Garmin Oregon 700 bug

[+Khoda]

I recently purchased a Garmin Oregon 700 and frequently use the Live Geocaching feature to download caches. When I download a puzzle with corrected coordinates (on the cache page), the cache is downloaded with posted coordinates.

 

This is a bug that needs immediate attention.

[+Atlas Cached]

Just out of curiosity, what firmware version is your Oregon 700 running?

[+Khoda]

ver 3.3

original was 3.0 and recently updated from 3.2 and then 3.3

None of the updates address this issue. Most likely comes through the API with posted coordinates.

[+Atlas Cached]

Thank you. Posted as BUG 15 at GPSrChive.com

 

Make sure you send it to Garmin also, information on how to do so on the Common Issues page at GPSrChive > Oregon 7x0

[+Khoda]

I sent an email to Garmin support and received this reply.

 

This is working as designed. If you would like to see this changed, I would recommend contacting geocaching.com to see if they can change the way their data is transferred to our devices.

 

I find myself in the tech support circle.

 

Where can I post this issue in the geocaching forum and the Lackey will notice.

[+Atlas Cached]

At least you got a reply...

 

Will have to look into this more before I draw any conclusions 8^)

[+Khoda]

I sure wish this would get fixed.

[+Team DEMP]

I wish it would get fixed too.

Is an option to run your phone as a hotspot and connect the GPS to your phone via wifi, allowing it to work until the root problem is addressed?

[+Khoda]

On 7/26/2017 at 3:53 PM, Team DEMP said:

I wish it would get fixed too.

Is an option to run your phone as a hotspot and connect the GPS to your phone via wifi, allowing it to work until the root problem is addressed?

Are you stating that phone WIFI hotspot is a workaround or that it might work?

[+Team DEMP]

1 hour ago, Khoda said:

On 7/26/2017 at 4:53 PM, Team DEMP said:

I wish it would get fixed too.

Is an option to run your phone as a hotspot and connect the GPS to your phone via wifi, allowing it to work until the root problem is addressed?

Are you stating that phone WIFI hotspot is a workaround or that it might work?

 

I suspect it should work. That removes the phone app from the solution. I will try and test later this evening to confirm. You should be able to test as well. 

[+Khoda]

1 hour ago, Team DEMP said:

I suspect it should work. That removes the phone app from the solution. I will try and test later this evening to confirm. You should be able to test as well. 

The Garmin Oregon 700, as I understand it,doesn't use the phone app. Maybe I should have first asked what app are you referring to.

Just checked it out using my home wireless network. No phone or phone app involved. It still loads the posted coordinates vs the corrected coordinates.

Edited August 2, 2017 by Khoda

[+Team DEMP]

31 minutes ago, Khoda said:

The Garmin Oregon 700, as I understand it,doesn't use the phone app. Maybe I should have first asked what app are you referring to.

Just checked it out using my home wireless network. No phone or phone app involved. It still loads the posted coordinates vs the corrected coordinates.

The garmin 700 uses the phone app if you aren't on wifi. If you are outside, you have the Garmin Connect app on your phone and connect the Oregon 7x0 to your phone via bluetooth. That is the functionality that isn't working. 

At home on wifi it connects to your wifi access point for any "live" functions such as loading caches, accessing bookmarks, etc. 

Anyway, i turned bluetooth off on my phone and enabled my phone to be a hotspot. I connected the Oregon 700 to my phone's wifi and I was able to load a cache and see the bookmark lists on geocaching.com so I suspect until bluetooth is fixed, if you had to, you could connect your Oregon 7x0 to your phone acting as a hotspot and it would be like you were "at home".

Anyone else want to confirm?

Anyone else hear anything from Garmin or Groundspeak on this issue?

[+Bauwtjes]

It's a Groundspeak issue, the problem is that when importing the geocaches on your device with the live functionality, Groundspeak does not send the corrected coords. Simple as that. Probably will take a few years to fix concidering the time it took to get this into their own official app.. 

To be honest I expected more because of the 'send to garmin' function. But as it stands the live option on the garmin is only usable for traditionals.

[hleeful]

As of 1/9/2018, the data sent to Garmin devices through the Live Geocaching feature should list geocaches at their corrected coordinates if the user has set them.

[+The A-Team]

30 minutes ago, hleeful said:

As of 1/9/2018, the data sent to Garmin devices through the Live Geocaching feature should list geocaches at their corrected coordinates if the user has set them.

Is this change targeting only Garmin devices, or does this change also affect any other API users?

[+Henne1312]

22 hours ago, hleeful said:

As of 1/9/2018, the data sent to Garmin devices through the Live Geocaching feature should list geocaches at their corrected coordinates if the user has set them.

Yep, works. Just downloaded a mystery via bluetooth, cache is listed at its corrected coordinates.

 

[+MiPol1]

Does not work for me (new Oregon 700, firmware 4.0). I get original coordinates so I must load .gpx file manually like on my old eTrex 30 :(.

[+Nuffie]

We are now more than a year later. Is this problem now resolved?

[+Allens.crew]

I actually just got my unit yesterday and I am having problems with geocaching live also.  I can not get it to give me a activation code now.  The one time it did register, it said I was a basic member and would not let me do anything.  I upgraded the firmware on the GPS and now I can not even get a activation code.  I have deleted everything off of geocaching.com also, and tried to start over.  Still I am not having any luck.  Please tell me I am not the only one

[+Atlas Cached]

Setup > Geocaching > Geocaching Live > Unregister Device > Reboot

[+Mallorca2009]

I purchased a Garmin Oregon 700 last week. It runs with FW version 4.0. It looks as if the issue with Geocaching live with corrected coordinates for mysteries is still open. I tried to directly download a mystery cache with updated coordinates while connected to my WLAN at home. The downloaded cache information still holds the orginal, unmodified virtual cache coordinates. :-(

However, with a defined pocket query I can download caches once the pocket query is executed. The downloaded Mystery caches seem to have the correct updated coordinates. That worked today at least for two caches. 

[+Mallorca2009]

Update to my reply on August 14: I repeated the test again and did the following:

1. remove all live contents from the Oregon 700

2. remove all manually copied content from Geocache pocket queries from GPX folders

3. enable WLAN and review geocache lists in Active contents on Garmin and sync contentn with device (based on defined pocket queries)

4. Opened description for mystery cache with corrected coordinates 

Result: he coordinates displayed were the orginial ones, i.e. my previous statement was false. Unforutnately Mystery caches with updated coordinates do not get synced correctly to the Oregon 700 device. Sorry for any confusion my comment might have caused.

Edited August 19, 2018 by Mallorca2009

[+Khoda]

On 8/19/2018 at 12:34 PM, Mallorca2009 said:

Update to my reply on August 14: I repeated the test again and did the following:

1. remove all live contents from the Oregon 700

2. remove all manually copied content from Geocache pocket queries from GPX folders

3. enable WLAN and review geocache lists in Active contents on Garmin and sync contentn with device (based on defined pocket queries)

4. Opened description for mystery cache with corrected coordinates 

Result: he coordinates displayed were the orginial ones, i.e. my previous statement was false. Unforutnately Mystery caches with updated coordinates do not get synced correctly to the Oregon 700 device. Sorry for any confusion my comment might have caused.

My Oregon 700 with ver 4.0 is properly importing puzzles with corrected coords. I am using bluetooth through my phone. I will try WIFI later.

[+Khoda]

Tried this again and confirmed something I thought happen last Saturday.

If the cache is already loaded in the GPS, the live update doesn't overwrite the one already stored in the GPS. In fact the cache isn't even reloaded with or without the revised coords. You can tell because the Live Data file isn't created. Check the Filter.

[+Atlas Cached]

6 hours ago, Khoda said:

Tried this again and confirmed something I thought happen last Saturday.

If the cache is already loaded in the GPS, the live update doesn't overwrite the one already stored in the GPS. In fact the cache isn't even reloaded with or without the revised coords. You can tell because the Live Data file isn't created. Check the Filter.

 

This is a well known bug that Garmin seems less than interested in addressing.

 

GPSrChive > Oregon 7x0 > Common Issues > Bugs > Bug 05

[+ossiilch]

Hallo,

kann mir bitte jemand sagen, wie ich die Beiträge auf deutsch lesen kann, nach der Anmeldung war plötzlich wieder alles in englisch. Und zu meiner eigentlichen Frage; ich möchte mein Oregon 700 bei Geocaching. com anmelden, finde aber nicht wo. Erbitte dringend Hilfe. 

Gruß

ossiilch

[+HHL]

15 minutes ago, ossiilch said:

kann mir bitte jemand sagen, wie ich die Beiträge auf deutsch lesen kann

Ja, Du bist hier in der englischsprachigen Abteilung. Gehe in das deutschsprachige Forum.

-> https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/forum/156-gps-und-technologien/

 

Hans

[+ossiilch]

danke

[+Toho_NL]

Tried today as well to use the function to sync the list of geocaches to my Garmin Oregon 700, but indeed still only shows the originally listed coordinates and not the corrected ones. This makes the function useless for me. Such a pity that after such a time of reporting this the function still doesn't work how it should.....

[+Atlas Cached]

 

49 minutes ago, Toho_NL said:

Tried today as well to use the function to sync the list of geocaches to my Garmin Oregon 700, but indeed still only shows the originally listed coordinates and not the corrected ones. This makes the function useless for me. Such a pity that after such a time of reporting this the function still doesn't work how it should.....

 

Seemed to work OK here:

 

On 1/11/2018 at 11:49 AM, Henne1312 said:

Yep, works. Just downloaded a mystery via bluetooth, cache is listed at its corrected coordinates.

 

 

Is this possibly why you are not having same result?

 

On 9/11/2018 at 12:20 PM, Khoda said:

Tried this again and confirmed something I thought happen last Saturday.

If the cache is already loaded in the GPS, the live update doesn't overwrite the one already stored in the GPS. In fact the cache isn't even reloaded with or without the revised coords. You can tell because the Live Data file isn't created. Check the Filter.

Edited January 20, 2019 by Atlas Cached

[+Henne1312]

What I tried was downloading a solved mystery via Bluetooth that is not already loaded in the GPS. The cache is listed at its corrected coordinates. As I don’t have the O700 anymore, I tried this again with my 66s which I suppose runs the in this case identical software. Again, a not-yet-loaded-mystery is listed at the corrected coordinates. I haven’t tried to download a previously loaded solved cache via Bluetooth as I use GSAK for loading the Caches in my area.

Edited January 21, 2019 by Henne1312

[+Toho_NL]

Do you download the cache via the live view or download a full list? I made a list and then downloaded that full list to the Garmin. Haven't tried via the live map update on the Garmin.

 

If you did the same, I'll connect to the PC and see if there is any GPX left but did not saw any before I tried loading the list.

[+Henne1312]

I selected "GC Live Download", "Download near", moved the arrow to the location and started the download. The solved mystery was among the caches loaded. Also worked when entering the GC-Code.

 

 

[+Toho_NL]

Yes, you are right Henne1312. In that way it works. However, if I create a list of geocaches on the website (including ones with corrected coordinates) and on the Oregon I download the list (instead of the "Download near" option) then it does not load the geocaches' corrected coordinates. With the 'load nearby' it works though.

[+da Bush Man]

This was a confusing thread to follow, but it seems there are some bits of success amongst all the failure.  Can you please clearly explain the steps to achieve success downloading caches with corrected coordinates wirelessly to the Oregon 700?  

 

BTW, one observation I noticed that wasn't mentioned in the thread, is when you use Geocaching Live | Geocache Lists | <select Pocket Query> | Sync:

• After the download completes (doesn't matter whether Wi-Fi or Bluetooth) and you shut off Wi-Fi/BT immediately afterwards, if you look at the downloaded cache, there is only basic information available (GC name, posted coordinates, D/T, size) but NO description and NO logs.  So, I suspect another API is being used to fetch the caches because if the GPX file were instead downloaded, all the extra information would have been there.  (this is probably why Oregon 700 claims to be able to store "unlimited" geocaches because very little data)
• When you turn Wi-Fi/BT back on and select the cache again, it goes online and downloads the other information with another API (which probably doesn't fetch the corrected coordinates as everyone is complaining about).
• I tried the above approach with both Wi-Fi home LAN and BT smartphone integration with Garmin Connect app and the result was the same.

The only way I was able to get success was to copy the PQ GPX file manually to the GPS device.  I was really hoping I could achieve this wirelessly and not have to plug a cable into the computer, which was my prime motivation to replacing my Dakota 20 with the Oregon 700.

[+Atlas Cached]

2 minutes ago, da Bush Man said:

• After the download completes (doesn't matter whether Wi-Fi or Bluetooth) and you shut off Wi-Fi/BT immediately afterwards, if you look at the downloaded cache, there is only basic information available (GC name, posted coordinates, D/T, size) but NO description and NO logs.  So, I suspect another API is being used to fetch the caches because if the GPX file were instead downloaded, all the extra information would have been there.  (this is probably why Oregon 700 claims to be able to store "unlimited" geocaches because very little data)

 

Garmin GPSr that claim unlimited geocaches can indeed store every geocache available, with all the information for each cache.

 

The unit first downloads the necessary information to populate the map and list so the user can get on their way to determining which cache they want to 'hunt', while in the background, the unit continues to pull remaining details for each cache until complete.

 

If you shut off your wireless connections immediately after the initial download is completed, you are the reason 'very little data' is present.

[+Atlas Cached]

7 minutes ago, da Bush Man said:

The only way I was able to get success was to copy the PQ GPX file manually to the GPS device.  I was really hoping I could achieve this wirelessly and not have to plug a cable into the computer, which was my prime motivation to replacing my Dakota 20 with the Oregon 700.

 

You needed motivation to upgrade from a Dakota 20?

 

BTW, going from the Dakota 20 to an eTrex 30x or Touch 25 would have been an upgrade. The Oregon 7x0 is in a whole different league. 8^)

Edited February 3, 2019 by Atlas Cached

[+da Bush Man]

4 minutes ago, Atlas Cached said:

 

Garmin GPSr that claim unlimited geocaches can indeed store every geocache available, with all the information for each cache.

 

The unit first downloads the necessary information to populate the map and list so the user can get on their way to determining which cache they want to 'hunt', while in the background, the unit continues to pull remaining details for each cache until complete.

 

If you shut off your wireless connections immediately after the initial download is completed, you are the reason 'very little data' is present.

 

Interesting, I guess the interface isn't too intuitive then.  I figured when I clicked "sync" and it chugged away with the hourglass displayed for almost a whole minute, that ought to have been more than enough time to download a couple megabytes.  Thanks for that feedback.  I'll try repeating the test and let the unit run for an hour and see if that makes any difference.  Although I suspect, it won't address the whole point of my post, which was to figure out how to download corrected coordinates instead of posted coordinates.  Do you have any insight into that?

[+Atlas Cached]

1 hour ago, da Bush Man said:

 

Interesting, I guess the interface isn't too intuitive then.  I figured when I clicked "sync" and it chugged away with the hourglass displayed for almost a whole minute, that ought to have been more than enough time to download a couple megabytes.  Thanks for that feedback.  I'll try repeating the test and let the unit run for an hour and see if that makes any difference.  Although I suspect, it won't address the whole point of my post, which was to figure out how to download corrected coordinates instead of posted coordinates.  Do you have any insight into that?

I do not have anything definitive..... Yet.

[+da Bush Man]

2 hours ago, da Bush Man said:

After the download completes (doesn't matter whether Wi-Fi or Bluetooth) and you shut off Wi-Fi/BT immediately afterwards, if you look at the downloaded cache, there is only basic information available (GC name, posted coordinates, D/T, size) but NO description and NO logs.  So, I suspect another API is being used to fetch the caches because if the GPX file were instead downloaded, all the extra information would have been there.  (this is probably why Oregon 700 claims to be able to store "unlimited" geocaches because very little data)

• When you turn Wi-Fi/BT back on and select the cache again, it goes online and downloads the other information with another API (which probably doesn't fetch the corrected coordinates as everyone is complaining about).
• I tried the above approach with both Wi-Fi home LAN and BT smartphone integration with Garmin Connect app and the result was the same.

 

2 hours ago, Atlas Cached said:

 

Garmin GPSr that claim unlimited geocaches can indeed store every geocache available, with all the information for each cache.

 

The unit first downloads the necessary information to populate the map and list so the user can get on their way to determining which cache they want to 'hunt', while in the background, the unit continues to pull remaining details for each cache until complete.

 

If you shut off your wireless connections immediately after the initial download is completed, you are the reason 'very little data' is present.

 

1 hour ago, da Bush Man said:

 

Interesting, I guess the interface isn't too intuitive then.  I figured when I clicked "sync" and it chugged away with the hourglass displayed for almost a whole minute, that ought to have been more than enough time to download a couple megabytes.  Thanks for that feedback.  I'll try repeating the test and let the unit run for an hour and see if that makes any difference.  Although I suspect, it won't address the whole point of my post, which was to figure out how to download corrected coordinates instead of posted coordinates.  Do you have any insight into that?

 

OK, just for fun I repeated the test with the exception that I left the GPS connected to Wi-Fi for over an hour before disabling Wi-Fi and attempting to access a cache.  Unfortunately, the outcome was unchanged.  So, it would appear that no additional details are pulled in the background after the initial download is completed, or alternatively an incredible amount of patience is expected by Garmin.  :-P

 

[+Atlas Cached]

7 hours ago, da Bush Man said:

OK, just for fun I repeated the test with the exception that I left the GPS connected to Wi-Fi for over an hour before disabling Wi-Fi and attempting to access a cache.  Unfortunately, the outcome was unchanged.  So, it would appear that no additional details are pulled in the background after the initial download is completed, or alternatively an incredible amount of patience is expected by Garmin.  ?

 

Better get your tester fixed!

 

Details are loaded in the background after the initial SYNC is performed, and that progress can be checked in the Geocache Lists page on your Oregon 7x0.

 

[+Team DEMP]

On 1/22/2019 at 5:56 AM, Toho_NL said:

However, if I create a list of geocaches on the website (including ones with corrected coordinates) and on the Oregon I download the list (instead of the "Download near" option) then it does not load the geocaches' corrected coordinates.

 

This inconsistency seems to be the case. I'm on v4 (not 4.4) and the cache loaded from a GC list displays at the original (vs corrected) coordinates. Is this fixed in a later firmware? My firmware hasn't updated on WiFi and I haven't felt like hooking it up to my computer. Any way to force a firmware update over wifi?

 

 

Edited February 3, 2019 by Team DEMP

[+da Bush Man]

On 2/3/2019 at 5:31 AM, Atlas Cached said:

 

Better get your tester fixed!

 

Details are loaded in the background after the initial SYNC is performed, and that progress can be checked in the Geocache Lists page on your Oregon 7x0.

 

 

Thanks for including the screenshots, these didn't look like mine at all.  I was surprised to learn my (new) device was still at software version 2.6.0 (Aug 2016!).  So, now I'm updated to 4.4.0 (released Feb 1, 2019), rebooted and confirmed upgraded.  Next I ran the same steps again: Geocaching Live | Geocache Lists | <select Pocket Query> | Sync and waited for background sync to get to 100%.  I then selected a cache that should have had corrected coordinates and it still showed me posted. <sigh>  What the heck am I doing wrong?  

[+da Bush Man]

27 minutes ago, da Bush Man said:

 

Thanks for including the screenshots, these didn't look like mine at all.  I was surprised to learn my (new) device was still at software version 2.6.0 (Aug 2016!).  So, now I'm updated to 4.4.0 (released Feb 1, 2019), rebooted and confirmed upgraded.  Next I ran the same steps again: Geocaching Live | Geocache Lists | <select Pocket Query> | Sync and waited for background sync to get to 100%.  I then selected a cache that should have had corrected coordinates and it still showed me posted. <sigh>  What the heck am I doing wrong?  

 

The only successful methods I was able to get corrected coordinates was:

1. Main Menu | Geocaching | Search | GC Live Download | GC Code

2. Main Menu | Geocaching | Search | GC Live Download | Download Near | My Current Location 

Option 1 obviously sucks because it means I have to (a) know the GC code; and (b) manually key them all in one at a time.

Option 2 is problematic if posted coords is far away from corrected coords because of small search radius.  Also, it means I can't easily download all the info to my GPS in advance of heading outside and I'd have to tether to my phone for internet access. (well, technically I could download all from home, but it would be a tedious exercise).

 

The only viable solution seems to be plug in the cable and manually copy GPX files to the GPS.  I don't suppose anyone knows of a wireless way to do that?

[+Atlas Cached]

I performed a test myself this morning, corrected coordinates on two nearby caches, then performed every imaginable method of downloading those caches to my Garmin GPSr, completely clearing the device of any geocache data prior to each download and test.

 

Simply stated, the only time the geocache was not loaded to my GPSr with the corrected coordinates is when I used the Setup > Geocaching > Geocache Live > Geocache Lists method on the GPSr. In every other method, the corrected coordinates were loaded and displayed.

 

Of interest to note: When manually downloading that same list to my USB connected Garmin GPSr from the web via the 'Send to Garmin' function, the updated coordinates are loaded properly.

 

Is this a Garmin or Geocaching.com issue? 

 

I do not know.... (yet) - But I suspect it is a Geocaching.com issue.

Edited February 6, 2019 by Atlas Cached

[+da Bush Man]

On 2/6/2019 at 7:46 AM, Atlas Cached said:

I performed a test myself this morning, corrected coordinates on two nearby caches, then performed every imaginable method of downloading those caches to my Garmin GPSr, completely clearing the device of any geocache data prior to each download and test.

Simply stated, the only time the geocache was not loaded to my GPSr with the corrected coordinates is when I used the Setup > Geocaching > Geocache Live > Geocache Lists method on the GPSr. In every other method, the corrected coordinates were loaded and displayed.

 

This matches my experience (at least we have a consistent answer in this thread now!)  Assuming you didn't find any additional methods beyond the Main Menu -> Geocaching -> Search -> GC Live Download -> ... (several menu sub-options), this also means that there is no wireless capability to do a bulk download of caches which would include corrected coordinates.   The only way to achieve this is GPX file download:

 

On 2/6/2019 at 7:46 AM, Atlas Cached said:

Of interest to note: When manually downloading that same list to my USB connected Garmin GPSr from the web via the 'Send to Garmin' function, the updated coordinates are loaded properly.

Is this a Garmin or Geocaching.com issue? 

I do not know.... (yet) - But I suspect it is a Geocaching.com issue.

 

I suspect the 'Send to Garmin' function just directly downloads a GPX file into the \Garmin\GPX folder on your GPSr; and would be the same GPX file should you have manually downloaded the PQ GPX file from the geocaching.com Pocket Query web page.

 

The geocaching.com API that Garmin's 'Geocache Live' feature uses is clearly different and probably downloads one cache at a time directly accessing GC's database.  I can't see how this would be a Garmin issue, the geocaching.com API is clearly to blame here.  An easy fix would be if geocaching.com could fix the API to fetch corrected coordinates instead.  The unfortunate part here is the effort to code this change in the API is less than the time we've spent investigating it.

Hey Geocaching.com, if you're watching, PLEASE FIX THIS!

[+Atlas Cached]

On 6/14/2017 at 6:54 AM, Khoda said:

I recently purchased a Garmin Oregon 700 and frequently use the Live Geocaching feature to download caches. When I download a puzzle with corrected coordinates (on the cache page), the cache is downloaded with posted coordinates.

 

This is a bug that needs immediate attention.

 

As of February 18, 2019, this bug is resolved by Groundspeak. This was not a Garmin issue, but rather a Groundspeak API issue. Please clear all older data from your device for these specific geocaches and re-download them any way you like, the corrected coordinates should be loaded every time.

 

Thank You!

[+Jffok]

I am thinking from reading through the above posts that there just is no simple way to download a pocket query that has corrected coordinates to the Oregon 700  series.  

I have a pocket query with over 200 caches with corrected coordinates and I can't even get the caches to show up on the gps much less have the proper cords.  I have owned this gps for way over a year and have yet to have a successful caching trip with it.   So much for Garmin. 

[+Atlas Cached]

7 minutes ago, Jffok said:

I am thinking from reading through the above posts that there just is no simple way to download a pocket query that has corrected coordinates to the Oregon 700  series.  

I have a pocket query with over 200 caches with corrected coordinates and I can't even get the caches to show up on the gps much less have the proper cords.  I have owned this gps for way over a year and have yet to have a successful caching trip with it.   So much for Garmin. 

 

You are doing something wrong. As posted above, as of 15FEB19, this feature works as expected. Please, as advised above, clear all old data from your GPSr (remove manually loaded files, and clear GCLive data in Geocaching setup), then reboot the device, the load your PQ's again via GCLive.

[+Jffok]

Thank you for the reply and I will clear the old data and try it again.    Should work fine after that.