COlorado Geocache GPX files

[+GeekBoy.from.Illinois]

OK, here's one I haven't seen in the forums yet. When I first got my Colorado 300 at the end of February I found that it wold find all the GPX files on my SD card, no matter what directory they were in. I don't know how or why, but shortly after that, it started only seeing the GPX files in the \Garmin\GPX folder.

 

Well, today for some reason, the GPSr started seeing all GPX files on the SD card again. My normal workflow is to store a large number of geocaches in my GPSr segregated by county. I then place 3-4 GPX files into the \Garmin\GPX folder and place the rest into \SupportFiles\Geocaches.

 

Has anyone else seen this? Does anyone have any idea how to "fix" this?

[+GeekBoy.from.Illinois]

So, other than a few folks who see the GPX files in the "Recycled" folder (created by Windows) or in the ".Trashes" folder (created by MacOS) no one else is seeing that their Colorado is attempting to load GPX files that are not in the /Garmin/GPX folder? I find this odd. Both the "Recycled" and ".Trashes" are not in the /Garmin/GPX folder, so files included there in should not be loaded as Geocaches, but for some people they are. For me, my GPSr is seeing GPX files in "/SupportFiles/Geocache/..." and since that directory has several subdirectories each with over 50 GPX files, it complains that there are too many GPX files, and eventually that there are too many geocaches too. THis has not always happened, and has just started for some reason.

[+Team Chinook]

THis sounds like MAC yes? And they are GPX and not LOC? Are you choosing the SD card? Using GC.com or GSAK?

[+GeekBoy.from.Illinois]

THis sounds like MAC yes? And they are GPX and not LOC? Are you choosing the SD card? Using GC.com or GSAK?

 

This is Windows Vista. The are GPX files (created by GSAK) and they are in a totally different directory, but none-the-less, the Colorado 300 is still trying to load them as if the were in the "/Garmin/GPX" folder. As I mentioned in the first post, this was working as expected and as designed up until a few days ago, and suddenly when I was re-visiting my maps configuration, the GPSr started telling me that there are too many GPX files (even though there are only 4 in the GPX folder), and after a very long while, it complains about too many geocaches and it only shows me the ones which are in GPX files outside the "/Garmin/GPX" folder.

 

BTW, why would Mac/Windows make a difference? The GPSr is not supposed to see GPX files outside the "/Garmin/GPX" so why would the computer OS make a difference?

Edited September 21, 2008 by GeekBoy.from.Illinois

[+Team Chinook]

Didn't recognize these, "Recycled" and ".Trashes" , and assumed erroneously it meant mac.

 

I don't run Vista either, so I can't help you troubleshoot. But, perhaps it doesn't matter where the files are...Colorado is seeing them all and overloading. Have you sent over the issue to Garmin? I know a good guy over there focused on the Colorado.

[+GeekBoy.from.Illinois]

Didn't recognize these, "Recycled" and ".Trashes" , and assumed erroneously it meant mac.

 

I don't run Vista either, so I can't help you troubleshoot. But, perhaps it doesn't matter where the files are...Colorado is seeing them all and overloading. Have you sent over the issue to Garmin? I know a good guy over there focused on the Colorado.

 

Yes, your guess that the Colorado is seeing all files on the SD card (or internal memory) is exactly what I am seeing and asking about. The odd thing is that it worked normal for quite some time, then suddenly it started seeing GPX files it shouldn't see...

[+twolpert]

BTW, why would Mac/Windows make a difference? The GPSr is not supposed to see GPX files outside the "/Garmin/GPX" so why would the computer OS make a difference?

There was some issue with the Colorado misbehaving with regard to files left in the trash folder when files were deleted using a Mac. There is a similar, newly reported (9/8/08) issue involving the Windows Recycled folder. It's not clear when the latter problem was introduced.

 

On the Mac, the solution was to empty the trash folder. I assume that the same solution will work under Windows, even for you Vista victims.

 

In both cases, the problem appears to be specific to files in the trash folder/recycle bin. Is it possible that you have older versions of your .gpx files in the recycle bin? And that the unit is seeing those, not the current copies in other folders?

 

For reference, see the first issue (dated 9/8/08) under Must Fix (P2) here:

http://garmincolorado.wikispaces.com/Issues+List

[+GeekBoy.from.Illinois]

In both cases, the problem appears to be specific to files in the trash folder/recycle bin. Is it possible that you have older versions of your .gpx files in the recycle bin? And that the unit is seeing those, not the current copies in other folders?

 

I wish it were this simple. I have started with a newly formatted SD card. There is no "Recycled" folder (or ".Trashes" folder for that matter) anywhere on this SD card. There are no GPX files anywhere on this SD card except the "/SupportFiles/Geocache" tree. Additionally there are no GPX files, "Recycled" folder ( or ".Trashes" folder) anywhere on the GPSr unit itself. When I power the Colorado 300 on, I get a warning about too many GPX files if I place all the files in the directory structure which I was keeping there for the last few months. After a long while I then get the warning about too many geocaches as well. If I reduce the number of GPX files, I still have the long startup process and may or may not get get the warning about too many geocaches. Sometimes it does not give the warning, but it still only loads some of the several thousand geocaches.

 

I hope to be able to make time to call Garmin on this issue in the next few days...

[+g-o-cashers]

I haven't tested this extensively but my understanding was that the Colorado would load just about every gpx file it could find in internal or external memory. Exceptions would be the Archived, Current and Temp folders under Garmin\GPX, but everything got loaded. I can't explain why you were able to get away with what you did but the problem with .Trashes and Recycled are just examples of the "read it all" approach.

 

That said most of my testing was on internal memory because of another issue the Colorado has (had?) which was the fact it loaded gpx files on SD every time it booted, not just the first. If, for example, you have a 2000 geocache gpx file on the SD card it would take the Colorado minutes to boot. That same file loaded in internal memory would cause the Colorado to boot slow the first time (to build its internal databases) but thereafter it would boot quickly.

 

GO$Rs

Edited September 22, 2008 by g-o-cashers

[+twolpert]

I haven't tested this extensively but my understanding was that the Colorado would load just about every gpx file it could find in internal or external memory. Exceptions would be the Archived, Current and Temp folders under Garmin\GPX, but everything got loaded. I can't explain why you were able to get away with what you did but the problem with .Trashes and Recycled are just examples of the "read it all" approach.

That explains a lot. I've never actually experimented with putting .gpx files anywhere other than in the Garmin\GPX folder. Since I can't do anything with the files or folders without connecting to the computer anyhow, it seemed kind of pointless to organize things on the unit...

 

Not that it matters, but I also can't say that I've ever noticed a Windows recycle bin on the unit, either.

[+g-o-cashers]

The recycled bin was a strange one, I've only seen this happen once. Normally windows won't created a recycled bin on a removable drive but under some conditions (which may have to do with bugs in certain version of Windows) the recycled bin will get created. There is also 3rd party software that does this.

 

For most people it shouldn't be an issue but it would nice if Garmin just took GPX files from the GPX directory, it would fix a lot of these strange issues with too many geocaches/files.

 

GO$Rs

[+GeekBoy.from.Illinois]

That said most of my testing was on internal memory because of another issue the Colorado has (had?) which was the fact it loaded gpx files on SD every time it booted, not just the first. If, for example, you have a 2000 geocache gpx file on the SD card it would take the Colorado minutes to boot. That same file loaded in internal memory would cause the Colorado to boot slow the first time (to build its internal databases) but thereafter it would boot quickly.

 

I had encountered the slow loads on older software versions but they were resolved [for me] in one of the newer releases, 2.54 beta or v2.60 I'm not sure which. When I first got my unit in February, the sales rep at the Garmin store upgraded its software to version 2.4 and it would load GPX files from anywhere on the SD card. I don't remember when it changed, but some time later (beta 2.51 maybe?) it started only seeing GPX files in the /Garmin/GPX folder, and I started taking advantage of that. I keep a rather large GSAK database of geocaches (~9000) on my PC, but because I never really know where/when I will get the opportunity to go caching, I also keep the full database exported and on my SD card. When I have a chance to cache, put the SD card in my PDA and move the appropriate GPX files into the /Garmin/GPX folder and re-start the Colorado. It has served me well for several months until just last week.

 

I got a chance to call Garmin support this afternoon and they weren't familiar with this issue. They were going to forward it off to the engineers for more research. Before the cal ended, the tech ad asked me if I had posted here as he had seen my posts here but didn't know it was the same person on the phone. If things go well, he hopes to have more news for me within a few days. In the mean time, I may just play with an idea I got from the comments about the Current, Archive, and Temp folders...

[+JPatton]

Instead of moving the files to different folders, you could change the file extension to something like .gpz on the files you don't want to load. It would be really nice if this could be done directly on the Colorado, but on a pda it shouldn't be much trouble.

[+GeekBoy.from.Illinois]

Instead of moving the files to different folders, you could change the file extension to something like .gpz on the files you don't want to load. It would be really nice if this could be done directly on the Colorado, but on a pda it shouldn't be much trouble.

 

I have thought about this, but my Windows Mobile PDA is hiding the file extensions from me and I haven't looked into that option as the "old method" had worked for me for several months.

 

Another observation I have made is that now that my GPSr is loading any GPX file on the SD card, it is also having more issues with freezing during startup. When it was only seeing the GPX files in the "/Garmin/GPX" folder, I don't recall it ever locking up during startup. Since it has started seeing all GPX files on the SD card, I have had 3 or 4 lockups in less than a week...

[+GeekBoy.from.Illinois]

OK, I just got an email from Garmin on this issue since I called them on Monday.

Thank you for contacting Garmin International.

We were able to reproduce this issue. GPX files should only import from \Garmin\GPX, but they are importing from anywhere on the SD card. Hopefully this can be fixed in the next software release.

 

For a work around, they suggested using the rename the file extensions. Looks like I need to go find a Windows Mobile method to change a file extension, since by default, WM5 doesn't show file extensions...