I tried forcing a format to FAT32 using Command Prompt but that returns an error “The Volume is too big for FAT32” I even tried Fat32Formater 3rd party app to try and force the format of 64GB to FAT32 but the BMW Download App still rejected it. This is where the fun happens, you cannot format a 64GB USB drive as FAT32 you can only format it as exFAT or NTFS but the BMW Download manager rejects exFAT and NTFS file formats and requests FAT32 but you simply can’t have a FAT32 formatted drive larger than 32GB! No problem, I have 64GB drives around too… So I put in a 32GB thumb drive and it says there’s not enough free space because 32GB is actually only 31.25GB (1024bits in a byte and all that fun stuff) which meant the 31.38GB it said it needed is actually too much to fit on a 32GB USB drive so you need a 64GB drive.

I left if going and when it was all done and downloaded it presented me with the following:

However, they cap the download speed, so what should have taken <1 hour on my 100mbps leased line took 18 hours. That’s all ok as BMW offer a nifty BMW Download Manager that handles the download to make sure such a large file download doesn’t get interrupted. If you purchase the latest version of GPS navigation maps from BMW you don’t receive a disc/DVD or over the air updates, you have to download a whopping 32GB of data to put onto a USB drive to carry out the update.

Download bmw navigation cd