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Any way to disable 'Turn by Turn' directions for 'Do Course' when navigating?

Former Member over 6 years ago

I setup a course and went hiking with my Forerunner 645 this weekend . Started a 'Walk' activity, started navigation with 'Do Course', and started getting turn by turn directions. At first this seemed like something I wanted but later on a difficult switchback descent it started notifying me of every single turn twice. Once about 50-100 feet prior to the turn and once after you complete the turn. The beeps and buzzes every couple of minutes to alert me got pretty annoying to say the least.

I would prefer to disable turn by turn and only be notified of specific waypoints I add (such as Summits). Any way to do this? Thanks

0 WillNorthYork over 6 years ago

For devices without map support, turn by turn directions are added to courses by Garmin Connect when you send the course the course to the device (not when the course is created.)

So if you send the course to your device without (directly) using Garmin Connect, you should have a course without turn-by-turn directions. There's a couple of ways I can think of to do this:

Mobile-friendly:
1) Use the app RouteCourse, which can sync courses from several services, including GC, using a website and an app on your watch:
https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/b7efc9ca-5446-4e1c-bc53-474e97f376ac

Requires PC:
2) Manually export course and copy to watch

- Open the Garmin Connect website on a computer
- Select the course, select the 3 dots menu and Download (FIT)
- Connect watch with USB cable
- Copy the FIT file to the \GARMIN\NEWFILES\ folder on the watch

Option 1 is probably a lot more convenient. In fact, the only disadvantage of RouteCourse (afaik) is that it can't generate TbT directions the way GC does, but for you that's actually a feature.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Thanks, method 2 worked perfectly. Really starting to like my new watch now ... Hopefully, Garmin can make turn by turn disabling a more explicit option in the future so I can transfer courses via my iphone again (and hopefully we don't lose this back door approach).

Also, I tried using a GPX file generated from Suunto Movescount (manually copied to 'Newfiles') and this was worked okay but not as good as using the FIT file downloaded. With the GPX file the course came in without turn by turn, but the named waypoints were not included as part of the course (like they are with the FIT approach). The named waypoints just get added as User Saved Locations that show up on the map.

0 WillNorthYork over 6 years ago

You’re welcome. Glad it worked out.

I know it’s not as seamless as the GC app, but the routecourse website works fine on phones, so you can still transfer routes on the go if you have to. Have to admit I don’t know if using routecourse would be equivalent to transferring the FIT or the GPX tho.

0 mappicus over 6 years ago

I know it’s not as seamless as the GC app, but the routecourse website works fine on phones, so you can still transfer routes on the go if you have to. Have to admit I don’t know if using routecourse would be equivalent to transferring the FIT or the GPX tho.

routeCourse transfers the route in FIT format (it's the only option for Connect IQ apps to use on the Forerunner 645). (The dynamicWatch website handles format conversions automatically, so it does matter whether the original route import was GPX, TCX, direct URL import, etc). The FIT format allows for the inclusion of turn-by-turn instructions (aka cue sheet or course points) and when TCX file imports and direct Ride with GPS URL imports are done with our Premium option any course points are also imported and included in the FIT download.