Edge 1040 27.13 Firmware not showing in Base Camp on Mac (4.8.13)

next2you2
12 days ago

Hi,

My Edge 1040 is not showing up on BaseCamp for mac anymore after upgrade to 27.13 firmware. Basecamp is version 4.8.13. I've launched Garmin Express and there the device is instantly recognized. I've tried unplugging and plugging in again and made sure only one sotware is running. Any hints there? I would like to add routes to my device and planned them via Garmin Basecamp.

Thanks

Christian

  • 0 10 days ago

    After five years without updates, BaseCamp now fully qualifies as abandonware. If you haven’t updated your Edge in a while, you might have missed that Garmin dropped USB Mass Storage support on the Edge 1040 about a year ago. In its place, they switched to MTP a protocol introduced in 2004, already outdated when the Zune used it in 2006, and somehow still around in 2025. 

    MTP is supported natively on Windows and likely works acceptably — it had to, since older Android phones relied on it. But BaseCamp was never updated to support MTP, so even on Windows it won’t see the device. On macOS, where there's zero native support, you're left with half-broken third-party tools. I'm currently using OpenMTP — not because it’s good, but because I gave up searching for anything better.

    As far as I can tell, there’s no official Garmin software anymore that allows browsing the device filesystem. Only syncing is still supported: Garmin Connect on mobile and Garmin Express on desktop.

  • 0 5 days ago in reply to 5155879
    5155879 said:
    But BaseCamp was never updated to support MTP, so even on Windows it won’t see the device.

    From my experience that's not correct. Basecamp on Windows sees my 1050 (which uses MTP) and can send maps to it without any problem.

  • 0 5 days ago in reply to AuldNik

    Basecamp 4.7.5.0. on my WIN10 see my 840 to..

  • 0 5 days ago in reply to AuldNik

    I managed to get my hands on a Windows laptop just to see for myself what you mentioned: BaseCamp for Windows recognizes the Edge 1040.

    And yes, it does: BaseCamp for Windows detects the device and can access and use the maps installed on it (TopoActive, DEM, Trailforks, etc.). That’s already better than what I ever got on macOS, which back when it still worked — couldn't access the maps at all. I even remember buying maps in 2022 that I could never use, because a separate app required to install those maps (something like MapInstall or MapManager) no longer worked on that version of macOS.

    However, that’s pretty much where the improvement stops.

    • There’s no access to activities, saved locations, or routes stored on the Edge.

    • Those actually did show up on macOS, before the switch to MTP.

    • I tried creating a route and sending it to the device — “Select a device” — and of course, the list was empty.

    • Same for Receive from Device.

    So yes, the Edge 1040 shows up in BaseCamp for Windows… but you can’t really interact with it, aside from passively using its maps, at least in my case.
    Sad and ironic, really, because the only thing that still works on Windows is precisely what never worked on macOS for me: the maps.