Hi newbee here looking at Forescan, look at few videos and tutos and I'm mixed up if As Built data from Ford with my vin is the same of doing back up of the various modules?

 

Ive never been so confused in my life when I started looking into Forescan stuff.

 

Yes

down load the as-built data if you want to go back to oem doing backups is good if you want to save your changes

 

But I did backup of all the as build module before making any changes, so it is the same thing?

 

Yes, they are the same. The as built data is the only data you can backup.

 

Technically it is all the same data (minus small changes) and any changes you make

The factory AsBuilt is a single file with all the module AsBuilt data in it.
ForScan backups are individual module backups.

Ford software (FDRS) can not load a ForScan module back up file.
ForScan can not load a factory AsBuilt file.

Hope this makes some sense.

ZooDad

 

If you have the asbuilt file from Ford downloaded, can you flash the entire thing at one time?

Not with ForScan

ZooDad

 

No. You have to write as built data separately for each module. As Zoodad noted, Forscan won't recognize the Motorcraft file. But Forscan has a button on each module's as built page to "download factory AB data"....or some similar wording. Sometimes this works and sometimes not Make sure you click Write after each download.

The best practice is to use Forscan to copy the existing AB data for each module. Label and save these files.

A manual, but 100% effective, way to write factory AB data is to print the Motorcraft data. Then manually change/enter the data, line by line for each module. "Write" the changes every couple of lines or so.

 

To follow up on what @Don Ridley said.
Download the factory AsBuilt from ford as a file.
Before you close the page, click and hold cursor and drag down selecting all the AsBuilt text. When you get to the bottom right click and copy. Open your spreadsheet program of choice. Select the whole sheet (above row 1 to the left of column A. Format to text (plain text). Then click in cell A1, right click and select paste.
clean up any formatting issues.
save file with what ever name you desire.
you now have a readable version of your factory AsBuilt.

With the newer versions of ForScan, there is no need to rename the file. It will save with VIN-Module name-date time.

Downloading a factory AsBuilt from Ford before changes is even more important with 23+ trucks as they will occasionally “phone home” and update the AsBuilt (overwriting original).

ZooDad

 

So all you need is the module backup from Forscan. There is no use of the Factory AsBuild when using Forscan, right?

 

Technically you don't "need" the Factory As Built file since it's not compatible with FORScan, but it's a good idea to have it backed up someplace (there is no guarantee FORD will always have it accessible and, as Zoodad mentioned, it could potentially get updated and you would then loose the ability to access the very original As Built file if you don't download and save a copy). You may want to reference it someday if your FORScan As Built backups ever get lost or corrupted (though that is unlikely provided you are making backups of those in more than one place than your laptop. Save copies of those on a off-laptop backup, another computer, the cloud (in storage or in an email saved in the cloud). Treat them like you do all your photos/images and have backups in more than one place since things happen (hard drives/files become unreadable, laptop gets destroyed or stolen, etc.) And, if FORScan access ever goes away without warning (no guarantees in life), then you'll have the Factory AsBuilt backup that Ford can restore with their software.

 

I am confused

so there is no down loadable file that can be used with forscan to get back to as built state….you have to do a forscan generated backup before you do anything else you will never have an as built back up?

 

Correct. with the note being you can do FORScan module backups at any time). Meaning, if you did not do a backup of the original AsBuilt modules within FORScan, you can look at the Factory AsBuilt values you downloaded from the website and manually type those into all the modules that you modified to restore them to factory values and then save those modules as your "Original" so you have a backup of the original values. Once you have originals saved, it is fast and easy to change between originals and updates and takes the risk out of typing something wrong doing it manually. If you don't have backups but everything is working, probably not worth it, but if you every have issues, having the Factory AsBuilt from the website is a great reference. I like to make backups of each module each time I change it and name it something descriptive (like appending "Bambi Lights" on the end of the file name). That way, you have backups each step along the way and you can restore to the previous version, rather than all the way back to the original, if you try something and it messes up the truck. You can restore to the previous module version, by date and still have any mods you did rather than restoring the original and having to go back in and put in the mods that did work correctly.

In my opinion, everyone should download and save/backup both the Factory As Built file by VIN through the Ford Website and should also do backups of each and every original As Built module the first time connecting FORSCan to your truck. The FORSCan files you will be able to restore via FORScan if anything ever gets messed up or you just want to go back to originals before taking to dealership or selling. The AsBuilt file that you download from the ford website, you cannot use in FORScan, but you can use for reference. You may be able to open that file in a text reader, but to make it more readable, do what Zoodad recommended and, when you have the website open with your AsBuilt info displaying, copy and paste that into a spreadsheet and save as backup. Then you can always open up that factory AsBuilt file and look at it for reference if you have to manually change one or two things back to original.

The page https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ces-index.html has a FORScan tutorial section which are all good reads. Zoodad's tutorial is amongst those (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...FuL8tHBVs/edit) and, in the "But before you change anything within FORScan" section, the first two bullet points mention downloading the 'As Built' from Ford and backing up your As Built modules when you first connect to a pickup with FORSCan. Best practice is doing both. You only do it once so worth the few minutes it takes and then you have it.

 

Great points @Chadx

FDRS can “restore” a factory AsBuilt. It it will take some hoop jumps to use an “old” version as it will wan to download the latest version.

ZooDad