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Why won't maps load on microSD card?

shreddagorge
over 4 years ago

I've struggled with this problem for a long time and found no online answers that work (at least not permanently - I've fixed this before but it comes back).

I want to move 4G+ worth of maps off the 8G of onboard storage to a 32G microSD card. Today I uploaded the latest EU routable map using Garmin Express and it even alerted me that it recognized I have a microSD card. After three hours of download and install, I unmounted the file systems and disconnected the Edge. It restarted, spent a few minutes updating the maps, and went into normal operations. I then reconnected my Edge 1000 to the laptop and looked at the files by date, and sure enough my 8G onboard memory is almost filled with 3G+ worth of new files and the 32G microSD card has 22G still free with no new files written.

What gives?

I bought my Edge in the UK but want to load global and regional maps since I live in the US now and travel. I moved gmapdem*, gmapprom*, and gmapgc* from the Garmin folder on the Edge to the one on the SD card and the Edge told me there were no maps loaded, so I assume some XML file or something needs to point to them. (I've looked into editing those but they look binary with checksum, etc.).

This ticks me off because I don't have space for the ConnectIQ apps that I want or that I'm developing due to the onboard memory being consistently updated with maps no matter how many times I've addressed this issue in the past.

P.S. Yes, I've already pointed Activities to the microSD card and they're updating there properly (with the exception of occasional corrupted fit files... different story).

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Update: I've managed to identify and move all the maps onto the SD by hand. DC Rainmaker's update to his original article on installing custom OSM maps is super helpful: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/08/how-to-install-free-maps-on-your-garmin-edge.html. I initially had the same experience as other commenters in that the Edge reports an error loading the maps, but they're there.

    For the error that the map can't be "authenticated", removing the ".sum" file of the same name as the map seems to work (presumably there's a checksum mismatch, and maybe the new software just skips checksumming if it doesn't see that file).

    I've also taken advantage of the fact you can name the file pretty much anything you want as long as there's a ".img" extension (and presumably the format is correct upon parsing). Instead of "gmaptz", for example, I've renamed the file "Garmin Timezone Map" and it still loads OK. Update: I've also copied over the ".unl" and ".gma" files of the same date and renamed them to match, and that seems not to cause a visible error.

    I haven't update my OSM maps for a long time but need to customize some regions I'll be riding in this season. One thing I notice is my OSM file shows up in Edge's map selection as "Generic OSM map", which will be confusing when I load several different regions, so I'll need to look into custom naming them with the tool/site that Ray points to in his article.

    Update: turns out the Edge will display the filename first, then the map name and/or format in parenthesis (which I assume is embedded in the file). For example I renamed it "OSM NorCal" which was displayed on the top line as Enabled, with "(OSM Generic (new style))" appearing on the second line.

    Hope this helps someone! FWIW, this still doesn't solve the problem that Garmin Express notices I have a microSD card yet loads them in my onboard memory, but at least now I have over 7G free to work with, and with future updates will just expect to move and rename things by hand.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to shreddagorge

    Copy the file GarminDevice.xml from the device to the corresponding folder on the SD-card. Then detach the Edge safely from the PC and perform map updates with GE, having only the SD-card in the reader. GE will recognize the SD-card as your Edge 1000. Benefit is a much faster data transfer.