sd card issue

Former Member over 5 years ago

didn't have any problems with my 66st, a few weeks back i thought i 'upgraded' to 66i, my old 16GB card that worked fine in the st didn't work in the i at all.

went out and bought a 32gb card, format it with MSDOS, it shows up in file explorer, it shows up in basecamp when plugged into the unit, i went ahead and sent a bunch of birdseye stuff to the sd card through basecamp, checked the sd card and i see all the files on there, go on my hike today, power up the unit and bam, nothing on there

i see some 7 month old threads with the same exact issue, is this a firmware issue, is this a unit issue? considering i didn't have the issue with 66st makes me think it's either a unit issue or specific firmware issue?

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Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to twolpert +1

you're partially correct with things being locked to the device, i'll get to that in my last paragraph, but the issue is bigger than that. i spent about 30 mins on a call with Garmin yesterday…

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0 twolpert over 5 years ago

You do not provide quite enough information about the source of the maps and imagery. The most likely issue is that the data you are trying to use on the 66i is locked to your 66st. This is working as Garmin intends. The short version is as follows.

Maps purchased ON an SD card can be used in any unit. But ONLY on the card on which they were originally delivered. You cannot copy from one card to another.

Maps purchased on CD/DVD or via download are locked to the unit on which you first install them. They cannot be used on any other unit.

Imagery and maps which are provided as part of a subscription are locked to the unit to which the subscription belongs. Even if they exist on your desktop in BaseCamp, you cannot successfully transfer them to a different unit.

Note that the 66i comes with a BirdsEye subscription. (I know it's not described exactly that way in the marketing literature, but that's what it is.) However, you will have to download your imagery again using the 66i. Even though the 66i has a subscription and you apparently had one for your 66st, the 66i cannot use the imagery downloaded for the 66st. I know it seems silly, but that's the way it works AFAIK.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to twolpert

you're partially correct with things being locked to the device, i'll get to that in my last paragraph, but the issue is bigger than that. i spent about 30 mins on a call with Garmin yesterday and literally the only solution that worked is that i had another 32GB card that i bought as a backup, taking it fresh out of the wrapper and *not reformatting* it myself (it was already defaulted to MSDOS-32), plug it into the unit and transfer my TOPO overlay (which was purchased under 66i subscription) through basecamp to the SD card the unit booted up and showed the topo overlay from the sd card.

i was then able to move all of my other .img maps from 3rd parties and other overlays in .jnx files that i downloaded, send saved tracks, etc., to the sd card through basecamp and everything shows up on the unit correctly. the support guy said that they see these examples and that they don't have a solution, some cards work, some don't, there is no "fix" but to try a different card. i asked whether he can file a trouble ticket to the coders but all he said is that the coders periodically read the tech support notes so it'll be noted on there.

now back to your comment, yes -- if you're moving data that isn't meant for the unit you'll get an error saying "error with jnx or overlay" or something like that, but that is after the card is actually detectable by the unit. my issue was that even though the card would be inside of the gps and you could communicate to it over usb connection with the unit either in file explorer or through basecamp the actual 66i itself would not be reading anything from that card. that is the inconsistency issue above and the only solution seems to try is to use another card and get lucky that it works out of the box.