BaseCamp Problem Communicating With Device

Former Member over 11 years ago

Whenever BaseCamp is establishing a connection with an attached device, such as a Montana or a fenix, multiple error messages show up. The messages are always the same, indicating that BaseCamp has a problem establishing a connection with the attached device(s). I have been ignoring the messages, for years, on several computers, many versions of MacOS, many versions of BaseCamp, and still the same error messages. Rarely do I get to attach a Garmin GPS to the computer and not get the error message.

Any chance this will be fixed soon?

0 JaVaWa over 11 years ago

This is caused by corrupt gpx files on the device; remove them (and empty the trash!) and your problem is solved... (until the device creates new, corrupt files...)

0 JaVaWa over 11 years ago

You can check your device with JaVaWa Device Manager; use the option 'Extra' > 'Check for corrupt data files (GPX, TCX, CRS)'

0 Former Member over 11 years ago

You can check your device with JaVaWa Device Manager; use the option 'Extra' > 'Check for corrupt data files (GPX, TCX, CRS)'

I was having the same sort of problem, getting 2 error messages of the "can't communicate" type. I used the JavaWa Device Manager to check for corrupt data files and it claimed they were all ok. Continued to get the messages so I just moved all the gpx files off the device and the SD card and that cured it. I will try running the moved files through another evaluator to see if it picks anything up.

0 JaVaWa over 11 years ago

JaVaWa Device Manager only checks whether the files (they are all some kind of XML file) are well-formed, not whether they are valid (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xml#Well-formedness_and_error-handling and the paragraph below). Corrupted files are almost never well-formed, so that check is usually sufficient. However, BaseCamp also requires that the files are valid. A lot of web services that enable you to create a route and to download it as a gpx file don't create valid gpx files; those aren't detected by JaVaWa Device Manager, but will produce errors when BaseCamp tries to load them.
Try to load the files one by one in BaseCamp; that way you will find the culprit(s). To find out the real problem (BC only tells you the file is wrong, but not exactly which part), you could use this online validator: http://www.validome.org/xml/

0 azdrmn over 11 years ago

Actually if you look at your Console when importing a GPX file, it should tell you what was wrong with it. So open Console and then attach your device and you should see which file has the issue as well as what is wrong and the line number. The best way to get the issue fixed is for everyone to send that information to product support. When a pattern is established by enough users complaining, resources to fix the issue can be allocated. Don't wait though, because the older the product, the less likely the issue is to be fixed.