Garmin Communicator

[BCbear]

This is perplexing and frustrating...

It's been a while since I have sent geocaches to my Garmin GPS. Since I have done so in the past I have upgraded to Windows 10 from 7 but trying to install and use the Garmin Communicator I can't find any browser that supports this plugin. How does this happen?? I'm I missing something here?

[+kunarion]

56 minutes ago, BCbear said:

This is perplexing and frustrating...

It's been a while since I have sent geocaches to my Garmin GPS. Since I have done so in the past I have upgraded to Windows 10 from 7 but trying to install and use the Garmin Communicator I can't find any browser that supports this plugin. How does this happen?? I'm I missing something here?

 

Web browsers are dropping support for old protocols that are security risks.  One of them is the programming interface "Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface" (NPAPI), the interface used by Garmin Communicator.  I tried to keep it working for as long as I could, as a personal challenge.  It may not be possible to get it to function anymore in Windows 10 with updated web browsers.  There are many threads about it here, and in other areas of these Forums.  Sorry.

As a basic member, you can still get LOC files and convert them to GPX files with software.  Paying members can save individual GPX files (or Pocket Queries of many caches) directly to a GPSr, or use the new "Send To Garmin" feature to send a whole "list" to a GPSr, kind of like Garmin Communicator did.

 

Edited August 16, 2017 by kunarion

[+cejamison4]

1 hour ago, BCbear said:

This is perplexing and frustrating...

It's been a while since I have sent geocaches to my Garmin GPS. Since I have done so in the past I have upgraded to Windows 10 from 7 but trying to install and use the Garmin Communicator I can't find any browser that supports this plugin. How does this happen?? I'm I missing something here?

I find that if I go into Internet Explorer  ( not Edge)  I can use the Garmin Communicator with out any problem....  While it's a hassle having to switch to a different browser, it solves the problem... I have a Garmin e-trex and have to do this to get my caches downloaded.  I can download my drafts from my regular browser (chrome) straight from the geocahing.com site.  Hope that this helps you out some.

 

Edited August 16, 2017 by cejamison4
spelling and added info

[+LizzyRN]

As a PM, the "send to Garmin" option in my list profile works well. It took me a bit to discover this after the old way failed, but I've enjoyed the convenience and benefits. I utilize the "download data offline" frequently, too.

[+kunarion]

1 hour ago, cejamison4 said:

I find that if I go into Internet Explorer  ( not Edge)  I can use the Garmin Communicator with out any problem....  While it's a hassle having to switch to a different browser, it solves the problem...

 

Did you get the latest Win 10 update?  I got a security update on August 8th. Now I have IE version 11.0.45.  Trying to use Garmin Communicator, I get a "Type Error" (since a few months ago).  Cool that some people can still get it working!
 

Edited August 16, 2017 by kunarion

[BCbear]

No to Internet Explorer as well. Very frustrated that I must get a paid membership for a basic function. I don't geocache enough to get a paid membership. I guess I'll just have to continue to enter the coordinates manually.

I already have Garmin as a trusted site but it hasn't made a difference.

Edited August 16, 2017 by BCbear

[+cerberus1]

26 minutes ago, BCbear said:

No to Internet Explorer as well. Very frustrated that I must get a paid membership for a basic function. I don't geocache enough to get a paid membership. I guess I'll just have to continue to enter the coordinates manually.

Nothing wrong with that, I've been entering manually since starting.  Easy actually.  

[+kunarion]

9 hours ago, BCbear said:

No to Internet Explorer as well. Very frustrated that I must get a paid membership for a basic function. I don't geocache enough to get a paid membership. I guess I'll just have to continue to enter the coordinates manually.

I already have Garmin as a trusted site but it hasn't made a difference.

 

That's is what mine is doing.  Actually, I can't tell if that particular error is telling me that I can't send a GPX file from Geocaching.com, or if it's only a "map" problem.  I never sent maps through Garmin Communicator anyway.

But you can load caches through other software (EasyGPS, GSAK, and I think Basecamp) with varying amounts of tedium.

As cerberus1 mentioned, if you do Geocaching infrequently, typing the coords is the option.  That's what I did as a non-paying member, and I printed a cache page or two (then later moved on up to the paperless power of a Palm PDA.  Oh, yeah. ).  I eventually got a PM and load caches into my GPSr directly.  The "Send To GPS" thing was always a mess, see these Forums for all the problems all the time.  As a PM, click "GPX File", save it in the GPSr, no fiddling with today's hacks that supposedly keep Communicator functioning .  But now I more often send a PQ of some new GeoTour or a PQ of whatever place I'm visiting, so I almost never save caches one at a time.

 

Edited August 16, 2017 by kunarion

[+skramble]

9 hours ago, BCbear said:

No to Internet Explorer as well. Very frustrated that I must get a paid membership for a basic function. I don't geocache enough to get a paid membership. I guess I'll just have to continue to enter the coordinates manually.

I already have Garmin as a trusted site but it hasn't made a difference.

Presuming you've already successfully added "https://my.garmin.com" to your trusted sites list: click the X to dismiss this notification, and in the window behind it, click to download and install. When it comes up again, dismiss it again, accept the security alert about installing software, and try the Send to GPS button again. This time there should be a security challenge at the bottom of that small window asking if you want to install the addon. Do it and you should be golden.

[+kunarion]

12 minutes ago, skramble said:

Presuming you've already successfully added "https://my.garmin.com" to your trusted sites list: click the X to dismiss this notification, and in the window behind it, click to download and install. When it comes up again, dismiss it again, accept the security alert about installing software, and try the Send to GPS button again. This time there should be a security challenge at the bottom of that small window asking if you want to install the addon. Do it and you should be golden.

 

Does this work in IE 11.0.45 (recent update)?

When using "Send To my GPS", I get "TypeError: Unable to get property 'getElementsByTagName' of undefined or null reference", the same error I've gotten for months.  It's definitely broken, and I don't suggest people mess with it anymore.  If it works, cool.  But for most users with updated systems, I expect they can't get it to function.  It's a security risk, and IE is blocking it.

While you work on the hack of the day that supposedly fixes it, and when it does not fix it, remember that if you instead typed the cache coordinates manually (or in the case of PM, if you saved the GPX files manually), you'd be caching by now.

Edited August 16, 2017 by kunarion

[+skramble]

19 minutes ago, kunarion said:

Does this work in IE 11.0.45 (recent update)?

[+kunarion]

39 minutes ago, skramble said:

 

I'm guessing that you're lucky, or more to the point, that you'll be in the same boat with the rest of use soon.  I've had the same error for months, about when I ran out of things to try.  I then switched to Firefox, until that one got updated.  I don't need "Send To my GPS", but it was a nice challenge to keep it operational.  Plus I could walk people through steps to get it working after it failed on my system. Maybe that's an important distinction.  When I did this, I noted that it did in fact break as the OP suggests, then posted the specific steps to fix the OP's problem.

All I get now is an error, regardless of whether or not a GPSr is connected.  Today I reinstalled the stand-alone "plugin" and checked the trusted site.  Same thing.  It's broken now.

 

 

People who rely on "Send To my GPS" are creating issues anyway.  They aren't placing them manually, so if they therefore aren't deleting old files manually, these people will be back here in the Forums, plugin working or not.

Edited August 16, 2017 by kunarion

[+skramble]

4 minutes ago, kunarion said:

People who rely on "Send To my GPS" are creating issues anyway.  They aren't placing them manually, so if they therefore aren't deleting old files manually, these people will be back here in the Forums, plugin working or not.

In this case, for Basic folks who can't use PQs and who are unable to get the Communicator working, installing GSAK would be a preferable alternative to manually entering coords IMO. If the collection of caches (as a single GPX file) they send from GSAK is always named the same thing, it'll always overwrite the old, no need to manually delete anything. 

[+kunarion]

48 minutes ago, skramble said:

In this case, for Basic folks who can't use PQs and who are unable to get the Communicator working, installing GSAK would be a preferable alternative to manually entering coords IMO.

 

I think so, too.  Well, except that I can't make any sense out of it. I have tons of questions about GSAK and never even began to get it working.  I'm stuck on question #1!  If I can't get something to function, I can't walk people through it if they have similar questions.  PM and placing the files manually is fine for me (and many cachers).

But it depends on how active a catcher is.  When I hunted 1 or two caches every once in a while, typing then by hand was no big deal.  I still type a lot of waypoints in the field.  And now with PM, I still hunt only 1 or two caches every once in a while .  OK, sometimes I'll attempt a 20 cache Geotour in a day...

Edited August 16, 2017 by kunarion

[+skramble]

1 minute ago, kunarion said:

 I have tons of questions about GSAK and never even began to get it working.

It's off topic here, but I'd be happy to take this offline and help you get it working. IMO it's an indispensable tool. Message me if want to get started, but don't expect a reply for a couple of hours or so, it's about time for my 10 km morning stroll around an Otter Point block. 

[+kunarion]

1 hour ago, skramble said:

It's off topic here, but I'd be happy to take this offline and help you get it working. IMO it's an indispensable tool. Message me if want to get started, but don't expect a reply for a couple of hours or so, it's about time for my 10 km morning stroll around an Otter Point block. 

You'd better get going, then!  

What I've done with GSAK for years is, challenge myself that "if I can get it all set up as I like, within the two week trial, I'll pay".  Never made it yet.

If the plan is mainly to get one-click functionality to load caches, I'm not sure that GSAK is the solution.  If I had paid when I first installed it, I'd have forked over at least $60 by now, for updates. People might as well save up for the yearly $30 for PM instead, and get all the features, plus the button to click.

Edited August 16, 2017 by kunarion

[+on4bam]

1 hour ago, kunarion said:

What I've done with GSAK for years is, I attend an Event and someone shows some amazing GSAK features, so I install it and go try it on my PC.  And it's exactly like last time.  Unintuitive, frustrating, hard to see. Things that seem to be no issue for anybody else.  If I'm the only one asking, I guess I'm way too picky or something.  So I make myself the offer that "if I can get it all set up as I like, within the two week trial, I'll pay".  Never made it yet.

If the plan is to get one-click functionality to load caches, I'm not sure that GSAK is the solution.  If I had paid when I first installed it, I'd have forked over at least $60 by now, for updates. People might as well save up for the yearly $30 for PM instead.

I guess it all comes down to how comfortable you are with computers/software. The biggest problem when you're new to GSAK is that it has so many functions it can be overwhelming. I started using GSAK very early on when I started geocaching. In the beginning I just imported caches and then PQs. Soon thereafter I had PQs by placed date and kept my database updated. The more I used it the more things I found to do with it. I discovered macro's and soon I had a large selection of them, all making life easier. API support was another big step forward.

Now I hardly use the website anymore and do all the preparing for cachetrips in GSAK. Loading my Oregon 600 takes a few minutes, I transfer cache images in seconds, transfer all data to my tablet (with GDAK) and load the car GPS (Nuvi) in a few minutes. Back home, I transfer my "fieldnotes", write my logs (offline), prepare trackable logs and when that's done it just takes one click to log all caches and trackables.

It takes some work to get started but once you know the basics it gets easier and easier and you'll soon do more and more complex things. I've paid twice (v7 and V8) and that cost is a lot less than what we spend on the last three days away from home to go caching so it's all relative.

 

[+kunarion]

1 hour ago, on4bam said:

It takes some work to get started but once you know the basics it gets easier and easier and you'll soon do more and more complex things. I've paid twice (v7 and V8) and that cost is a lot less than what we spend on the last three days away from home to go caching so it's all relative.

 

 

Well, I wasn't gonna suggest that.  The OP asked what happened to the click button, and although the answer may well be that you get that button's functionality back by paying $30 per year plus $30 per software upgrade, I can't be sure that the OP was actually asking what to pay.  Except it is good to mention because it does illustrate the value of that button that people were once getting for "free".

 

 

Edited August 16, 2017 by kunarion

[+on4bam]

14 hours ago, kunarion said:

 

Well, I wasn't gonna suggest that.  The OP asked what happened to the click button, and although the answer may well be that you get that button's functionality back by paying $30 per year plus $30 per software upgrade, I can't be sure that the OP was actually asking what to pay.  Except it is good to mention because it does illustrate the value of that button that people were once getting for "free".

 

$30 per upgrade means $60 over an 11 year period. Money well spend for hours of saved time

 

[+Mn-treker]

For the send to GPS plugin. It Seems that Internet Explorer is now the only browser left that will support any of the GPS plugins.

I have Delorme and had it (the plugin ) loaded into both Firefox and IE. I tried Firefox last night and found that the plugin was removed by an update to Firefox.

So now it seems that IE is the only one left that the Send to GPS button will work with now.

As far as GSAK I do not use it.

[+on4bam]

1 hour ago, Mn-treker said:

For the send to GPS plugin. It Seems that Internet Explorer is now the only browser left that will support any of the GPS plugins.

Yup, only insecure old browsers still allow you to use it