Maps on the F5 Plus

Former Member
Former Member
Evening and afternoon all,
I have a Europe edition of the Fenix 5 Plus. Some questions regarding the maps:
i) is there somewhere a map showing the the extent of the map? for example, i'm looking at going up to Svalbard in the Arctic circle, and i'd like to be able to know if this will this be covered.
ii) if it's not covered, do third parties make maps of obscure areas that the Fenix can make use of?
iii) slightly more down to earth, i tried to run to a pub halfway across London last night, but annoyingly it didn't seem to be listed to so had to find it on Googlemaps and then navigate to that point...bit of a faff. i therefore guess there's plenty of establishments not on there, so there a better/easier/quicker way i could have achieved my route, then navigating to a point on the map after checking with Google? trickier if i'm 'in the field'..
iv) how often are maps updated? new roads/routes/establishments etc. are they 'pushed' via Garmin Express, or do updates need to be purchased?
v) given i have the Europe edition, why is Garmin Express trying to push Coverage of N & S America, Pacific and EMEA to my watch. Shouldn't these be disabled if i haven't bought them?
Many thanks indeed.
  • 1. Not that I'm a where of. Open the map and pan zoom to where youre travelling to and check resolution.
    2. Pretty sure this is OSM and what they do. Google for them.
    3. Not sure
    4. I'd say almost monthly in my 4 months of ownership.
    5. Maps are delivered in layers with different resolutions. They cover the world with a base map... That will have main roads with poor accuracy. Another layer will have more detail... And so on.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago
    4. I'd say almost monthly in my 4 months of ownership.


    The only "maps" that get updated for me are the generic base maps and/or the golf courses maps ("Coverage of..."). The detailed "TopoActive Europe" map is still at version 2017.30 for me.
  • I) The surest way to check if an area is covered by the map is to download Baeecamp to PC/Mac and, whilst the 5+ is plugged in, let Basecamp ‘assimilate’ the map on the 5+ (the 5+ must remain plugged in via USB, as Basecamp doesn’t ‘import” a copy of the map). Basecamp only allows you to view one map at a time (other than a coarse worldwide map), so you can quickly zoom in on the countries you’re going to, to see if the topoactive map on the 5+ covers it.

    iii) Use the Explore app to find the establishment you want, then save it as a Waypoint in Explore and send it to the 5+ (it turns in to a Saved Location on the 5+). You can then simply get the 5+ to navigate to that Saved Location. The great thing with this is that as long as you download the appropriate (free) maps to the Explore app before travelling, this can all be done without an internet connection on your smartphone; so gets around going to places where you’d be smashed with outrageous data roaming charges if you tried to use Google maps and others. (I used this method to meet up with friends at a pub, whilst on a work trip to Glasgow - so not too dissimilar to the use case you describe).
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago
    Thanks Crispin, Laurence and mbirth. Clearly i need to explore Explore.. on my list for tomorrow.
    But getting back to navigating on the fly on the watch... the boozer in question was the Drapers Arms in Islington. If i zoom in on the map, it is clearly labelled as 'The Drapers Arms' (no apostrophe), so it's definitely in Garmin's maps universe. So, being c. 4 miles away, why can't i navigate to it by typing in it's name, exactly as it is labelled? When i select Navigate -> PoI -> Food & Drink -> Spell Search, type in 'The Drapers' (i guess i could have just typed 'Draper') and hit the tick, i just get the page the says 'Around me' and a round and round spin around the circumference... no matter how long i wait. Why can't it blimmin' find it?
  • ....i just get the page the says 'Around me' and a round and round spin around the circumference... no matter how long i wait. Why can't it blimmin' find it?


    Probably because a device with a low energy processor focused on preserving battery life just can’t cope with the density of information in central London. That’s not an excuse, as expectation built up by modern smart phones means that’s what your average punter would reasonably expect, but ‘ya canni defy the laws of physics’. That’s why I defer to getting the smartphone to do the hard calculation/data searching work. I know it’s on my iPad rather than iPhone, but the attached screen shot shows it took me about 5 seconds to find your pub in the Explore app. Once you’ve saved that pub as a Waypoint and sent it to the Fenix 5+, you can put the phone away and just let the watch navigate you from where you are to the pub :) . Ironically, the 5+ is better at doing the navigation than the Explore app, as the watch can route along roads and paths but the Explore app can’t (yet).ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1443917.png
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago
    Got it, thank you. And point taken on getting the Explore app to do the searching leg work.
    Interestingly, the watch found the boozer pretty quickly when I selected the 'Entertainment' category, rather than 'Food and Drink'. I guess it could have been either, but it's a bit of a pain to check both. Is there a way of selecting PoI from all categories, to avoid this kind of miscategorization cock-up?