The slowness of Mapinstall

[Michael Cook]

On Macintosh, as far as I know, the only way to load maps onto the GPS unit is with the Garmin Mapinstall program. I've used it a few times and already been annoyed by its slowness, but today it is slower than ever. I started the map installing process about nine hours ago and it's still on the "Preparing Map Data" stage. I know it's not frozen, since the progress bar is moving, even if at much less than a snail's pace. At the moment it's telling me that it needs 4 hours and 36 minutes to finish, but since it told me two hours ago that it needed 4 hours and 22 minutes to finish, I'm not inclined to believe it. I'm going to have to leave it running overnight.

 

Why is it taking so long this time? Maybe I chose more tiles than last time (Mapinstall doesn't say how many tiles have been chosen: it just gives an indication of the total size, a bit less than 2GB in this case). Or maybe it has something to do with City Navigator Europe 2010.

 

Does anybody else have this problem with Mapinstall?

[+Walts Hunting]

A map of that size can easily take 12 hours or so. The best thing to do with large maps is to start it before you go to bed.

 

I either do it that way or load those for the area I am going to be in and some surrounding.

[+bikercr]

On 12/1/09, Garmin posted an update for USB drivers. This will speed up data transfers between device and computer:

 

http://www8.garmin.com/support/agree.jsp?id=591

[seldom_sn]

On Macintosh, as far as I know, the only way to load maps onto the GPS unit is with the Garmin Mapinstall program. I've used it a few times and already been annoyed by its slowness, but today it is slower than ever. I started the map installing process about nine hours ago and it's still on the "Preparing Map Data" stage. I know it's not frozen, since the progress bar is moving, even if at much less than a snail's pace. At the moment it's telling me that it needs 4 hours and 36 minutes to finish, but since it told me two hours ago that it needed 4 hours and 22 minutes to finish, I'm not inclined to believe it. I'm going to have to leave it running overnight.

 

Why is it taking so long this time? Maybe I chose more tiles than last time (Mapinstall doesn't say how many tiles have been chosen: it just gives an indication of the total size, a bit less than 2GB in this case). Or maybe it has something to do with City Navigator Europe 2010.

 

Does anybody else have this problem with Mapinstall?

 

Which GPS unit? If MapInstall can write to a card reader as well the unit, you may save significant time by having it install the maps to the mSD card. I don't own a Mac, but transferring all of CityNav NT to my 60CSX takes about 2 1/2 hours if I write to the GPSr (USB 1.x), but only 1/2 hour if I write to the mSD in a USB2.0 card reader.

[Michael Cook]

A map of that size can easily take 12 hours or so. The best thing to do with large maps is to start it before you go to bed.

 

I either do it that way or load those for the area I am going to be in and some surrounding.

OK: it's good to know that I'm not the only one who has to wait that long. The whole process took about 18 hours this time.

 

On 12/1/09, Garmin posted an update for USB drivers. This will speed up data transfers between device and computer:

http://www8.garmin.com/support/agree.jsp?id=591

No go: those drivers are for Windows, not Mac OS. In any case, the longest part isn't the transfer between computer and unit: Mapinstall took about 15 hours to prepare the data before starting the transfer.

 

Which GPS unit? If MapInstall can write to a card reader as well the unit, you may save significant time by having it install the maps to the mSD card. I don't own a Mac, but transferring all of CityNav NT to my 60CSX takes about 2 1/2 hours if I write to the GPSr (USB 1.x), but only 1/2 hour if I write to the mSD in a USB2.0 card reader.

I also have a 60csx. The annoying thing with the Mac software is that it will only transfer to a Garmin device: it doesn't recognise a card reader. Further annoyance is caused by the fact that the Garmin device must be connected all the time that MapInstall is preparing the data to be transferred

[+coggins]

Which GPS unit? If MapInstall can write to a card reader as well the unit, you may save significant time by having it install the maps to the mSD card. I don't own a Mac, but transferring all of CityNav NT to my 60CSX takes about 2 1/2 hours if I write to the GPSr (USB 1.x), but only 1/2 hour if I write to the mSD in a USB2.0 card reader.

I also have a 60csx. The annoying thing with the Mac software is that it will only transfer to a Garmin device: it doesn't recognise a card reader. Further annoyance is caused by the fact that the Garmin device must be connected all the time that MapInstall is preparing the data to be transferred

I think you are mistaken there, MapInstall for Macintosh writes to cardreaders without any GPSr connected on my system without fail. Didn't take but a couple of minuets to transfer a slew of maps to the device and plop it into my Vista HCx.

 

[nfennie]

On 12/1/09, Garmin posted an update for USB drivers. This will speed up data transfers between device and computer:

 

http://www8.garmin.com/support/agree.jsp?id=591

 

Thanks, bikercr! My uploads were slow as well, so this should help. Alhough I think I monitor the Garmin support pages (there are more than a few) pretty well, every once in a while they slip one by me....

[+VariableUndefined]

I used Garmin MapInstall for the first time today with success. I have tried over the past couple of weeks to get it to work. I had attempted to install Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Washington maps on my Garmin GPSMap 60CSx. It would take a couple of hours. Or at least that is what the progress bar said it would do. It would eventually fail with an error.

 

I learned that the Garmin USB Drivers are slow on the Mac. Kinda funny thing, using the Garmin through a Windows Virtual Machine running on the Mac, it worked as expected. To make a long story short, I updated the maps using the SD card installed in my Garmen. I first removed the SD card from my Garmin by removing the batteries and extracting the SD Card. I inserted the card directly in my Mac. The Garmin MapInstall recognized the SD card as a place to transfer the maps to. Instead of a two hour process, the whole process took less than 10 minutes. I think it close to 5 minutes. I took the newly installed maps on the SD card and placed it back in the Garmin GPSMap 60CSx. Everything works now.

[+splashy]

in fact you should have the µSD in a cardreader and transfer the map to the µSD in the cardreader.

Transfer from computer to Garmin gps is extremely slow.

 

The Garmin program needs a Garmin folder to be on the µSd, else it won't work. (AFAIK)

Edited August 15, 2013 by splashy

[+VariableUndefined]

Garmin MapInstall automatically creates the Garmin folder needed.

[+c_dog]

The internal USB ports on Garmin handheld units before the Oregon 450s were spec'd to USB v1.1 . Transfers will max out on that spec to about 12 Mbit/s. The Oregon 450 and later have USB 2.0 spec ports, which max out at about 280 Mbit/s. So, Using an external USB 2.0 card reader instead of the internal slot on the units below the OR 450s may transfer up 23 times faster. On units after the Oregon 450s, you proably won't see much difference.

Edited August 15, 2013 by c_dog