Extremely Sluggish Map Operations With Europe 2020.20

After an initially failed map upgrade that completed during the second attempt my F5+ running 13.0, GPS 2.7, Wi-Fi 2.5,CIQ 3.1.8 has become extremely sluggish during all map operations. I tried re-installing the maps using Garmin Express which finished without an error message and even did a complete factory reset yesterday. The problem remains, however: During booting, I am stuck for approx. 3min in the "Loading map" screen and zooming in and out during an active usually takes north of one minute.

It is a bit frustrating since so far the watch has performed quite well.

I don't think the factory reset clears out the map directory and suspect that I do have bits and pieces lying around from a failed install. What files do I need to ensure that I am using the Topo map and where are they located? Just in the GARMIN folder? How do I know which files are related to map information and can be deleted from the GARMIN folder? Is there anything else I can do to truly reset the watch to a fresh state?

Thanks for any help,

Chris

Top Replies

All Replies

0 dxbydy over 3 years ago in reply to DerDembo

JanH is correct in that for the money, we should not have to do all this to get it working. I wonder how many less tech savvy people just accept the 2 minute boot time and sluggish maps without realising it is a bug. I have had to do the delete/reinstall thing at least 3 times on maps updates. I know that if it takes longer than 25 seconds to boot the watch, I have a problem.

0 toitoinou over 3 years ago

I too experienced the same issue with Europe 2020.20 with firmware 14.00 and with the previous firmware too

Like I did when I experienced this issue with a previous version of the map, I removed all the map files from my Fenix and from the cache on my computer and reinstalled and everything was smooth again.... Until I rebooted my watch.

After turning it off then on again, then the watch would take forever to boot (loading maps) and then take at least 2 minutes to display the map in navigation mode, then take forever to zoom in or out and to scroll, just like before.

I'm now trying to copy the maps manually to see what happens. I fee so stupid for deleting the previous map files !

0 toitoinou over 3 years ago

Here's what I experienced so far :

- Europe 2020.10 : fast, even after a reboot

- Europe 2020.20 : fast after the watch is unplugged from the computer but sluggish (30 seconds at least to pan or zoom the map) after a reboot or a soft reset (and the boot will take at least 5 minutes to complete)

Also, there are countless topics and posts about the maps getting slow as hell on all Garmin watches with various versions of the TopoActive maps but they are all related to the ski and golf courses (Coverage of...) when the user installs more than one additional map, but I think this is a separate issue because I made sure I uninstalled any additional map.

For now the only "fix" I found is plugging my watch to my computer then simply unplugging it and waiting for the watch to refresh its content. Then the maps will work smoothly until the next reboot.

I really hate the idea that if the watch crashes during an activity, it will take forever to boot again and then the maps will be almost unusable, but it's either that or installing OSM maps that are so much harder to read on my watch.

0 dxbydy over 3 years ago in reply to toitoinou

It is a random bug that seems to affect a percentage of map updates and corrupts them. The only way to fix is to delete them and try again until you do not have these issues. It should not take longer than 30 seconds to reboot the watch.

Garmin really should have sorted this out at some point in the last 2 years. I wonder if the Fenix 6 is also affected.

0 simonjharris over 3 years ago

I'm also having the same problem since the v2020.20 update. I've deleted the map files and reinstalled, but it still takes 4-5 minutes to turn on.

If I keep trying to reinstall the files, will that actually work?

0 dxbydy over 3 years ago in reply to simonjharris

It has always worked in the end for me. I haven't bothered installing 2020.20 though. Am still using 2020.10 as they don't seem to make much difference. Use a talkytoaster map mainly these days.

0 RunR over 3 years ago

Sorry, but I am quite surprised about this thread. On my watch 2020.20 Europe was installed within a few minutes some weeks ago and I did not observe any issues since then. Booting takes seconds not minutes and in my region I did not find a trail which is not on the map (large woods with many trails). I use it in combination with a separate contour lines map (OSM) and I have also another OSM Map on the watch. What I definitely did not do is deleting any files from the watch!
It is also clear and normal that if you change to a different location far away, loading of the map takes longer the first time.

0 dxbydy over 3 years ago in reply to RunR

It seems completely random to those who are affected. Just a quick search shows other people with this issue on the 5 plus and also on the 6 forums. If I was to guess, and I am no expert, I would say that the memory on the watch has a bad sector and sometimes a critical part of the map file is on this section but with repeated delete and installs you sometimes get lucky. I have a programming background so I am not completely clueless but I cannot think of another logical reason why sometimes it works when seemingly doing the same thing.

A thread from the fenix 6 forum too: forums.garmin.com/.../1064156