Confusing lines on tracks on map

It sounds like you continued to record tracks over multiple sessions without naming and saving your individual tracks after each session and deleting Current Track. Turning off your device and turning it back on in a different location will leave you with a straight line from the last end point to the next start point. You may want to solve this by breaking your big track into multiple tracks.

In Basecamp, dbl-click your track (or click the track and choose Edit > Get Info) to bring up the track info window. In that window, choose the point at one end or the other of the straight line in the list of data points. In that same window window, in the lower left corner, click the leftmost icon and select Split at Selected Point. You now have 2 tracks, one of which still has the straight line at the beginning or the end of the track. Get Info on that track, chose the point at the end of the straight line and Delete that point. You now have two tracks, one of which has ' 001' appended to the name. Rename the tracks as you wish. Repeat for any additional track sections with unwanted straight lines.

Hello!

Thank you for your response. I have read and tried without success the same procedure before and just after your email. I would like to delete the straight lines, yet when I follow the procedure described, the line remains and any further attempts only results in elements of actual desired tracks being included in the tracks to be deleted.

It would certainly help if during the shutdown process on our Gps units, a dialogue box would ask us if we want to save the track we just finished.

I have included a cross section of some saved tracks with straight lines. I was working on the short section to the west of waypoint «boucle». Any guidance would be appreciated.

Daniel

Not sure why you are having issues. You avoid the straight lines in the first place by doing a Save current track at the end of your walk. If you forget to do so just use the split track tool in BaseCamp to delete the straight line.

You are a regular and longtime contributor with what seems like knowledge beyond the average BaseCamp and Garmin user. Thank you for that. Meanwhile, for us average users, it would really be nice that our Garmins remind us to save before shutting down, lest we forget, better yet, save it automatically and let us manage the save tracks on both our Garmins and Basecamp. It would really be nice if Basecamp uploaded a version of our tracks as pictured on the Garmin without adding straight lines. These straight lines do not represent real tracks actually travelled. There is no point to adding this info only to force us to tediously clean up a Basecamp rendition of our Garmin use that does not look like the real life use of the Garmin.  There, I said it and it was therapeutic! :-) Meanwhile, back to my troubles with deleting these unwanted straight line, I have followed the instructions with no success.  The lines only change color but remain. 

Is it perhaps because multiple, almost identical, tracks are overlaying each other and one track "underneath" still shows the straight line? The most common culprit is Current Track which could well be everything you have ever recorded. It is going to have all of the straight lines between each of your recording sessions. Some thoughts:

Are you connecting your device every time you use Basecamp? Instead, try doing the work of splitting tracks and deleting points at the ends of straight lines without connecting it.

Without the device connected, is there a track named Current Track or some other track that displays every track ever recorded? Try deleting that (you can always recover it by copying it again from the device).

Have you created folders for your individual sets of tracks and waypoints? eg. by named location or date range. Putting just one track into this folder and manipulating it could help eliminate those straight lines that "only change color but remain."

Once your tracks are safely stored in Basecamp, delete all of the associated tracks from your handheld, including Current Track. You can always drag them back to a connected device, if desired.

Yup. On the device, save Current Track (or the desired portion), give it a name, ensure that it is saved properly, and then clear Current Track. Not always the most desirable to take the time at the end of a session to do this, but really saves time during the post-trip cleanup while saving to Basecamp.

Also, at the beginning of each session, it helps to clear Current Track on the device again before setting out. This will eliminate that straight line that stretches from the position at the end of your last session to the current position.