How to update Garmin maps (For the Macintosh User)

[EASt]

Wanted to add that I used a 4gig card with about 150 songs on it. It held all of North America and the songs. I checked my routes and favorites and could not find any changes or problems. Also switched Basecamp to the new maps. All seems to work as it should. Thanks again EASt.

My pleasure. You're giving me nothing but good news.

When I had the route issue it wouldn't even load it. Like I said it doesn't happen all the time but it has happened. If I recall it was when I went from the really old maps to the newer ones. 2009 or older to 2011. Maybe it was too much of a jump or the roads were updated with changes that screwed it up so it didn't line up anymore.

Your Old Routes On New Maps issue could be resolved, incidentally, using my guide (I think PCs use MapInstall too?). You can use MapInstall to go back and re-install older maps on your Zumo, if'n you want.

 

[sennister]

Your Old Routes On New Maps issue could be resolved, incidentally, using my guide (I think PCs use MapInstall too?). You can use MapInstall to go back and re-install older maps on your Zumo, if'n you want.

The process is pretty close. I have always used Mapsource which is PC only. I only recently discovered that they had a PC version of Basecamp. While I have installed it, I haven't used it much. I know I have done updates where the routes haven't been a problem. I only mentioned it because it would suck to assume that they were fine and get out on a trip only to discover you couldn't use them. So if you do a map update before a big trip, be sure to test any routes that you may want to use. I was lucky in that the time it happened to me on my Zumo, I was trying to load a route for a trip. I just ran in and recalculated it in Mapsource and tried again and it worked.

As for old maps. I mentioned above that I have multiple mapsets on my Garmins. Both my SP2730 and Zumo 550 have 2009 and 2012.2. Each unit is a little different but you roughly go into settings -> map -> map details I think. Then it shows which maps you have installed. You can enable and disable detailed maps from there. Just a note on this. The detailed maps is the mapset that you install. For instance 2012.2. It includes all the detailed street level views and POI information. If you do a limited load of the map data like you showed in your article and you go outside the area that you loaded, it isn't like you fall off the edge of a map and get nothing. What you will see is only major roads. Basically Interstates, Highways and main county roads for instance and a dot with the name of towns and cities. No small roads or city streets will appear and you can't do address searches or POI lookups outside this area. In my case I have MN, IA, WI, SD, ND, KS, IL, AZ, FL loaded on my Garmins. Now I spend most of my time in the mid west and have family in AZ and FL that I may go see so have those states loaded. Should I want to do a road trip from MN to AZ the GPS would still work as I would likely take just the major roads as I am blasting through the states that I don't have detailed information on. Since I am not retired and have limited vacation I can't take my time by enjoying the back roads on a trip like this. So for me it works. Honestly though, this is more of an issue on the SP2730 as it doesn't have a lot of internal memory. The Zumo has tons of space with the 16GB SD card in it for maps and music.

If you wanted to test this you can go into the settings, maps and details area and disable detailed maps for whatever mapsets you have then go out and look at your screen. This can be turned on/off as you like. I don't see the point of totally disabling it other than testing so see what it is like if you are outside the area you loaded though.

 

[HejDuke]

I'm a now a self-invited member of the GPS club. Thanks to EASt and his handy-dandy Mac guide, I'm on my way to loading all of North America onto my GPS. As I sit here, following EASt's advice, I'm drinking heavily--but it's only 5AM, so it's coffee that is coursing through my veins and by the looks of it, in another hour and a half, I should be in full-on caffeine rage! :hyp1:

EASt - thanks for your guide! I appreciate it.

 

[EASt]

I'm a now a self-invited member of the GPS club. Thanks to EASt and his handy-dandy Mac guide, I'm on my way to loading all of North America onto my GPS. As I sit here, following EASt's advice, I'm drinking heavily--but it's only 5AM, so it's coffee that is coursing through my veins and by the looks of it, in another hour and a half, I should be in full-on caffeine rage! :hyp1:

EASt - thanks for your guide! I appreciate it.

Now you'll be able to use your updated map-base to locate pie regionally and nationally. Thrilled it worked for you!

And, hey, I'm dosing on coffee too right now.

 

[EASt]

Well, my tutorial has managed to become out dated. Garmin now has an application for the Mac called "Garmin Express" which will manage all of your GPS devices and maps for you.

Except, it won't.

Surprisingly, Garmin did nothing but change the look of the interface. It's still a miserable way to update maps, and while it looks different, the process I described is exactly the same pain it always was. If I think of it, I'll re-do the instructions using the new software, but ultimately, the old guide I made still works exactly the same.

 

[EASt]

Hi everybody.

I've attached a short tutorial on how to extract full maps using Garmin Express before using my original tutorial to install the ENTIRE map set on your GPS. Pop in that big SD card and shove it ALL on there!

Maps are now installed in USER>LIBRARY>APPLICATION SUPPORT>GARMIN>EXPRESS>MAPS

Now, GO RIDE!