How do you update Waze maps?

How much are you paying to do that?

Since WAZE is a free APP there is no charge. Maps get updated within the APP.
periodically I delete APP and reinstall.. It's FREE

I use the GPS all the time but I use either google maps or imaps and have never had any issues.

Please, please please, once you try to go through neighborhoods you are wrong. Keep to the major roads to take you to any of the courses, shopping or anything you need.

It amazes me how many people don't read the OP.

I use WAZE extensively in and around The Villages. It almost never takes me out of my way and never 'around' The Villages unless that is the best route. There is no setting in WAZE for Shortest Time vs Shortest Route.

Waze uses the average road segment speed for the time slot that applies at the time when a user is expected to arrive at that road segment. Because of this time window, Waze suggests different routes at different times of day. This is dependent on how many times are recorded on the roads along the route.

The Villages (free) does not appear to be available on Apple Car Play have no idea if the paid Village may work since we are not subscribers.

I didn't think about that when I mentioned it earlier. Not everything is available on CarPlay (I wish it was) and the Villages app appears to be one of those things.

One of the routes the OP mentioned was from 466A to McClure. I just mapped that on the desktop version of google maps and it also recommended 301 to Warm Springs. Since you can force the desktop version to take a route of your choosing I told it to take Marsh Bend like the OP suggested. Google maps told me that would take five additional minutes. It appears that in this case it was recommending the fastest route.

The OP also mentioned a 15 mile trip to a location that was only two miles away. I'd like to know what those endpoints were so we could look at them on google maps as well. It still could be a case of the maps not being up to date but it would be interesting to check it out.

GPS Help
 

Download the mobile Villages GPS app for $7 and the free Villages app.
Both are quirky at times, but they are your best bet in the new areas.

We use The Villages app or Villages GPS and have no problem.

Gps
 

Get Villages app

ditch the digital director and use your own neural network. .
someday you will forget your phone or the cell tower is down, and you won't be hobbling around without the digital director

My GPS asks asks if I would like to go on private gated roads. When I say yes it usually takes me that route.

Welcome to DeLuna! We’ve been here 8 months and have the same issue. It’s actually much faster to go to McClure or Fenney or any of the southern newer villages via 301 to Warm Springs, etc. The route down Marsh Bend Trail to Warm Springs is very slow because of the curvy road, though it’s definitely more scenic, and I personally prefer it.

If you’re wanting to go to a northern location of TV avoiding 301 then the easiest way for now is to take Marsh Bend Trail to Warm Springs, turn left, then left again on Meggison, and then once on Meggison enter the address or destination in your GPS and it should route you through the Villages. It’s a longer route, but keeps you in TV. My husband always prefers the quickest and most direct route to any TV location, which is usually via 301, but sometimes I just want to stay in the bubble and enjoy the scenery. The routes and alternative routes throughout TV will become second nature to you very quickly. Hopefully GPS will give these non-301 routes as an option eventually. Our car is pre-navigation system so my husband uses Google Maps on his iPhone, and I think it’s giving him more than one route when he enters the destination.

If you’re on Facebook we have a Village of DeLuna group that will be very helpful to you as newbies. 😊

Have the maps been updated recently? The ones we were given last year were dated 2019, and many southern villages including mine weren’t even shown on the Villages South map.

The program may be optimizing for fastest route.
You may try going old school. Get a Villages Map. Cost about $5 at the villages merchandise stores or maybe your real estate agent will give you one.

This problem has existed for years because of our faux gates. I just memorized one-half dozen of the major roads in TV, check Google Maps for the location I wish to go, head in the general direction of my target, and maybe use the GPS for the last couple of blocks. Once you are close to your destination, provided there are not a lot more gates, you will usually get an accurate route.

The gates have nothing to do with it...

I'm still using the (pay Villages GPS App almost daily when I'm there.

Once in a blue moon, it gets stuck in a loop (most likely due to a bad cell connection). But 99% of the time, no problems...

I've never had a gate identified on any of my auto map programs in my travels…

In the example given in your second paragraph the app simply took you on the shortest and fastest route. From the intersection of Marsh Bend Trl and 301 to the roundabout @ Warm Springs and Fenney Way it is 3.66 miles with speed limits of 55 and 45 MPH if you travel 301 to Warm Springs. If you travel Marsh Bend Trl instead it is 4.5 miles with speed limits of 30 or 35 MPH.

I'm a home inspector here in The Villages. I use Waze. I have inspected homes built in 2022 on brand new roads and not once has it routed me around Hogan's barn.

I live north of 466 near Tiera Del Sol, so some of those homes in Deluna were pastures not that long ago yet It gets me there no fuss no muss. It doesn't route me out to 75 or 301 or whatever. Just straight to the point usually down Morse or BV unless there's a jam up somewhere.

I remember my first week trying to use a GPS. I had never used one before, and was resistant because (at the time) I didn't have hearing aids and trying to listen to voices on my cell phone speaker while I'm trying to drive is a HUGE distraction to me.

I got lost in the parking lot over the 441 golf cart bridge one night, looking for a particular restaurant that was outside of the Spanish Spring town square. And the thing said "head north on [insert road here]." I just slumped over and started crying. If I knew which way was north, I wouldn't have been lost.

Eventually I was able to get back on track but boy was that a harrowing experience.

I just had ours updated at the Honda dealer, no charge.