One of the benefits (for me) of having a $700 Garmin watch on my wrist is the advantage of having a sophisticated mapping and directions system at the ready - based on GPS data and able to last a couple of days of exploring. When I abandoned my Apple Watch for my new Fenix 5X I was thrilled and still am. I purchased this watch to support my (directionally challenged self) on adventures. I also conceded that having a library of 5 or 6 maps (US and Europe) would be part of the expense of owning this watch. I knew there was going to be memory constraints (having about 4 other Garmin devices), but, being that I could only be in one place at a time, I figured I would be able to swap out purchased maps, easily through Garmin Express, and maintain a library of my purchases. However, when I went to purchase the West Coast maps, figuring I could temporarily remove my South West maps to make room, I found a nasty surprise. One...it's not really easy. In fact, when you ask for guidance, they give a list of maps that if you do delete, you'll never see again. Also, you only actually have the ability to download a purchased map for 12 months after purchase. After that, it's gone. You no longer own it. If didn't download it in 12 months, your out of luck. So if remove your South West maps. When your annual trip to Colorado comes around a year and one week later - oh well. The library of maps you thought you would be able to maintain, does not exist. I was about to purchase topo maps for the West Coast and Europe. Now I will stick (never to remove) with what I already bought and depend on the base maps for everything else. Am I missing something....is this a missed revenue stream for Garmin. What about costumer service?? Don't they want us dependent on their maps so we continue to own their devices? These watches are designed for adventure and we are expected to get out there....I guess they don't us to go too far away or to too many places. I sent a note to the suggestion box. Maybe if others feel that same way, and do so as well, we will get a map management app, that stores our purchases in a cloud. At any time, we could swap one map for another. Garmin, you could have gotten another $200 or $300 out of me. In fact, if you really wanted to be customer focused, let folks store their third party maps as well. I would pay a monthly fee for the convenience to swap maps at will - that don't disappear after a year. Thank you.
There's no need to purchase Garmin's maps. There are free maps that are perfectly compatible with the Fenix 5x, one such place is here: https://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-to-load-maps-on-my-garmin-gps-unit/#mac, this is for my Mac, but there is Windoze instructions also. DC Rainmaker also has posted instructions about how to get free maps for your Garmin devices.
Don't buy the Garmin maps, it's a waste of money, and the "Free" maps are just as good, if not better, as they're updated much more often. Hope that helps.
Exactly, free open topo maps for some countries are even better than Garmin ones, as they are updated more often. Garmin also uses open topo maps as a base as I understood.
As others said, you can download any maps you want as long as its in the right formats. I have 600mb of memory left on the watch, due to so many great maps to choose from, free and paid for, some people here even make their own maps. :-) Garmin did an excellent job at giving us all so much flexibility. Perhaps title should read....
"Maps the fortunate truth" ( thumbs up) lol....:-)
BTW if you purchase a map and download it to your device, you can then copy the map file onto your computer as a backup and delete it from the watch. When you need the map again, you just copy the file back, no need to reinstall using Express.
