"TMC for route" greyed out

[DazHollywood]

Trying to figure out if my 2016 Ford Fiesta Titanium has traffic avoidance functionality and how it works (Old SYNC 1 system).  Historically I have of course used Google Maps in other cars (and am used to live traffic influenced route calculations and route adjustments for avoidance).  Just bought this pre-owned car and trying to swing over to the onboard NAV system.  I see that I have a Traffic button with TMC data available.  I can select "All TMC" view TMC messages and detail if I dig in to them.  But my option above "All TMC" which is "TMC on my route" is greyed out even if I am currently routing.  Does this mean that there are no Traffic issues on my currently programmed route?  Does this system use realtime conditions to calculate best fastest routes?  Why is my TMC for Route greyed out?  Thanks.

[anon]

I think it is a subscription service.

[unofix]

It only displays TMC notifications when you have a guidance route set. The main reason for this is that there is so much traffic information the car needs to be able to ignore the majority of it. When in guidance mode it knows which roads you are planning to travel along and tailor traffic to that route. TMC is definitely not an exact science though and the quality of data is often flaky at best. The data comes in on Classic FM and some commercial channels such as Heart FM so make sure you can definitely receive these.

[anon]

Makes sense. I rarely set a route because I usually know where I am going so I don't see it.

[DazHollywood]

42 minutes ago, unofix said:

It only displays TMC notifications when you have a guidance route set. The main reason for this is that there is so much traffic information the car needs to be able to ignore the majority of it. When in guidance mode it knows which roads you are planning to travel along and tailor traffic to that route. TMC is definitely not an exact science though and the quality of data is often flaky at best. The data comes in on Classic FM and some commercial channels such as Heart FM so make sure you can definitely receive these.

I will play with it.  I did have a route set when I was looking at it, thinking "TMC on my route" meant that a route had to be active.  I had set a route to Stafford from Hull thinking that over that distance there would likely be some sort of traffic notifications around rush hour.  Really appreciate you having a look and taking the time to respond...  Google searching wasn't that fruitful.  Thanks...