Extremely Sluggish Map Operations With Europe 2020.20

You can delete all files in the Garmin directory (not sub folders) first. The issue maybe sometimes garmin stores the update locally and may not re download so if corrupt it will have the same problem. Delete them from C:\ProgramData\Garmin\CoreService\Downloads\Map and reinstall from garmin express.

Sounds like an excellent idea - when you write "delete all files in the Garmin directory", you mean the directory on the watch, right?

Yes on the watch. You can leave the copyright and device files if you want but it should be fine to delete those too. You will have to reinstall the topo maps and golf maps if you use them from garmin express.

Thanks - backing up the folder as we speak. In addition I downloaded the 2017 version of the Topo maps. If things don't work out with the 2020 version, maybe stepping back all the way to 2017 and then upgrade the maps via Garmin Express will do the trick.

I think, btw. that this is the exact problem that you ran into a while ago: forums.garmin.com/.../topactive-2018-20-zoom-slow

Yes it is. Although since then, garmin express reinstall has fixed it as long as I delete all the files first. I always keep a copy of all the map downloads from that folder just in case I need to fix it. I can then just delete and copy across the working files as its quicker.

Things are not really improving, so far I tried:

- factory reset - didn't help

- reinstall of Topo Europe 2020.20 - didn't help

- installed Topo Europe 2017.30 as posted somewhere here - didn't help (that surprised me)

- contacted Garmin support (no reply yet)

So, as a next step I bought some TalkyToaster maps (wanted to do this anyway) and will try to use them and see how things are going. I double checked some videos on youtube just to make sure my memory doesn't play any tricks on me: My map display is maybe 3-4 times slower than the examples I found. In addition the watch takes about 3min to get beyond the Loading Maps screen during boot and that surely didn't happen before.

I am not sure, but things might've gone bad after updating to firmware 13.0 instead of updating the maps (as I previously suspected) so I might try to hop on either a beta firmware track or downgrade (is this even possible?). I vaguely remember that in one of the earlier firmware there was a bug that didn't clock down the CPU after a map operation, so once people interacted with the map their watches where munching through the battery. It now appears that I am affected by an inverse effect, i.e. not enough CPU resources allocated for map drawing and zooming.

And if it helps: Using just the basemap is blazing fast.

Did the reset remove all the installed maps?

My experience is that after a map update the "updating/Installing maps" take up to 30 minutes the first time - this is simply beccause the changes are merged into the IMG files on the your watch.

You could copy the files to your laptop and remove them - then try to download from this site 

http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/ or http://garmin.opentopomap.org/

and see if it gets faster. It it works then either keep the map (they are zillion times better than the maps that you got when you purchased the watch, unless you also installed a TOPO-map, or delete all maps and copy back the IMG and UPG files.

Well as a first update: The TalkyToaster map is as fast as I am used to. Great. I am aware that openstreemaps are an alternative, however, if I pay Garmin for the Topo maps they better bloody work!

This is getting a bit strange - I did wipe the GARMIN directory clean so there are no leftovers of older Topo map versions (or newer, since I downgraded to 2017.30). Could it be related to fact that I also deleted the golf course maps? I got backups of everything so a restore is always possible but this is getting more and more puzzling by the minute.

To reiterate:

Garmin Basemap: Fast

TalkyToaster Map: Fast

Topo Europe 2020.20: Slow

Topo Europe 2020.20 after reinstalling from Garmin Express: Slow

Topo Europe 2017.30 after manually cleaning GARMIN folder and installing using Copy in Windows Explorer: Slow

Could this be related to some corruption of a related routing database (since the Topo maps offer - at least in principle - routing, afaik)?