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Need some help with my Garmin Montana 650t and downloaded gpx files.


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So I have gotten several caches to go to the Garmin Montana 650t, I can see them in the Garmin GPX folder, but when I click on the Geocaching icon, nothing came up. I have searched this forum, and the Garmin Forums. I have rebooted the device and tried again. Again, I see the files in the correct folder. When I went to the Garmin site, it pushed me to the OpenCaching site (had 1 nearby cache instead of the literally hundreds on GeoCaching), but when I downloaded that GPX off of the OpenCaching site, it showed up. What gives? Can anyone help me?

 

Rory and Jennifer Latham

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I occasionally get this too. If it's the same thing that happens to me (and other on Colorados and Oregons) I simply change the name of the file created in the GPX file folder of the Garmin unit. Doing so seems to force the machine to reload the file even though nothing's changed in the .GPX file except the name. For me, this filename change works just about every time I see "No Geocaches" in the caching menu, fewer caches on the map screen when I know more caches should be present, or when geocaches might show up in the geocaching menu but their respective descriptions won't load for me to read on the unit.

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The well known situation the Dr. talks about is also the reason that many (including me) recommend putting the gpx files on an sdcard. His solution doesn't work very well when you are on a 30 mile bike ride and all of sudden there are no caches on the device. Then you:

 

Turn off

Remove Card

Turn on and let it boot

Turn off

Install card

Turn on.

 

Works every time and I have had it happen way into the day on every Garmin since my 450 through the 550 and now my Montana.

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The well known situation the Dr. talks about is also the reason that many (including me) recommend putting the gpx files on an sdcard. His solution doesn't work very well when you are on a 30 mile bike ride and all of sudden there are no caches on the device. Then you:

 

Turn off

Remove Card

Turn on and let it boot

Turn off

Install card

Turn on.

 

Works every time and I have had it happen way into the day on every Garmin since my 450 through the 550 and now my Montana.

 

Nice! That is much better and I think I'm gonna start doing my loading that way, too. Thanks!

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The well known situation the Dr. talks about is also the reason that many (including me) recommend putting the gpx files on an sdcard. His solution doesn't work very well when you are on a 30 mile bike ride and all of sudden there are no caches on the device. Then you:

 

Turn off

Remove Card

Turn on and let it boot

Turn off

Install card

Turn on.

 

Works every time and I have had it happen way into the day on every Garmin since my 450 through the 550 and now my Montana.

 

Great Googly Moogly, didn't even think about that.

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So, as a follow up for any that might have been having the same issue:

 

Here is what I did to resolve my issue:

1) Downloaded and installed the BaseCamp program.

2) Plugged the Garmin into the computer while BaseCamp was running.

3) Created a new collection called GeoCaches in BaseCamp's My Collections.

4) Grabbed all of the .gpx files I downloaded to the Garmin from the BaseCamp file explorer (Internal Storage Folder).

5) Placed these into the GeoCaches Colection.

6) With the Geocaches collection highlighted, used the Menu item Device -> Send to Device -> Send 'GeoCaches' to device.

7) Safely removed hardware, unplugged the Montana 650t.

8) Shut the Montana 650t off. Waited 2 min (probably didn't need to wait that long), powered back on and viola, they were under the GeoCaches folder on the device.

 

Now to load the North America Streets map pack that came yesterday. Wish me luck!

 

Rory

 

CACHE ON!

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I was just going to post about this problem when I came across this thread.

Today, nice and sunny so decided to take the geopup for a long walk and grab some caches along the way.

Checked my Montana 650 before I left and saw the caches that I wanted to find. When I got close to the cache site I turned the unit on and lo-and-behold, "no geocaches found" message.

Came home and plugged the unit into my computer and there was 20mb in the gpx file but still no caches showing when using the unit.

Changed the name of the gpx file as Dr. House suggested and all the caches were there again.

Thanks for the heads up.

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I was just going to post about this problem when I came across this thread.

Today, nice and sunny so decided to take the geopup for a long walk and grab some caches along the way.

Checked my Montana 650 before I left and saw the caches that I wanted to find. When I got close to the cache site I turned the unit on and lo-and-behold, "no geocaches found" message.

Came home and plugged the unit into my computer and there was 20mb in the gpx file but still no caches showing when using the unit.

Changed the name of the gpx file as Dr. House suggested and all the caches were there again.

Thanks for the heads up.

If you had them on a sdcard you could have redone it in the field and not lost the caching time.

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So, how exactly do you put them on an sdcard?

I have been using the Colorado/Oregon export macro for years and that is the only way that I know to get them on the unit.

Thanks

You create the Garmin/GPX folder on the uSD card (just as it appears in the unit's internal memory) and drop the files into the GPX folder on the uSD card.
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So, how exactly do you put them on an sdcard?

I have been using the Colorado/Oregon export macro for years and that is the only way that I know to get them on the unit.

Thanks

I am assuming you use GSAK. When the macro screen comes up in the upper left area there are two lines. One for the device which is filled in and one for the sdcard which is empty. Put in the drive letter and click the proper radio button. It will go to the sdcard.

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