80 Tips, Tricks & Snippets

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Missing Favourites

Favourites (or Saved Locations) are what the Zumo calls Waypoints. When a route is transferred to the Zumo’s internal memory, any Waypoints in that route are immediately added to the list of Favourites. No need to import them. Waypoints can also be transferred separately and they also show up in the list of Favourites immediately .


This is not the case if the routes or the waypoints are transferred to the SD Card. They have to be imported before they will show up in Favourites. That is exactly how routes behave too. Transfer first, then import. So that is not particularly a big problem.


What can be a problem, if you are not aware of it, is that in certain circumstances, even though you have transferred your Waypoints, the Zumo cannot find them to import. It says that there aren’t any.


It is lying. If you transferred them to memory card, they are there. It seems that it hasn’t bothered to look for them: If there are no Favourites in internal memory, then it reports that there aren’t any Favourites, and ignores the ones on the memory card. The solution when you discover this, miles from the nearest computer is quite simple: put a single Favourite into internal memory. To do this, tap on the map to place a blue flag. (It may need a couple of taps). Tap the blue flag icon that appears and save it. It will say that it has added it to Favourites. No need to do anything else. Just try to import your 'missing' favourites again - they will now be there.


Is it a Car ?, Is it a bike ?

You probably think you know the answer, but you could be wrong.

There are 3 transportation modes in the XT. Car, Bike and Off Road.

There are 3 physical power modes for operating the Zumo XT - internal battery, USB lead, Bike cradle.

There are 3 transport modes that are recognised by the XT - car, bike, off-road.

That is 27 combinations that are interconnected in a way that you wouldn’t even want to think about.

So where is the confusion ? Well you may think that:-


"The Vehicle Mode for the XT remains unless I change it by clicking on the icon."

No it doesn’t. It may change if you load and run a new route. It may also change if you plug the Zumo into a different cradle or plug in a USB power source.

"The Vehicle Mode switches to Motorcycle if I mount the XT in the bike cradle"

No. Two things here - nothing happens when you put the XT into the cradle. But something happens when it gets power from the cradle. It switches. But not necessarily to Motorcycle. It switches to whatever vehicle was set the last time that it was powered by that cradle.

"The Zumo XT continues to use the same vehicle and routing preferences that were set before a route was loaded."

No, not quite. It uses the vehicle (Car, M/Cycle) and the route preferences (faster, shortest) that are obtained from the loaded route. It does not use the vehicle that is set in the XT, nor does it use the routing preferences are set in the XT before the route is loaded.
However, if it has just loaded a motorcycle route, it will use all of the settings that are stored in the Zumo for the motorcycle - eg avoidances, display style, toll roads - ie everything except the route preferences of shorter / faster. These are controlled by the settings in the route.

"The Zumo XT will return to its previous setting once the route has been stopped."

No. It stays set with the same vehicle that was used in the route! But the properties associated with the vehicle - eg avoidances and route preference of faster/shorter - are still linked to the currently displayed vehicle.

If you think about this - you will notice that if you power the XT by the USB port, it thinks it is in the car cradle. You load up your motorcycle route, and it switches the XT to motorcycle mode. What you do next doesn’t matter. The next time you use your Zumo XT in the car, it will automatically switch the Zumo to Motorcycle mode.


That’s fine. For me - I prefer it like that so that I don’t make stupid mistakes. I use faster time with no avoidances and I set up the Car, Motorcycle and Off Road to be exactly the same. Then I set the vehicle to be motorcycle when it is powered in the bike cradle and when it is powered by the USB cable. And Basecamp routes are set up the same - Faster Time, no avoidances.


Then I don’t have to worry about any of this.



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The information on these pages has been acquired from personal experience of using and testing the behaviour of Basecamp and my Zumo XT. I have no links with Garmin, and these pages should not be regarded as instructions. They are presented for interest only. The contents of these pages must not be shared, copied, transmitted, redistributed or re-published in any form without my permission. (C) JHeath 2021.