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Accidentaly "downgraded" LM 50 to lower 49 states

Former Member
Former Member

Hi all,

I always updated my Garmin Drive 50 "USA LM 5" to the latest firmware and maps. Without knowing that a wrongly installed map would cause problems I accidentaly "installed" or "downgraded my device from 50 States to Lower 49 States. The problem is now that text to speech only displays an asian language and canadian french on the device.

How can I reinstall the originally installed and used 50 States map on my device?

Best Regards,

Peter

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to SUSSAMB

    Thanks for your reply.

    Almost. I am missing the option to "Change Map". The only option available is "Reinstall Map" - and this would reinstall lower 49 states. Maybe there is some sort of Garmin-Map-Cache on my computer? Because reinstalling has a progress but doesn't download anything from the web while the "Reinstall Map" is running.

    What I also tried from the device itself is deselecting the Lower 49 States map, but that has no effect in Garmin Express.

    Utilities in Garmin Express also says is thas 45 MB left on the device, that also might be a cause (for not having the option to change the map to 50 States). But deleting Francai_Canadien_Julie.vpm, Japanese.vpm and Taiwanese_Mein.Jia.vpm would not really freee relevant space (those 3 are 37 MB). I could live with lower 49 States as long as includes Florida but language files for english are 186 MB.

    Is it maybe possible to delete the lower 49 states map from the device and then have the option to have the "Change Map" button available again?

    Best Regards,

    Peter

  • You could try deleting the map but if you're that short of space you're likely to need a sd card.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to SUSSAMB

    Hm, luckily got an SD card (16 GB) from my wife. But, even as it is recognized by the LM 50 it seems of no use. I cannot install anything directly on the SD card - e.g. if I try to install additional language files it still says insufficient space (thought maybe installing english and having at least one TTS file available would make the device talk). But installing english copies some files to the device (and not its SD card) until the device is full.

    I have now renamed C:\ProgramData\Garmin\CoreService\Downloads\Map to Map2. This makes Garmin Express download the map from the internet. The original folder held Map 2019.20, 2020.10 and 2020.2.

    In the C:\ProgramData\Garmin\CoreService\Downloads\Firmware folder there are 37 folders.

    So I am still stuck. Could you tell me how I can delete the map from the LM 50 device itself? Is there some command n the LM itself for deleting (and not just deselecting the map) since I cannot see any map related files in Explorer when I browse the deivce - I would backup them and delete them and see what happens - if I could see them..

  • The map is in the hidden .system folder, to see it you need to set Windows to show Hidden and System files (two separate settings).  If you do that I'd rename the file so it doesn't end in .img, that way Express won't see it as a map file but it will force Express to use the card.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to SUSSAMB

    I was busy, so not able to come back on the issue until now. Thanks for the tip for enabling hidden and system files. Didn't show up in the first step but after I found a way to change the device from being MTP to using drive letters I was able to see the .System folder. Have now renamed the file and am installing the  map (again it only shows "Lower 49 states" as the only available option) I still hope to see more languages available (since the SD card has more room for that). Hopefilly at the end I will be able to choose Us-English as Text-To-Speech. YESS, it works.Now I have my beloved english tts back. Thanks so much.