Garmin Montana 680t loses entire cache database?

[+lee737]

I've seen this happen a couple of times with this device, and a couple of times with my older Oregon....

Yesterday we'd finished a hike, and I was saving the track log, in order to re-record our return journey. The save went ok (I've seen it crash here before), then I went into the track manager to find the saved gpx file. The device locked up, unresponsive.

I eventually had to hard restart holding the power key, and when the device restarted the cache database was gone.... 'No geocaches found.' etc.....

I noticed the cache waypoints seemed intact, and my saved WPs were OK.

I can't recall how I fixed it last time, I think I deleted the cache GPX files and reloaded, or maybe even the whole GPX folder....

 

My questions - what has happened? Is there a less random way to fix this? Can it be fixed in the field?

Cheers!

 

 

[+barefootjeff]

42 minutes ago, lee737 said:

My questions - what has happened? Is there a less random way to fix this? Can it be fixed in the field?

 

I mentioned this yesterday during the hike but thought I'd post it here in case it's helpful to anyone else. I'd occasionally have my 62s not display caches, apparently due to a corrupted index file which could be fixed by removing all the gpx files, powering up and letting it build an empty index, then restoring those files. To be able to do that in the field, I bought a removable memory card and put all the gpx files on that, so all I had to do would be power down, pop out the card, restart, shut down then put the card back. It worked fine until I had to change batteries while on a bus and, while doing so, the memory card fell out. I didn't realise until I'd gotten off and started scratching my head wondering where all the caches had gone.

 

My Oregon 700 has never done that (touch wood!), all my cache display problems have been accidentally bumped filter settings.

[+kunarion]

1 hour ago, barefootjeff said:

I bought a removable memory card and put all the gpx files on that, so all I had to do would be power down, pop out the card, restart, shut down then put the card back. It worked fine until I had to change batteries while on a bus and, while doing so, the memory card fell out. I didn't realise until I'd gotten off and started scratching my head wondering where all the caches had gone.

Garmin Micro SD card holders are the worst!  I had the bright idea one time to swap map cards in the field.  The fiddle little card holder acted like it was spring-loaded, and catapulted the SD card out onto the trail.  After I thought I had locked it in place just fine!  Luckily it landed where I could find it.  I immediately decided to never try that again.

 

But yeah, if the GPX files are on that card (or a spare), that might help recover a corrupted database in the field.

 

Edited January 8, 2023 by kunarion

[+lee737]

I don't actually use the SD on this unit, just the internal memory....

[+barefootjeff]

34 minutes ago, lee737 said:

I don't actually use the SD on this unit, just the internal memory....

 

It might be worth a try to see if it makes it easier to recover in the field.

[+lee737]

45 minutes ago, barefootjeff said:

 

It might be worth a try to see if it makes it easier to recover in the field.

The Oregon used to crash more, I could rescue it by restarting without the SD.... I might have to do the same....

 

[+Atlas Cached]

I always load all my data to micro SD cards only for this very reason. 

[+2quigs]

I'll throw this out there and it may have nothing whatsoever to do with this issue but it could...

I use a 66s and noticed at one point that all my geocaches were missing from the "find geocaches" menu.  I fiddled with it a bit and noticed that in the "filter geocaches" the types of caches were all "unchecked".  How that happened I'll never know.  Maybe clumsy fingers.  Anyway when I rechecked the filters, everything was back to normal...the way it should be.  Just a thought....

[+lee737]

This was definitely not a filter problem (I have done that before).... it all happened as I tried to save and reload a track. I do agree, check filters first whenever you feel some caches aren't showing when they should be.....

 

I resolved this problem by deleting (moved off the device) the entire Garmin/GPX folder, restarted then loaded a new PQ - perfect. It probably needed a clean out in any case, there was about 700 GPX files in there, waypoints and tracks etc..... 99% no longer needed too....