme
  • Newer map data for the built in navigation
  • If you update your firmware (see our ford hub page) you can also get Radio logos and Calm Mode.

Requirements

  • You will need 1 USB drive between 8-32GB, 8GB is fine for non navigation, 32gb is recommended for navigation.

Mac OS Video Guide

If you are using a Mac computer please follow this video instead

Video created by NaviUpgrade

Updating to SYNC 3.4

Syn3 Updater 

If you have access to a windows computer we highly recommend using Syn3 Updater instead of this Manual Method
Get Syn3 Updater

NOTICE!

Please note that if you are already on SYNC 3.4.19274 or above you won’t be able to enter factory mode, please first downgrade using the downgrade guide
Download the following 2 files

Formatting the USB Drive

  1. Make sure your USB is MBR not GPT – Click for instructions
  2. Format the USB drive as exFAT in windows by right clicking the drive in This PC and pressing Format… and then make sure it’s set to exFAT and press Start.
  3. Copy the downloaded autoinstall.lst to the root of your USB drive, make sure it’s named autoinstall.lst.
  4. Create a folder called SyncMyRide in the root of your USB Drive.
  5. Copy 1u5t-14g386-cb.tar.gz (Reformat Tool) downloaded above to the newly created folder on your USB drive.
    Do not extract any TAR.GZ files!
FORD HAVE MADE SOME CHANGES TO THEIR BACKEND AND THEREFORE DIRECT DOWNLOADS ARE DISABLED, THIS IS LIKELY A CONFIGURATION ISSUE ON FORDS END AND WILL LIKELY BE FIXED

UNTIL THE ISSUE IS FIXED BY FORD, SYN3 UPDATER AND OUR MANUAL METHOD ARE OFFLINE!

THE BELOW 'GENERATE FILES AND CONFIG' WILL NOT WORK!

Downloading the files

To use our Cut Down Maps enter your license key otherwise leave this blank


Navigation Variants: Make sure to select a map version otherwise you will NOT have maps!
Non-Nav Variants: Do NOT select maps thinking it will install maps on your Non-Nav variant, it will not!



Checking the USB Drive

Once all files (reformat.lst, autoinstall.lst and all the relevant tar.gz files) have been downloaded and copied to your USB drive, your USB drive should look like the screenshot below with all your tar.gz files in the SyncMyRide subfolder.

Safely remove the USB Drive, go to your car and follow the Updating the car section below.

REMOVE ALL OTHER DEVICES FROM YOUR CAR SUCH AS OTHER USB DRIVES, SD CARDS ETC. IF YOU HAVE OTHER DEVICES INSERTED THIS WILL RESULT IN A RED SCREEN SAYING "ERROR UPDATE PACKAGE NOT FOUND"

Updating the car

  1. insert the USB drive in to your car with SYNC 3 and make sure the ignition/engine is on, you should see the following message.


  2. You will see the following message, do not remove the USB at this point, it will restart automatically in a few moments.


  3. Once the car has rebooted it will start the reformat process of SYNC 3 and will progress through the following screens, depending on the packages used it can take between 10-60 minutes.


  4. Once the install is complete you will see this screen, remove the USB and the SYNC 3 system should start!
    If it doesn’t turn the ignition off, open the car door, then close the door and turn the ignition back on.


  5. Once SYNC 3 is fully booted go to Settings > General > Master Reset
    This will clear a lot of bugs and other incorrect information and will be the first thing we tell you to do if you have any issues.

If you want to get Radio Logos and Calm Screen you will need to upgrade your calibration firmware, please refer to Upgrading the APIM Calibration Firmware.

Downgrading (from 3.4.1974 or higher to 3.4.19101)

Preparing the USB Drive

In order to use the reformat tool used in the main section of this guide you must be on versions below SYNC 3.4.19274 as the reformat tool was blocked on SYNC 3.4.19274 or above. You can however downgrade to an older version of SYNC 3.4 to be able to re-use the reformat tool.
  1. Download the following 3 files
  2. Make sure your USB is MBR not GPT – Click for instructions
  3. Format the USB drive as exFAT in windows by right clicking the drive in This PC and pressing Format… and then make sure it’s set to exFAT and press Start.
  4. Copy the downloaded autoinstall.lst to the root of your USB drive, make sure it’s named autoinstall.lst.
  5. Create a folder in the root of your USB Drive called SyncMyRide.
  6. Copy 5U5T-14G381-AP_1555085337000.TAR.GZ downloaded above to the newly created folder on your USB drive.
  7. Copy GB5T-14G386-SC_85041.tar.gz downloaded above to the newly created folder on your USB drive. Do not extract any TAR.GZ files!
  8. Safely remove the USB drive.

Downgrading the car

  1. Switch on your car ignition and insert the USB you will see the following message at the top.
  2. Once the install is complete you will see this screen.
  3. You should now be on version SYNC 3.4.19101 and can now re-use the reformat tool.

Additional Resources

Upgrade Feedback Form

Once you have updated and tested everything, please be so kind as to give back to this guide by filling in the upgrade feedback survey

CyanLabs Ford Hub

Visit our Ford Hub to find all the additional information regarding the stereo of your Ford car such as updating calibration, configuring asbuilt etc
View Ford Hub

Reworked some of the structure of the guide, fixing typos and improving readability

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