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Can't access additional map sets from within BaseCamp (Mac)

Former Member
Former Member over 14 years ago
I always thought I was reasonably savvy on the technology front, but I'm completely stumped. I'm sure there are many folks watching these forums that can show me where I'm going wrong.

I bought a Nuvi 1450 LMT with the North America map set. During registration I was informed that there were updated maps available so - after several aborted attempts - I was able to download the update and install it on both the Nuvi and on my Mac (the latter so that I could do route planning, etc., from within BaseCamp 'off-line', i.e. without the Nuvi attached). So far, so good.

Then, with the gracious help of couple of folks here on the forums, I decided to purchase and install the full set of Europe maps (since I travel to Europe often). Since the Nuvi doesn't have adequate on-board memory to hold both map sets, I ordered an 8 Gb microSD card for the Europe set. While waiting for the card to arrive, I went to Garmin's order page, purchased the Europe set and downloaded it to a flash drive that I had lying around. BaseCamp saw the new maps and made them accessible, i.e. I could select either the North America set or the Europe set from the 'Maps' menu without issue. Still good.

When the microSD card arrived a couple of days later, I copied the Europe maps from the flash drive to the new card and installed the latter in the Nuvi. The Nuvi was able to access the Europe maps (although it took me a long time to figure out how; it appears that the only way is to select "Address" from the "Where To?" page and then select "Change State/Country"). Anyhow, still good.

After all the above preliminary info, here are my problems:

1)

When I connect the Nuvi to the Mac and it is 'seen" by BaseCamp, the Europe maps do not show up. They do not appear in BaseCamp's "Maps" menu nor do they appear beneath the Nuvi under "My Garmin Devices." The North America set is shown on the left and appears twice in the "Maps" menu (since there is a copy on both the Nuvi and the Mac).

If I remove the microSD card and connect it to the Mac directly via a card reader, BaseCamp still does not see the Europe maps (although the exact same files in the exact same folder did show up earlier when they were installed on a flash drive).

2)

I cannot figure out how to get the Europe maps on the Mac so that I can access them from within BaseCamp when no GPS unit is connected. I'm guessing that the latter problem has to do with file location and/or naming. The North America set was automatically installed in a folder at ~/Library/Application Support/Garmin/Maps and there are three files therein named "City Navigator North America NT 2011.40.gmap" (this must be the actual maps due to its 2Gb size), "UnlockCodes.ucx" and one ending in ".gma" (preceded by what appears to be a lengthy license code). The Europe map set files on the microSD card, interestingly, in a folder named "Map" (singular, not plural), and the three files therein are named "Europe_2011_40" followed by ".gma", ".unl" and ".img"; the latter must be the maps themselves, since it is 2.2Gb in size. I copied the entire "Map" folder to ~/Library/Application Support/Garmin/ with no success. I next moved the three Europe files to the "Maps" (plural) folder with no success. I ran MapManager, got the "Maps Installed Successfully" message, but still no visibility from within BaseCamp. I even changed the suffix on the ".img" file to "gmap." No joy.

I love Garmin's products, but their map installation processes and the documentation associated therewith have always been abysmal.

Can anyone help with my issues? Please!
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 14 years ago
    How did you copy the maps from your flash stick to the SD card? If you used MapInstall, I believe it would mark them as "secondary" maps (i.e. sent as a copy of an official install), which we don't read in the current version of BaseCamp because we assumed that meant the map was already installed on the machine somewhere.

    That said, we recently released a new beta which does read such maps so long as you don't already have them installed on your hard drive, and you can get it here:
    https://forums.garmin.com/forumdisplay.php?f=171

    Why did you install the maps to your USB stick first? That may be why your experience has felt so awkward, especially if you didn't copy all of the necessary map files from the USB stick to the device. For future reference, it would probably be easier for you to install maps to your hard drive while installing them on the device you purchased them for. .gmap and .img files are different formats; copying/renaming the files around after the fact won't make them load.

    Installing maps to your hard drive while installing them for your device: If you use Garmin Map Update, click the Advanced button and check the box to install it on your computer as well as on the device.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 14 years ago
    Hi, Paxter1

    Thanks for your reply.

    I downloaded the maps to the stick first because I did not have a microSD card in hand at the time (it was on order from Amazon). I was following the procedure defined here on this forum by another member. Once the microSD card arrived, I just dragged the "Map" folder - with its contents, of course - from the stick to the microSD card which I had connected to the Mac via a card reader. I then installed the microSD card in the Nuvi. As I think I mentioned, before the microSD card arrived, BaseCamp could read the maps off the stick, but hasn't been able to read them off the microSD card once installed in the Nuvi.

    I will try the your other suggestions and post another message when I have any results (good or bad) to share.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 14 years ago
    BaseCamp beta crashes immediately upon startup.

    I tried to include the crash log here, but it is too long. If anyone would like it, I can email it if I am provided with an email address.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 14 years ago
    OK. I rebooted the Mac in case the previous version of BaseCamp - which I had been running - left something hanging around in memory. After doing so, the beta did load (but took forever to do so).

    Once running the BaseCamp beta, it displayed "Reading map..." - under "My Garmin Devices" - for perhaps 5 minutes, but finally the North America maps did show up (unnecessary, though, since they are also on the Mac). The Europe maps on the microSD card did NOT appear.

    More futzing around to come, with report to follow.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 14 years ago
    Garmin Mac Update crashes

    Paxter1:

    My next exercise was to try using Garmin Mac Update to get the Europe maps onto my Mac's hard drive (where I'd really rather it be anyway, seeing as it takes so long for Nuvi-based maps to become visible within baseCamp). It (version 4.1.3) quits on startup. I can't find that app on the Garmin web site to see if there is a more recent version. See attached screen shot.
  • 0 over 14 years ago
    The problem you are seeing in Garmin Map Update is typically caused when you don't have the .dmg with the update mounted. The easiest way to ensure you have the right thing mounted is to just run the Update from inside the .dmg you got it in.

    BaseCamp 3.1.4 is the current released version.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 14 years ago
    Success, sort of

    OK. I am now finally able to "see" my Europe maps from within BaseCamp beta. I removed the microSD card from the nuvi, installed it in my card reader, reformatted it (FAT32) using Disk Utility, reinstalled it in the nuvi, re-downloaded the maps from the Garmin web site onto the SD card (via the nuvi, of course) and then BaseCamp saw the maps (see attached screenshot). Of course, it takes a full 5 minutes or more before they do show up. Here's something interesting, though: after reformatting the card, the Garmin download web page still said that the maps already existed on the card (huh???) and asked me if I wanted to replace them. How is that possible?

    But although now I can finally see the maps, the inordinate delay before they become visible is unacceptable, so I still need help in getting them on my Mac's hard drive. Awaiting further advice, Paxter1 (please!).
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 14 years ago
    Suggestion for BaseCamp improvement

    If a map file on the receiver is the same as on the computer, don't bother downloading from the receiver to the computer when BaseCamp first "sees" the receiver. Big waste of time.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 14 years ago
    If a map file on the receiver is the same as on the computer, don't bother downloading from the receiver to the computer when BaseCamp first "sees" the receiver. Big waste of time.


    I thought you didn't have this map on the computer already. I know you copied the .img file to your hard drive once, but that's unfortunately not the same as a .gmap, and it won't keep BaseCamp from needing to "read" (index) the map data a second time.

    BaseCamp should skip any on-device map that's installed on the user's hard drive already; it looks at the map's internal product ID. I do believe that it will often download very similar looking maps, though, since many of our devices come with somewhat customized version of City Navigator that won't exactly match already released versions of the same (very similarly named) map product.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 14 years ago
    Paxter1:

    The duplicate maps I was referring to were the North American maps. Every time I connect the nuvi, I see both NA sets (see attached screenshot). I am still unable to get the Europe maps to be accessible on my hard drive.

    Also interesting to me: the first time - yesterday - that I was successful in seeing the Europe maps from within BaseCamp, it took BaseCamp over 5 minutes to read them from the receiver. Since then, they show up almost instantly when I reconnect. How can that be?