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nüvi 3590LMT not recognizing MicroSD card

My nüvi 3590LMT has basically run out of memory, per Garmin Express the base 8GB of memory is 100% full (in reality there is about 4MB remaining); I have purchased an 8GB Class 10 MicroSD card which, while visible from Windows Explorer, was not recognized by Garmin Express. Numerous exchanges with the Garmin Support folks yielded no help. Hoping maybe the issue was the card itself, I purchased a 32GB Class 6 MicroSD card from a different manufacturer and it too has the same issues.

Researching this forum I see numerous complaints of the same issue; some have managed to get them solved (with no apparent solution documented), and others have not. I am currently running North American maps version 8.3 and am running Garmin Express 6.6.

Given the extreme lack of space available on my device, with or without an additional memory card, the device can take upwards of an hour to calculate a simple route, and if I start moving, even at a walk, the GPS lags far behind. On a recent drive to work, with additional memory card, and without a route, the unit refreshed the screen so slowly it was some 15 miles behind when I pulled into my office parking lot.

At this point, the customer service person has given me only one option, pay to upgrade my GPS unit. For my part, I'm trying to figure out why I would invest in another Garmin unit if in a couple of years the software/firmware will render it inoperable like my current unit.

Any help in getting my device to recognize either of my MicroSD cards would be greatly appreciated.
  • Well all electronic devices can fail but I have Garmins that are still working well past the five year mark. I'm not sure what you mean by version 8.3 though as that is nothing like the standard map. Did you mean 2018.30?

    I've never experienced the sort of lag you're talking about, even with maps on a card, so there is clearly an issue somewhere. In any case if you only have 4Mb of spare space updating will be problematic.

    What I would do is first try to free up space on your device. You could do this most simply by removing the junction view file from your device. Now without the SD card installed run Express and insert a SD card only when Express asks for it.
  • When I said "North American maps version 8.3", sorry, my bad, I meant the software running the device. The map file I have running is 2019.20.

    From the "About Device Information" screen I see:

    Model: nüvi 3590
    Hardware Version: V10 8GB O36 DI TYC GTL
    Unit ID:
    Software Version: 8.3
    Audio Version:...

    Per various document on the Garmin Support site, such latency is to be expected when the device is out of memory and doesn't have space to write data. I've done all of the things you've suggested and more (per the Support person I was working with); all to no avail; the new card is simply not recognized (and from reviewing this forum, clearly I'm not the only one).

    As for this being a hardware problem, nope, not buying; the problem happened immediately after I downloaded and installed updated (and presumably larger) maps.

    Regarding the two screen shots attached; the "We couldn't install the updates because there isn't enough space on the device" message comes up regardless of whether the memory card is inserted or not.ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1373677.png
  • Have you done as suggested and removed the junction view file? It will be a relatively large file ending in .jcv

    Once you've done that you'll have way more than 4mb spare space. The update should then go ahead.
  • I'm like 98% sure that was one of the first things the Customer Support rep had me try; that said, I will try it again later today.
  • OK. Given that that file is generally a few hundred mb and you're reporting only 4mb free I suspect it hasn't happened.
  • I just ran a scan on the internal storage of the device and found zero files with a .jcv extension.
  • The junction view file is in a folder called JCV in the hidden .system folder. Sounds like you need to set your Windows system to show hidden and system files
  • The junction view file is in a folder called JCV in the hidden .system folder. Sounds like you need to set your Windows system to show hidden and system files


    You might think that but I always have my Windows Explorer set to "Show hidden files, folders, and drives". That said, there is no .system folder to be found; when I try manually navigating to it I get a message which says, "Windows can't find 'Computer\nüvi 3590\Internal Storage\.system'. Check the spelling and try again."
  • As I said, you must also set it to show system files. It's a different setting to hidden files.
  • Are you suggesting settings other than what I see in the attached image?
    ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1373865.png