My maps are very slow to load, started in the last few weeks

Hi,

Starting a few weeks ago, my maps on the 5 Plus are super slow to load. This has 2 symptoms:

1. When booting the device it stays 2-3 minutes on the "Loading maps" screen before continuing.

2. When trying to use a map during an activity (or not during an activity), it takes the device 1-2 minutes to render the map. After it's displayed, when trying to move or zoom, it takes another couple of minutes to render it again.

I tried to delete all the .img files from the watch and re-install the maps using Garmin Express, but everything stayed the same. I'm trying to avoid a hard reset, but will do it if that will be the last chance.

I checked for corrupted activities, but everything seems fine.

Anyone have any suggestions?

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0 JanH over 3 years ago

Complain to Garmin. They keep messing up their stuff. This slow-maps-issue occured already several times...

0 sagybp over 3 years ago in reply to JanH

And apart from complaining is there any solution that could help?

0 ALEX VILADIU over 3 years ago

I am having the same issue with no solution

0 DerDembo over 3 years ago in reply to sagybp

Check out my saga with the slow map drawing:

https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-5-plus-series/246206/extremely-sluggish-map-operations-with-europe-2020-20

I was finally able to resolve the issue by multiple delete-maps-from-device-reinstall-via-Garmin-Express cycles. There might be a reason for why it finally clicked, but honestly, I think it was just luck in the end. The one good thing about this issue is that it requires only patience and can apparently be solved without a full factory reset (although I tried that too).

0 sagybp over 3 years ago in reply to DerDembo

Thank you.
Eventually I was able to solve this by deleting all of Garmin maps from the watch and manually installing only the map for my city. Watch is running super smooth and fast.

0 sagybp over 3 years ago in reply to ALEX VILADIU

Eventually I was able to solve this by deleting all of Garmin maps from the watch and manually installing only the map for my city. Watch is running super smooth and fast.

0 JanH over 3 years ago in reply to sagybp

Sorry. I guess I am just a very disappointed Garmin customer.

But I still believe these things need to be brought up to Garmin. They need to see the complains and issues. Letting the community find workarounds for their bugs will not make their software better.

0 DerDembo over 3 years ago in reply to JanH

I did open a support ticket with Garmin Germany and they pretty much advised me to do exactly this: Delete the files that trigger a re-install of map files and just go through the loop. I guess I could've caused them more pain (hence pressure to fix their software stack) by sending back my watch and demanding a fix but then again that would mean not being able to use the watch for quite some time.

Garmin simply hasn't adopted the mind of a software company - which is evident by them getting hacked last year - and to me from the outside it looks like pretty much every watch release cycle is running on a more or less handcrafted software stack. Once the new set of watches arrives, porting back bug fixes is time consuming so it pretty much is reserved to severe cases. And right now - no matter how much we payed for these devices - the series 6 is the hot new *** and all resources are focused on it. On the other hand, the basic life support has been quite good with Garmin as they still shipped some minor updates for the 920XT not too long ago.

0 7000518 over 3 years ago in reply to sagybp

So can you keep the maps on your phone and swap them at will without having an i ternet connection?

0 sagybp over 3 years ago in reply to 7000518

The phone won't help a lot, because you need to transfer the maps to the watch, which can be done with a cable only via a computer.