Ford SYNC 3 - Manual Method - Update to 3.4

Difficulty:

Updating your car to SYNC 3.4

Introduction

Follow this guide to easily and safely update your car to the latest version of SYNC 3, this is currently SYNC 3.4
If you car looks like the left side of this picture you are able to upgrade. otherwise you are out of luck!

Here are some of the benefits of upgrading

  • Android Auto navigation on the small screen in the Dash Cluster / Speedo. (potentially car play aswell)
  • Much snappier and more responsive user interface
  • A nicer looking stock blue theme
  • Newest map data for SatNav
  • If you update your firmware (see our ford hub page) you can also get Radio logos and Calm Mode.
  • There are probably others, if you know of any let me know and i will add them here.
THIS WILL NOT WORK ON CARS MANUFACTURED 2020 (MY20), IT WILL “BRICK” YOUR UNIT DO NOT TRY THIS ON 2020 CARS.

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

Requirements

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

Manual Method

1. Downloading the reformat tool

If you are on Windows we highly recommend using the automated method

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

  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 downloaded above to the newly created folder on your USB drive.
    Do not extract any TAR.GZ files!
  6.  

2. Downloading the update 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!


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!




Once you have downloaded all the files and placed them on your USB drive it should look like this with all your tar.gz files in the SyncMyRide folder.

Safely remove the USB Drive, go to your car and follow the Installing the update 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"

Installing the update

  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 i tell you to do if you have any issue.

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

THE WINDOWS APPLICATION HAS BEEN UPDATED TO IMPLEMENT THIS FUNCTION, FOR EASE OF USE PLEASE USE THAT!

In order to use the reformat tool 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 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.

 

Installing the update

  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.
    please note Gracenotes was removed as part of the downgrade, follow the step by step in the application or the manual guide from the start to install your desired version with gracenotes, maps etc.

 

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
View FeedbackSubmit Feedback

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
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