Transfer problem with Oregon 550T

Former Member over 12 years ago

I have been using BC now for several months on my laptop pc and Oregon 450 and have had great success transferring data (geocaches and waypoints) back and forth. Today I talked a friend with a 550T into downloading BC and the nightmare began! I brought in a GPX file from the PC into a list and added a waypoint then sent the list to the 550T. I foolishly did not check the 550T because I saw the progress bar move and the statement "data transfer successful" (or something equivalent to that). When we got out in the woods to do our geocaching her unit had none of the downloaded caches (fortunately mine did - but I had just used "drag and drop" from her pc to my GPX folder without using BC). When we got home I tried doing the transfer again - from the transfer icon - from the menu - from a right click of the folder - from a drag and drop of the list to the 550T internal memory. Every method reported success but the GPX file is STILL not on the 550T.

Any idea why this would be?

Just a thought, but this Garmin 550T has a problem with wireless data transfer as well. It will send or receive one file (or part of one file) and then freeze up requiring re-boot. I spoke to tech support about this a few months ago and they suggested downloading the latest firmware (I already had) - they said "do it again" - I did - same problem.

0 SUSSAMB over 12 years ago

When you say the "GPX file is still not on the 550T" do you see the gpx file in the GPX folder of the GPS using Windows Explorer? If not then perhaps you have a faulty cable?

Either way if you've updated the firmware you might try a factory reset, that can often cure strange glitches.

0 Former Member over 12 years ago

When you say the "GPX file is still not on the 550T" do you see the gpx file in the GPX folder of the GPS using Windows Explorer? If not then perhaps you have a faulty cable?

That is correct I am using Windows Explorer to examine the contents of the Garmin folders. I can drag and drop the gpx files from the pc to the 550T with no problem so the issue is not the pc or the cable but the 550T or BC.

Today I am going to try to start with a fresh single geocache GPX file import into BC then transfer to 550T. If it still fails (as I expect that it will) I will try to transfer to my 450 to eliminate the pc and / or BC as the source of the problem. Then I will repeat the process on MY pc and older version (still 4.something) of BC. If only the 550T fails I will try the reset (as soon as I figure out how) and post all the results.

Thanks for the help!

0 AndyT3 over 12 years ago

This happens from time to time on my Oregon 450 as well - in fact Friday was the last time. Other users have reported the same problem.

My solution is to load the gpx file to the SD card. If the caches fail to load you can simply remove the card, re boot the machine without the card in it and then turn it off again.
Re insert the card, turn the GPS on. This will force the gpx file to re load.

0 Former Member over 12 years ago

ANDYT1... Wow! That is a lot of hoops to jump thru just to get it to do something that I think I was designed to do in the first place! So I will go back to using the drag / drop of Windows Explorer which works 100% of the time!

Now as to the rest of my testing today.....

I found that while NONE of the "transfer" entry points work (not surprising as I am sure they all point to the same code) there IS one thing that DOES work - "Export". Like Windows Explorer this command requires a specific target location i.e. ...Garmin\GPX and like W-E it actually works. All of this is true for both the 550T and the 450.

I tried both the 550T & 450 on my pc running 4.0.4 and got exactly the same behavior. Odd because I swear that I had used "transfer" at least once in the past with this version of software and my 450 - but it is entirely possible that I used "Export" instead. Perhaps someday Garmin will fix this??? hmm? maybe? perhaps? Could be worse for sure as there are enough ways to do reliable transfers to the GPS that if it was never fixed it would not be a big deal to me.

Thanks to all that contributed to this topic!