Driving me mad: no turn-by-turn navigation

A paste from a the manul (not sure if it helps you though)

Navigation Settings
You can customize the map features and appearance when navigating to a destination.
Customizing Map Features
1
Hold MENU.
2
Select Navigation > Data Screens.
3
Select an option:
•
Select Map to turn on or off the map.
•
Select Guide to turn on or off the guide screen that displays the compass bearing or course to follow while navigating.
•
Select Elevation Plot to turn on or off the elevation plot.
•
Select a screen to add, remove, or customize.
Setting Up a Heading Bug
You can set up a heading indicator to display on your data pages while navigating. The indicator points to your target heading.
1
Hold MENU.
2
Select Navigation > Heading Bug.
Setting Navigation Alerts
You can set alerts to help you navigate to your destination.
1
Hold MENU.
2
Select Navigation > Alerts.
3
Select an option:
•
To set an alert for a specified distance from your final destination, select Final Distance.
•
To set an alert for the estimated time remaining until you reach your final destination, select Final ETE.
•
To set an alert when you stray from the course, select Off Course.
•
To enable turn-by-turn navigation prompts, select Turn Prompts.
4
If necessary, select Status to turn on the alert.
5
If necessary, enter a distance or time value, and select .

Thanks very much for that. However, it’s the turn-by-turn routing that is the problem ie the watch routes in a straight line, instead of following the roads on the map.

I’m sure I’ve got the navigate options set correctly i.e. Use Map, but the watch steadfastly refuses to create a route that is anything other than a straight line.

No, it should be possible with existing maps, but I have never had Activity set to “Automobile” though.

Ah. That’s interesting. I get turn-by-turn routing if I select MTB or Hike, but not automobile. So the watch treats them differently from a mapping and routing perspective. That’s annoying. 

I do have a Europe city nav map for my 66i which I have no doubt will not be transferrable to the watch, so maybe I’ll just stick with Google Maps on my phone :-(

Never tried automobile routing, but perhaps sideloading some OpenStreetMaps could help here? No idea if routing would still trigger.

Could anyone else try this? Choose the Navigate activity, pick a saved location or point of interest nearby and hit “Go”. In Navigate settings > routing, set activity to “Automobile” and courses to “use map” and see what routing you get.

I just tried it for the 100th time. If I set activity to “Road Cycling” I get turn-by-turn routing. If I set it to MTB I get turn-by-turn routing. As soon as I set it to “Automobile” I get a straight line with no turn-by-turn routing.

Thanks - so it’s not just me then.

Maybe I’ll just use road cycling for all my routing then :-(  

Interestingly in the online 6x manual, there’s no mention of “Automobile” or “Motorcycle” activity, but they are there in the routing menu. I expected to see them in the activity list so I could go in and check their routing settings. I wonder if they don’t appear because Garmin are trying to stop us from using the watch for car/Motorbike routing.

More investigation needed.

I haven't had time to re-watch the video, but I *think* this is it. Auto navigation section starts at 47 minutes.

https://youtu.be/vUtBtPPAlMs

Edit : OK, I started watching, but gave up after a few minutes as I don't think it tells us anything new. I think it's fair to say that using walk/run profile is not a wise choice, and road cycling is probably the best of a bad bunch of options. Even then, if you have a long journey and want to use motorways I imagine you'll be out of luck. Google maps it is then.