Can Mapsource licenses be "moved"?

[+fourbeer]

I want to sell my GPSr and move my purchased license to my new unit. Can this be done or do I have to purchase a new license. (City Navigator North America 2008).

 

I am sure this is covered somewhere, but I just couldn't find it.

 

Thanks,

Keith

[+RonFisk]

I want to sell my GPSr and move my purchased license to my new unit. Can this be done or do I have to purchase a new license. (City Navigator North America 2008).

 

I am sure this is covered somewhere, but I just couldn't find it.

 

Thanks,

Keith

Yes, it can be done. The question is will they do it? Generally the mapping software is sold along with the unit it's installed on. A call to Garmin might be in order, but don't get your hopes up.

[+PhilAun]

I asked this same question before, if I could sell my current unit and transfer the maps to my Colorado and the response that I got from Garmin is, no. Below is their response to my email to them.

 

Thank you for contacting Garmin International.

 

I'd be happy to help you. We cannot transfer the unlock code to the Colorado. You can unlock a second unit through your mygarmin account. To generate a second unlock code there is a fee of $99.00.

 

Please let me know if there's anything else I can assist you with.

 

With Best Regards,

 

Debbie B

 

Product Support Specialist

 

Outdoor/Fitness Team

 

Here's a Q & A quote from Garmin's FAQ section (with the section of interest in bold and underlined):

 

Question: What is Garmin's Unlock Policy?

Answer:

Your MapSource coupon or registration code is valid for use with your own Garmin GPS unit. This agreement provides a one-user license, and it is illegal to share this data with others.

 

If you would like to obtain additional regions or utilize more than one Garmin GPS unit you own, you will need to purchase another code for each unit. (The exception to this is with MapSource BlueChart CD data. The region you have unlocked to one compatible Garmin unit you own from a specific BlueChart CD you may unlock to ONE other compatible Garmin unit you own for no additional fee.)

 

Important note: Once you complete the unlock process, Garmin cannot make changes to your coverage area, transfer unlock codes to different Garmin devices or give refunds or exchanges for MapSource unlock codes. Unlock codes are GPS unit specific and cannot be transferred to another GPS unit. Please be very careful to select the regions you want to unlock. Please pay close attention to the Unlock Policy statements and FAQ’s on this website for very important information on how unlock will apply to your specific situation.

 

Certain customer information is shared with our data providers. These providers currently use this information for internal demographic analysis. These providers may, in the future, use this information to inform you when new data is released or new products become available.

Last modified on: 04/30/2008

 

However, it never hurts to call Garmin support and ask, you never know. The response you get may be different depending on who you talk to. Good luck.

 

PhilAun

Edited July 14, 2008 by PhilAun

[+Ratsneve]

I want to sell my GPSr and move my purchased license to my new unit. Can this be done or do I have to purchase a new license. (City Navigator North America 2008).

 

I am sure this is covered somewhere, but I just couldn't find it.

 

Thanks,

Keith

Yes, it can be done. The question is will they do it? Generally the mapping software is sold along with the unit it's installed on. A call to Garmin might be in order, but don't get your hopes up.

Yes they will do this but you have to call them for human intervention so you can unlock the software on your new unit. I had read that you could only unlock the map software on up to two GPSr and since I'm going to be changing my GPSr out soon to hopefully fix Colorado probems I would be using up my last use of the software. But this isn't so. However, you do have to call and wait and maybe wait again. At least in the U.S. we aren't talking to someone in India or the Philippines.

 

Of course I haven't quite done this yet and maybe the next person will give me a different story. However, I'd be very surprised if Garmin hasn't gotten a lot of flak on the license agreement and realized they cannot limit the number of uses of the software forcing you to buy new software. So I feel confident this transfer process will work.

Edited July 14, 2008 by Ratsneve

[+fourbeer]

Thanks for the responses. I will call Garmin when I receive my new unit and try to get the license transferred.

 

Thanks.

[+StarBrand]

I've tried - the answer is "NO". You have to pay a fee to unlock a new unit - no transfers.

[+fourbeer]

I've tried - the answer is "NO". You have to pay a fee to unlock a new unit - no transfers.

 

Do you recall how much that fee is?

[+Ratsneve]

I've tried - the answer is "NO". You have to pay a fee to unlock a new unit - no transfers.

I suppose Garmin is making a fee exception in my case since I am replacing my faulty CO 400t with a new CO 400t. Let's hope the fee is just clerical and a reasonable price for you.

Edited July 14, 2008 by Ratsneve

[roybassist]

I've tried - the answer is "NO". You have to pay a fee to unlock a new unit - no transfers.

I suppose Garmin is making a fee exception in my case since I am replacing my faulty CO 400t with a new CO 400t.

That's right. They will give you a new unlock code for a replacement unit, because they will have possession of your previous unit, so they know no one else will be using it.

[roybassist]

I want to sell my GPSr and move my purchased license to my new unit. Can this be done or do I have to purchase a new license. (City Navigator North America 2008).

Once an unlock code has been issued, there is no way to deactivate it. So they can't be sure that the person who buys your new unit won't be using a copy of the maps. That’s why they won’t transfer locked maps from one unit to another. If you want to unlock those maps to a new unit, the fee is what they charge for an additional unlock.

 

Instead of trying to transfer the maps from your old unit to the new, sell the locked maps with the old unit, then buy a new install for your new unit. Whatever you can get for the locked maps you sell is effectively a discount on your new maps. I just did that with my old 76CS and CNNA 2008. I sent Garmin an email explaining what I wanted to do. One of their support people called me, then the new owner, and it was done.

[+Lasagna]

Yep .... selling the maps with the old unit is the best and easiest.

 

Garmin will not give you a pass on buying a new unit. If you have a faulty unit and they issue an RMA to have you return it for repair/replacement and it comes back with a new unit / serial number (I've never gotten my old unit back when I had them repair something -- which they always did as a warrenty repair) they will provide you with a new unlock code for free (I guess because they know that the old unit was retired). It does sometimes take getting ahold of the right person to understand that the number changed because of a repair/replacement by them. Of course, the new unlock code they provide happens to work with any serial number.

 

There wouldn't be anything wrong with your old unit that they might qualify as needing fixed under warrenty before you sell it would there?

 

 

I want to sell my GPSr and move my purchased license to my new unit. Can this be done or do I have to purchase a new license. (City Navigator North America 2008).

Once an unlock code has been issued, there is no way to deactivate it. So they can't be sure that the person who buys your new unit won't be using a copy of the maps. That’s why they won’t transfer locked maps from one unit to another. If you want to unlock those maps to a new unit, the fee is what they charge for an additional unlock.

 

Instead of trying to transfer the maps from your old unit to the new, sell the locked maps with the old unit, then buy a new install for your new unit. Whatever you can get for the locked maps you sell is effectively a discount on your new maps. I just did that with my old 76CS and CNNA 2008. I sent Garmin an email explaining what I wanted to do. One of their support people called me, then the new owner, and it was done.

[roybassist]

Of course, the new unlock code they provide happens to work with any serial number.

I hope you won't be offended if I ask how you know that. It's just that that isn't how I thought it worked; but I'm no expert.

[gallet]

Hang on a minute, let's be clear. Garmin, have, as of last year, initiated a worldwide policy on their CN software to reduced the usual two licenses which were available when the CN software was bought, to a single license, thus in a stroke they doubled the cost of putting maps on your gps units if you have more than one. It is not unusual for US persons to have four gps units, Garmin doesn't care, they'll have to now pay 4 times. instead of just twice.

 

So that's Garmin. Now the OP is asking if Garmin will kindly allow them to transfer their licence to a new unit, while no doubt assuring Garmin that the maps on the previous gps will be deleted off the unit. ROFLACOBOMOV.

[+fourbeer]

There wouldn't be anything wrong with your old unit that they might qualify as needing fixed under warrenty before you sell it would there?

 

No. It works quite well.