I've owned my Tactix 7 Pro Ballistics Edition since they came out, and all this time Garmin Explore on my iPhone has told me that there are map updates available, and gave three options for getting the update:
- Using Garmin Express on a computer
- Using Garmin Connect app on a mobile device
- Using Wifi
I didn't feel like using option #1 since I already had Garmin Connect on my phone, and didn't want to install another piece of specialized bloatware.
Option #2 didn't work at all with the Tactix 7 Pro. Whenever I accessed the Map Manager in Garmin Connect, it would tell me that "This setting is only available on your tactix 7"
So I finally gave up and tried Map Manager on the watch itself (I set up the Wifi connection months ago).
It showed a number of map updates as being available (Topo North America, SkiView etc.), and I started the download last night after connecting the watch to the required USB power source. The estimated time for the download was five hours, so when I woke up this morning and checked on the watch, I expected the download to be done. Instead, it was at 40%. I then checked the network activity on my router and found that the watch was downloading a few kilobits per second, with short spurts of a few megabits per second before falling back to the normal glacial pace.
Why are the downloads so darn slow? And why can't Garmin Connect handle the map updates?
