Nokia :: Cannot Reinstall/update Maps

For as long as I can remember, Maps would crash on me whenever I'd go to Settings|Navigation. I read somewhere that reinstalling the application might fix this, so I uninstalled Maps - which apparently did not really uninstall it but only reverted it to version 2.0 - and then used Nokia Maps Updater to update it back to 3.0.

Of course, this being Nokia, nothing works as it should do, and so NMU tells me that everything's ok: "There are no new updates for your phone!". Every once in a while when I try NMU again, it does find an update, called Map Data Version 0.1.23.112, a very small download that does nothing to update Maps to 3.0.

I knew that one way of "resetting" Maps is to delete the "Cities" folder and the "QF" file. I did that and tried NMU again - still no update available. The next thing I did was a phone reset - no joy.

I thought I'd "reset" it a bit more if I go to Nokia Maps Loader and I manually delete all the stored maps. I did that, and NML had this to say: "Connection to the storage medium has been interrupted. Attach your storage medium and retry.", even though I was using the same sturdy USB cable connection I've always used with no hassles. After several retries, it probably deleted all the stored maps data, although this apparently did not help.

I then tried running the update file suggested in this post - that didn't do anything by way of allowing Maps to be updated by NMU either.

I then accustomed myself to the idea of having to go back to using Maps 2.0, but - unsurprisingly - this doesn't work either: whenever I open Maps, I receive the message "Cannot open application, install latest version from nokia.com/maps". Of course, if you go to that address you are told to use Nokia Maps Updater, and so we come full circle. Thank you, Nokia, for the quality time that we have to spend trying to compensate the lack of quality in your software.