What is the TrackSegments folder and why does it bloat the Backup file?

Former Member over 12 years ago

What is the “TrackSegments” folder, and why does it bloat the backup file? Larger backup files are difficult to share electronically and take a long time to create and restore.

I am using 4.0.0.5, but had the same problem with 3.3. I work with tracks and waypoints, not routes. No geotagged photos, custom maps or birdseye.

I have deleted the 3.x database folders.

I use Windows Explorer and go to /AppData/Roaming/Garmin/BaseCamp/Database/4.0/TrackSegments and then delete the folder “TrackSegments”. My backup file is much smaller and I do not notice any difference after restoring it in the future.

Example: I have a small database with only 12 tracks in it. I have been cutting and pasting tracks for a few days. The TrackSegments folder is 8.02 MB with 695 items, and the backup file is 2.14 MB.

After deleting the TrackSegments folder using Windows Explorer the backup file is 121 KB. Yes, 121 KB vs. 2.14 MB.

I close BaseCamp, then open it again and everything is fine. The TrackSegments folder now has 11 items and a size of 160KB.

A couple weeks ago I had a database with 75 tracks I had been editing for weeks. When I deleted that TrackSegments folder it contained 69,000 items. Took forever for it to delete.

Is this a problem with BaseCamp, or with my computer?

0 Former Member over 12 years ago

The track segments files contain the actual track point information (things like time, elevation, etc.) They are not stored in AllData.gdb so we do not have to load all this stuff (as it can become quite large) at program start-up, so BaseCamp can start faster.

If you delete these files, all your tracks will lose elevation and time information, so I certainly would not recommend doing that.

4.0 currently has a bug in that we create too many of those segment files (we duplicate them needlessly). This will be fixed for the 4.0.1 release.