prepare-audi-maps

A macOS command-line utility that prepares a USB flash drive for Audi / VW MIB2 navigation map updates from an official map package ZIP (e.g. HIGH2_P450_EU_202625.zip).

It verifies the package, formats the drive as MBR + FAT32, copies the package to the USB root, and strips the macOS metadata (._*, .DS_Store, .Spotlight-V100, .fseventsd) that is commonly blamed for MIB2 units rejecting a drive.

Scope of what we know. This tool was written to solve one real case: a MIB2 High that would not recognize an ExFAT USB stick, but accepted the identical map package on the same stick reformatted as FAT32. That single result — plus widely-reported community advice — is what informs the choices below. We have not tested across MIB firmware versions, regions, or car models, so treat the confident-sounding claims as "what worked for us and is commonly recommended," not as verified fact for every unit.

FAT32 is the default because it's the format these updates ship on and the one we saw work; ExFAT reportedly goes unrecognized on some units (in our case the car didn't detect the ExFAT stick at all — symptom: "no update available", as if the port were empty). Pass --exfat only for a package containing a file larger than FAT32's 4 GB limit — the script refuses such a package on FAT32 and tells you.

Is this for you?

Use this if all of these are true:

• You are on macOS (Ventura or newer) and want to write a USB stick for an Audi or VW MIB2 navigation map update.
• You already have an official map package ZIP (e.g. HIGH2_P450_EU_202625.zip, containing metainfo2.txt + Mib1/Mib2).
• The car won't accept a stick you prepared on a Mac — it says "no update available / found", doesn't detect the USB at all, or aborts mid-update.

Two things are commonly blamed for this, and the tool addresses both:

1. macOS metadata. Finder and Spotlight quietly write hidden files (._*, .DS_Store, .Spotlight-V100, .fseventsd) onto drives they touch. The MIB2 updater is widely reported to trip over these — either during its scan or because the file set no longer matches metainfo2.txt.
2. Wrong filesystem. These updates ship as FAT32 + MBR. ExFAT (or a GPT partition table) reportedly goes unrecognized on some units — in our one case, a MIB2 High didn't see an ExFAT stick at all.

The tool formats the drive as FAT32 + MBR, copies the package to the root, and strips the macOS metadata (including the extended attributes macOS otherwise rewrites at eject).

This tool does not: source, download, generate, or unlock map data — you bring your own legally-obtained package. It targets MIB2 — we confirmed it on a MIB2 High; MIB2 Standard likely behaves the same but we haven't tested it. Other generations (MIB1-only cars, MIB3) use a different update flow. Windows/Linux are out of scope — use it on a Mac.

===========================================
 Audi / VW MIB2 Map USB Creator
 Version 1.1.0
===========================================
==> Map package: /Users/you/Downloads/HIGH2_P450_EU_202625.zip
✓ ZIP verified
SHA-256: 47fc53…
✓ Package structure detected

Package summary
  Region:   Europe
  Contains:
    ✓ metainfo2.txt
    ✓ Mib1
    ✓ Mib2

Detected USB drives:
  1) Kingston DataTraveler 3.0  (disk4)
     Volume:     KINGSTON          # the drive as found — reformatted to AUDIMAPS
     Filesystem: ExFAT
     Capacity:   61.9 GB

Requirements

• macOS 13 Ventura or newer (Sonoma, Sequoia and later work; Intel and Apple Silicon are both supported).
• Only stock system tools are used: zsh, diskutil, plutil, unzip, rsync, shasum, dot_clean, mdutil. No Homebrew dependencies.
• A USB drive at least as large as the unpacked map package (16–64 GB depending on region).
• Free space on the boot volume (or $TMPDIR) for the extracted package.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/nnc/prepare-audi-maps.git
cd prepare-audi-maps
chmod +x prepare-audi-maps.zsh

# optional: put it on your PATH
ln -s "$PWD/prepare-audi-maps.zsh" /usr/local/bin/prepare-audi-maps

Usage

# interactive — the script asks for the ZIP (drag & drop works)
./prepare-audi-maps.zsh

# direct — relative or absolute path, quotes and spaces are fine
./prepare-audi-maps.zsh HIGH2_P450_EU_202625.zip
./prepare-audi-maps.zsh "~/Downloads/HIGH2_P450_EU_202625.zip"

Option	Effect
--verify-copy	After copying, re-compare source and USB with checksums (rsync -c). Reads every byte twice; slow but airtight.
--dry-run	Validate the ZIP, show detected drives and the plan; change nothing.
--skip-format	Keep the existing volume (must already be FAT32 or ExFAT).
--exfat	Format as ExFAT instead of FAT32. Only needed for a package with a file over FAT32's 4 GB limit; FAT32 is the tested default.
--no-eject	Leave the drive mounted when finished.
-v, --verbose	Extra diagnostics.
-q, --quiet	Only warnings, errors and prompts.
-h, --help	Help.
--version	Version.

Every run appends to prepare-audi-maps.log in the current directory (ZIP path, SHA-256, selected disk, timestamps, errors).

What a run does

1. Tests the ZIP with unzip -t and prints its SHA-256.
2. Locates metainfo2.txt inside the archive — at the ZIP root or inside a single wrapper directory — before extracting, so a wrong file fails in seconds, not after a 30 GB extraction. Anything else is rejected.
3. Extracts to a temporary directory (removed automatically, also on Ctrl-C).
4. Detects USB drives via diskutil's plist output (no fragile text parsing) and shows a numbered menu: volume, filesystem, capacity, disk id.
5. Asks you to type YES, then erases the drive as MBR + FAT32 (or ExFAT with --exfat) and verifies the resulting partition scheme and filesystem.
6. Disables Spotlight indexing (.metadata_never_index) and suppresses the filesystem-events journal (.fseventsd/no_log) before any data lands.
7. Copies with rsync (progress shown, timestamps preserved; re-running resumes an interrupted copy).
8. Removes all macOS metadata: runs dot_clean, clears extended attributes (xattr -rc), and deletes .DS_Store, ._*, .Spotlight-V100, .Trashes.
9. Verifies metainfo2.txt sits at the USB root with no wrapper folder, lists the root, optionally checksum-verifies (--verify-copy), and ejects.

Installing in the car

Insert the USB into a car USB port — location varies by model (glovebox, centre console, or under the armrest), and some cars only update from one of them, so try each. Then, roughly: MENU → Setup MMI → System maintenance → System update (the exact wording differs across model years). Keep the engine running or a charger connected; large updates can take 30–60 minutes.

Examples

# the works: format, copy, clean, checksum-verify, eject
./prepare-audi-maps.zsh --verify-copy ~/Downloads/HIGH2_P450_EU_202625.zip

# see what would happen without touching anything
./prepare-audi-maps.zsh --dry-run HIGH2_P450_EU_202625.zip

# drive already formatted, just refresh the files
./prepare-audi-maps.zsh --skip-format HIGH2_P450_EU_202625.zip

# boot disk too small for the extracted package? extract elsewhere
TMPDIR=/Volumes/BigDisk/tmp ./prepare-audi-maps.zsh HIGH2_P450_EU_202625.zip

Why macOS metadata can break Audi MMI updates

This is the commonly-reported explanation, not something we reverse-engineered from the firmware: the MIB2 updater scans the drive for metainfo2.txt and reads the package expecting only the files it lists. macOS, meanwhile, decorates every volume it touches:

• .DS_Store — Finder view settings, written into every browsed folder.
• ._* (AppleDouble) files — ExFAT/FAT32 can't store extended attributes or resource forks, so macOS writes them as hidden ._name companion files next to the real ones.
• .Spotlight-V100 — the Spotlight search index.
• .fseventsd — the filesystem-events journal, (re)written at eject.
• .Trashes — per-volume trash.

The theory is that the updater trips over these unexpected entries during its scan, or fails validation because the file set no longer matches metainfo2.txt; the reported symptom is "No update found" or an update that aborts partway. We can't confirm the exact mechanism, but stripping the metadata is cheap insurance and does no harm.

This tool removes all of the above after copying, and additionally plants two guard files (.metadata_never_index and .fseventsd/no_log) that discourage macOS from re-creating its metadata when the drive is ejected. These are ordinary hidden files; we haven't seen a unit object to them.

Two macOS behaviors we did verify (on macOS Tahoe) shape the implementation:

• Deleting ._* files is not enough. macOS keeps the underlying extended attributes (e.g. com.apple.provenance) cached and writes them back as fresh ._ files at eject. The tool therefore clears the xattrs themselves (xattr -rc) as the final write, which verifiably keeps the volume clean across an eject cycle.
• mdutil -i off is deliberately not used: on current macOS it creates .Spotlight-V100 (to store the disabled flag), and on FSKit-mounted exFAT volumes that directory cannot be deleted without root. Planting .metadata_never_index before any file lands prevents the index from ever being created in the first place.

Troubleshooting

No USB drives detected

• The script only lists external, physical, USB whole-disks. Direct-plug the drive; some hubs and SD readers enumerate differently.
• Check the drive appears in diskutil list external physical.
• The script offers a rescan prompt — replug and press Enter.

eraseDisk fails with "restricted by Sandbox" (-69464)

• Recent macOS requires the terminal app to hold the Removable Volumes permission before it may erase external drives. Enable it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Files & Folders → your terminal app, or grant it Full Disk Access (apps with Full Disk Access show no separate Removable Volumes toggle — that's expected).
• The grant only applies to processes started afterwards: quit the terminal app completely (Cmd+Q) and reopen it, then re-run. A tab or window opened before the grant keeps the old permissions.
• Still blocked? Erase once by hand and skip the format step: sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 AUDIMAPS MBR diskN, then re-run this tool with --skip-format. (Or format in Disk Utility: View → Show All Devices → select the device → Erase → MS-DOS (FAT), Master Boot Record.)

eraseDisk fails otherwise

• Something is holding the volume (Spotlight, antivirus, an open Finder copy). Wait a few seconds and retry; replug the drive if it persists.
• Very old/failing sticks can't be partitioned — try another drive.

.Spotlight-V100 is on the drive and won't delete

• Something (often a manual mdutil -i off) created it; on FSKit exFAT mounts it is root-protected. Reformat with this tool — the .metadata_never_index guard stops it from coming back.

The car says "No update found" / "no update available"

• If the car reacts to the stick but reports no update: the package region/version likely doesn't match what your MMI firmware accepts. A P450 (MIB2 High) package is meant for MIB2 High, not Standard, and some units are reported to need activation (FeC) for newer map releases.
• If the car does not see the stick at all (as if the port were empty): the filesystem is a likely culprit — reformat as FAT32 (the default; drop --exfat). This is the exact case we hit: a MIB2 High ignored a 64 GB ExFAT stick but read the identical package on the same stick as FAT32.
• Confirm metainfo2.txt is at the USB root (the script verifies this).
• Try the other USB port; some cars are reported to update from only one.

Copy is slow

• USB 2.0 ports and cheap sticks write at 5–15 MB/s; a 25 GB package can take an hour. Use a USB 3.0 stick in a USB 3.0 port.

Not enough temp space

• Extraction needs the unpacked package size in $TMPDIR. Point it at a bigger volume: TMPDIR=/Volumes/BigDisk/tmp ./prepare-audi-maps.zsh …

Known issues

• ShellCheck does not parse zsh, so the script cannot be machine-checked by it; the code follows ShellCheck-clean practices (full quoting, no word splitting, explicit error handling) and is syntax-checked with zsh -n.
• macOS 15.4+ ships openrsync in place of classic rsync. The script only uses flags both implementations support; if you installed rsync via Homebrew, that one is used instead (first in PATH) and also works.
• --skip-format uses the drive's first partition. Multi-partition layouts are unusual on map USBs; reformat (default mode) if in doubt.
• The MMI itself may reject GPT-partitioned drives; the script formats MBR and warns if --skip-format finds GPT.

License

MIT