Find Favorites on GPS that are not in Basecamp

I use Basecamp to store all my personal map/travel data. Specifically my Favorites (i.e. favorite waypoints). I keep them in lists, export the lists by name, move them to the SD card on the (Zumo) GPS, then import them. They show up in groups.  This is all good.

Occasionally when I am on the road (or not convenient for me to access BaseCamp), I will add a new favorite through the GPS interface. For example, a good restaurant, or campground, or person/business address.  Any number of things.  I don't do a good job remembering when and what I have done, so those favorites don't get entered into Basecamp.  And even if I knew how to find them on the GPS, I don't know how to get them over to Basecamp.

I'm wondering if it is somehow possible to compare Favorites in Basecamp and on the GPS to find those in one place and not in the other? I'm not looking for some sync function. But a 'differences' would be really nice. Or anything close to such a thing.  I realize there is unlikely any program to do this. But does anyone have (or suggest) even some kind of manual procedure for doing so?

I see that if I attach my GPS and click on Internal Storage, I will get a display of (all?) waypoints on the GPS.  But what can I do with that that would allow me somehow to filter out the ones not in Basecamp?

Thanks for any help/suggestions you can provide.

  -cj

  • I've answered this on the other forum where you raised it, but what I do is simply delete all the relevant data in BaseCamp and copy the current data across from my device, only takes a few seconds.

  • You could move everything in the unlisted data folder to a new empty list.  Create another new list and download your favorites to this empty new list.  In the upper left pane, right click on the list and Remove it;  all the new data should be in the unlisted folder.  After your done assigning them you your lists, you can remove the list that had your previous unlisted data to return it to unlisted folder.

  • OK.  But that assumes that I keep Basecamp and my GPS in sync.  That is, that everything in Basecamp is also in my GPS.  Not doing that just now; perhaps I should.  I don't keep old routes, tracks, etc on the GPS.  You do say "relevant data in BaseCamp" and I understand that, just am not sure what file(s) that is on the GPS.  Let me think about it some more.

  • Let me rephrase to see if I understand your suggestion.  Take existing Unlisted items (from Basecamp data base) and save them to a named list (e.g. 'temp unlisted').  Then copy 'favorites' from GPS to another new named list (e.g. copy of GPS favorites).  If I understand correctly, when I do that copy from the GPS, any favorite/waypoint already on the GPS will be represented in 'GPS-copy' as a link/pointer.  Any favorite/waypoint NOT on the GPS will get a new one created which 'lives' in that GPS-copy list.  NOW, if I delete the GPS-copy list, all favorites for which this list was the 'only home' will show up in the Unlisted Data folder (because they are all new).  I can now go through them one-by-one and file them appropriately.

    I think I understand both the how-to and the reason that it works (both useful!).

  • Thanks to both Sussamb and Btlaake!

    I have this insight and one more question.

    First, I realize that when I create new favorites/waypoints on my GPS that I can give them a symbol and/or category.  That could be a unique symbol or category name (e.g. "GPS-new").  I could then find them easily when I connect the GPS to BaseCamp.  I would just need to remember to do it!

    Second, my question.  Both of you referred to copying favorites/waypoints from my GPS to BaseCamp.  To be clear, I see these favorites by clicking on the Internal Storage of my GPS and they appear in the pane below it.  Are all of these 'my favorites' to be copied over?  I see some things that don't seem to be, e.g.: active track logs, city/town waypoints (green circles of varying sizes) that I did not create but assume are there because they are part of some route, and other ones with a small square dot icon, some of which I'm guessing are 'shaping points' on routes and others are I'm not sure. 

    Is there any guideline as to which I am likely to want and which not?  Or do I just grab them all and then decide as I go through the unique ones one at a time?

    Thanks again to both of you. 

      -ceej

  • You can sort data by symbol so easy not to copy across data you don't want, but what I prefer to do is use the import function and import current.gpx from my device.  That only copies favourites and routes across.

  • I'll defer to SUSSAMB for further advice/comments since I don't own any automotive devices.

    I gather from your first post that you are exporting BaseCamp lists to gpx files and then copying the files to your device via windows explorer?

    I do not know if this will or won't create issues.  I send data to my device from BaseCamp.  This allows a level of synchronization with my outdoor device.  If I dump the data on my device to an empty list it does not create duplicate waypoints for waypoints I sent to the device from BaseCamp.  Yes lists contain a link/pointer to items in my collection so you should see the new and old data in the download list.  When the download list is removed, only new items will appear in the unlisted folder as all other data is already in another list.

    My concern if you are using explorer to copy saved exported data to the device is that you may end up creating duplicate waypoints when you download to BaseCamp.  These points will have a number appended to the original name..  When you remove the list, they will also appear in the unlisted folder because they will be new waypoints with respect to BaseCamp..

  • Thanks for the comments and the word of caution.

    "Some time back" the way to get Favorites on the GPS be grouped into categories was to have separate .gpx files on the SD card named for the category, then Import User Data on the GPS.  Then over the span of some releases "things changed".  At one point the List Name was used as the category name.  Then that was deprecated, and now there is a Categories tab when you open the waypoint detail pane.  But there is no visible list of category names as there had been once in the past; you start typing and if it matches an existing category, it shows up.  I hung on to the separate .gpx file mechanism because I thought it still worked.  But even now I am not certain.

    So your point about duplicates is an appropriate one.  I will do some experiments (in my copious spare time ;-) and perhaps update my procedures for managing categories.

  • That way of sending data to your device shouldn't be an issue, but note by setting the Categories tab in a waypoint in BaseCamp will create the necessary list on your device.  This also allows you should you so wish/need to have waypoints allocated to different categories on your device.

    Edit:  My reply crossed with yours. Not sure if it helps or not!  Incidentally I remember those days when lists became favourites and vice versa, why that behaviour was dropped I could never fathom.