Route using the wrong cached directions.

I have tried to analyse this on the new Edge Explore 2 that has similarity with the Edge 1040 regarding Coursepoint caching. So if i'm wrong for the 1040 I should post this on the Explore 2 forum section.

- loaded a track HvH_92km.gpx from an external source to the folder \NewFiles
- after a reboot and still with GPS Off the track is converted to a Course and placed as HvH_92km.fit in the folder \Courses
- not immediately, but after a short time while the Edge was calculating turn guidance data in the background, a file HvH_92km.cal is created in the folder \Calcs (this is the folder @Aweatherall is referring to)
- at the same time a file HvH_92km.gpc is created and placed in the folder \PointCache
- go outside and let the GPX get a fix, then when you load the Course HvH_92km from the Courses list and start the timer another related file is created in the \PointCache folder - not recognizable from the course name, but with date/time as the filename, like 2022-08-16-08-54-29.gpc. The time is the time of timer start, and the (Windows) file time is the time at which the timer was stopped AND the activity was saved on the device.

Now the question if this is a bug - maybe explaining the weird 'ghost' previous course @mweijs has observed? - or not:
When you delete the course HvH_92 using the Courses menu on the device, the files \Courses\HvH_92.fit, \Calcs\HvH_92.cal and \PoinCache\HvH_92.gpc are deleted, but NOT the related file \PointCache\2022-08-16-08-54-29.gpc. Shouldn't this file being deleted too, or at least ignored when the same or a modified version of the course (example HVH_92km) is loaded, started and saved as an activity? I would expect that a new file was created with the right date/time (moment of time start) in the filename.
In the meantime the folder \PointCache on my device contains quite a lot already of date-time.gpc files of courses I have deleted from the device and that never will disappear. They will pile up until deleted manually using the Windows File Explorer on my PC. I will experiment what happens when I delete those files and then start to ride an already loaded and cached course. Will a new date-time.gpc file be created, or do we get a "Houston we have a trouble"... ?

Curious if other users of the 1040 or Explore 2 have similar observations.

I am also observing the wrong courses displayed and the wrong directions (even, when disabling directions - we know of that other bug already). I had manually (from PC) deleted all old files inside the Calcs folde and all files inside the PointCache folder besides the date-time.gpc files (which I didn't dare to touch). I also have several times removed cached data from the device menu. Still, I see wrong courses displayed *often*. Firmware 12.16.

At least, since I have learned the workaround how to really disable directions an only follow tracks (by touching the screen an then touching "disable navigation" (my translation from the German GUI), the wrong courses dissappear, Unfortunately, this has to be repeated every time, you have left the track by 10 m or so. BTW. Since I am doing this all the time, freezes of the device have been very rare. Before I had a freeze roughly every day..

If it is of interest: these ghost courses seem to appear independently from the format of the tracks and the mehtod you transfer them to the device (.fit, .gpx., tcx; transfered directly by the filesystem from PC or transferred by basecamp).

Another observation:
- On my device there are 27 activities saved as date-time.fit in the \Activities folder
- Also 27 date-time.gpc files are stored in the \PointCache folder, and NOTE, the filenames correspond 1:1 to the ones in the \Activities folder except for the file extension

So my assumption is that the date-time.gpc files in \PointCache are related to activities. This assumption is supported by the fact that the date-time of the file is the moment you started the activity with the timer and the file's system time (Windows) is the time the file was closed/saved after the ride (timer stop / save activity: yes).

Next, as an experiment I removed the date-time.gpc file of my last ride yesterday from \PointCache and after a short lookup I cannot find any difference with 'complete' earlier activities. History looks complete, etc.. So the question arises, what is the function of the date-time.gpc files in \Pointache? Being careful, but my convincement that these files are obsolete and should be removed from the device by its built-in software is getting stronger...

More observations and a final question:

The logic for the interrelation between the files that are concerned with the caching of turn directions appears to be quite simple. You should consider two separate groups:
- the first group is the Course and related cache files, named as the course name (HvH_92km.* from my analysis above)
- the second group is the Activity (history) and related cache files, named as date-time.*.

Observations are (keeping the course name like in the analysis):
- If you delete an activity named for example 'Today' or 'Tuesday' or '30 JUL' from History/Rides on the device, the related file date-time.fit is deleted from the folder \Activities, AND the related file date-time.gpc is deleted from the folder \PointCache. Note that all files from the 'Course' group with names HvH_92km.* in the folders \Calcs, \Courses and \PointCache are not affected and still exist.
- If you delete a course named HvH_92km from COURSES\Saved Courses on the device, the file HvH_92km.fit is deleted from the folder \Courses and the file HvH_92km.gpc is deleted from \PointCache. In first instance the file HvH_92km.cal is not deleted immediately from the folder \Calcs but rather flagged as invalid, making it being deleted after the next power cycle of the device.

The new function to cache course turn directions is a very nice one and it speeds up starting a course with turn guidance considerably. Its related files for storing the caching data should remain on the device until the course is being deleted (using the menu on the device).
The final question for the 'Activity' group of files is: what is the function of the date-time.gpc files in the folder \PointCache? Up to now I have not found anything going wrong with what you can do with stored activities on the device after you delete the related date-time.gpc file:
- Delete - yes you can delete
- Save Ride as Course - yes, and the resulting course behaves without anomalies and allows cached turn directions, etc.

So my conclusion is that in an upcoming new software version obsolete date-time.gpc files should be deleted from \PointCache. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Given that the "ghost" courses only seem to be seen by a subset of users what is it that causes them, ( is it related to manually deleting activities/courses via file system deletes?), and are/will they be fixed in the current betas / next release?

L.Rouge said:

is it related to manually deleting activities/courses via file system deletes?

A good chance it is... On my Edge Explore 2 I've seen a "ghost" course once and that was after I had been fiddling around with manually deleting files via the Windows system and putting back via \NewFiles a changed track (.gpx) with the same internal trackname. Afterwards I couldn't remember the order I was doing things and reading this thread in the 1040 section was the reason to try to look for the interrelation of files and their function as described above.
My impression up to now is that when you delete courses or activities using the menu's on the device - and not using (wired) file system deletes - nothing weird happens. The only thing that may have to be corrected is the - in my opinion - obsolete date-time.gpc files in the folder \PointCache

I hadn't deleted anything manually, only via the 1040 UI

As far as I can tell, this works the same on the Edge 1040. A course named SomeCourse corresponds to the files Courses\SomeCourse_course.fit, Calcs\SomeCourse_course.cal and PointCache\SomeCourse_course.gpc. An activity from e.g. 19 August 2022 corresponds to the files Activities\2022-08-19-HH-MM-SS.fit and PointCache\2022-08-19-HH-MM-SS.gpc.

I did another ride today. Before I started, I checked that the Courses, Calcs and PointCache folders on the Edge were empty. I copied the GPX file for today's course to the NewFiles folder. I turned on the Edge, and it showed today's course on the map in dark purple, with white chevrons. When the Edge had a sattelite fix, I started riding the course. The Edge prompted "Course found", the white chevrons on the dark purple line on the map disappeared, and the ghost course appeared in light pink, with white chevrons.

Since the ghost course is not in the Courses, Calcs or PointCache folder, it must be cached somewhere else. But I cannot figure out where it is. I suppose I will have to reset my Edge again to get rid of this ghost course.

I always delete my courses and activities via the file system, by deleting the file in the Courses or Activities folder respectively. Apparently, the corresponding files in the Calcs and PointCache folders are deleted by the Edge itself, on the next power-up, I presume.