Trouble downloading TopoActive Maps with Map Manager.

I deleted the North America TopoActive map partially out of curiosity and because I wanted to move it to an external SD card. I am not able to download maps using Map Manager when connected to wifi, plugged in, and leaving over night. When it gets to about 95%, it freezes and a black box appears, which I have also let sit overnight, and I can not get out of it unless I hold the power button down for 10-15 seconds to restart the device. A couple of times, the device has just crashed.

If I try to use Garmin Express, I can either not figure out how to get it to download to the external SD card. Or as soon as it is installed, it says update available, and the issue above just repeats again. I have room on the SD card.

Is there a way to download the most up to date map from Garmin Express directly to the SD card, or even download it to the internal storage, then move it to the SD card?

Top Replies

JungleJim 5 months ago +1

In Garmin Express you should be able to switch between Internal Storage and the SD card in the device. This can be done when you open the screen to manage the maps, there should be two buttons at the top…

All Replies

+1 JungleJim 5 months ago

In Garmin Express you should be able to switch between Internal Storage and the SD card in the device. This can be done when you open the screen to manage the maps, there should be two buttons at the top of the screen. You can then switch to the SD card and select which Topo Active map to install. It's not very intuitive IMHO and the buttons are not very obvious.

I find downloading the Topo Active maps via Map Manager on the device itself pretty unreliable and not very user friendly because it takes just so long because of the large file sizes. For Outdoor Maps+ it works ok.

Also there's a bug in the Map Manager on the device that shows that there's an update available for your topo active map while in fact there's not.

0 7740078 5 months ago in reply to JungleJim

Thank you that worked! About the bug in Map Manager on the device. When I update on the device, since it says there's an update, it redownloads the whole map and never succeeds. How can I tell if the version that Garmin Express installed is the current version and it's the bug saying update available, or if there actually is a newer version available?

Thank you so much for the help!

0 JungleJim 5 months ago in reply to 7740078

Great!

You can view the version that is installed in the Map Manager on the GPSMAP, just go to Map Manager > TopoActive Maps > your region. The installed version is then displayed. Current version is 2024.10. Also see https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=LR6HR5Xul6A9zoxySC5KM9 for documentation of the latest version available.

0 7740078 5 months ago in reply to JungleJim

Now one more error. When turning the device on, it says "Can not authenticate maps. Contact the map content seller for help.". I downloaded it straight from Garmin...Have you seen this error?

0 JungleJim 5 months ago in reply to 7740078

Haven't encountered that myself for the TopoActive maps. You could try removing the maps and reinstalling again with Express. To be safe just disconnect the GPSMAP from the PC after deleting the maps before reinstalling.

0 Garmin-Leslie 5 months ago in reply to 7740078

Hello, please see "Cannot Authenticate Maps" Error Message on an Outdoor Handheld. It should help you work through this error.

I would also recommend seeing Managing Maps on the GPSMAP 67 Series With Garmin Express for how to manage the maps with this device.