Does the XT autodelete archived tracks?

[BigBird]

Hi.

Does the zumo XT delete old track archives automatically, BEFORE it gets low on storage space?

I'm in Internal Storage > GPX > Archive of my newish zumo XT. I've got numbered tracklog files, e.g. 16.gpx, 17.gpx, up to 29.gpx at the moment. I have PLENTY of storage still available (12.2 GB used, 15.8 GB free). It's weirding me out that they only go back as far as 16.gpx now.

I previously grabbed the files from 10.gpx on, so I have separate copies of those. So now I'm wondering whether I deleted 10 through 15 at the time and am having a senior moment now, or if the device is automatically deleting them.

What about 1 through 9? I know older devices started at 1.gpx, but perhaps they now start at 10.gpx for the first track. The first points in 10.gpx leave from my home at what MIGHT be a reasonable date for when I finally got around to installing the new GPS and turning on track history, so it could be my first track with it. But I wouldn't bet the ranch on it.

It's tough to get old! But better than the alternative.

FYI, I'm trying to do a little science project with my library of old tracks across various devices. I don't want to lose tracks going forward if I don't download them before they turn into pumpkins.

[AugustFalcon]

It only keeps the last 20 history files files.
See this thread: viewtopic.php?t=1743

[lkraus]

If off-loading the tracks is inconvenient while travelling, you can save them individually on the XT to prevent their deletion. I'd suggest doing this every one or two days, especially if you are stopping often.

[jfheath]

Hi.

Does the zumo XT delete old track archives automatically, BEFORE it gets low on storage space?

I'm in Internal Storage > GPX > Archive of my newish zumo XT. I've got numbered tracklog files, e.g. 16.gpx, 17.gpx, up to 29.gpx at the moment. I have PLENTY of storage still available (12.2 GB used, 15.8 GB free). It's weirding me out that they only go back as far as 16.gpx now.

I previously grabbed the files from 10.gpx on, so I have separate copies of those. So now I'm wondering whether I deleted 10 through 15 at the time and am having a senior moment now, or if the device is automatically deleting them.

What about 1 through 9? I know older devices started at 1.gpx, but perhaps they now start at 10.gpx for the first track. The first points in 10.gpx leave from my home at what MIGHT be a reasonable date for when I finally got around to installing the new GPS and turning on track history, so it could be my first track with it. But I wouldn't bet the ranch on it.

It's tough to get old! But better than the alternative.

FYI, I'm trying to do a little science project with my library of old tracks across various devices. I don't want to lose tracks going forward if I don't download them before they turn into pumpkins.

See the link to my essay that @AugustFalcon posted.

But - you may be able to help me please. When I wrote that page about the number of files, I believed that the oldest file was deleted to make room to save a new one as soon as CurrentTrackLog.gpx became full.

I still believe that to be the case - as it has been for all of the Zumos that I have owned. But for the XT I have read a statement made by Garmin which said something to the effect that it kept the tracklogs for about the last 6 months.

I need to keep resetting my XT for testing purposes, so I have never reached double figures in the archive folder. I think that 6 months will be an approximation of the time period that the archive is likely to cover. It is the first time I have seen them mention that the logs get deleted. The 20 file limit is what I have observed in all of my previous Zumos. But for the XT, I do not know for certain yet.

I have noticed that the XT seems to store more ActiveLogs in each file than previous Zumos.

I used to download my archive files every 3 months or so, and that worked well for my riding - maybe 8000 miles a year.

So you might be able to shed some light on this please.

Do you have exactly 20 gpx files in your archive folder ?
What is the date of the first track in the earliest file ?
What is the date of the last log in the most recent file ?
Do you have any numbered files missing in the sequence ?
If so, are there any missing tracks as a result ?

The last two questions are because a couple of us have noticed that a numbered file is missing, but we din't know if it was deleted accidentally, or that it was never created.

[BigBird]

@jfheath I was skeptical of the "it's 20" reply. While I'm encouraged to see you revisiting and analyzing the behaviors now, I'm also disappointed that you were posting uncaveated speculation as Gospel.

At no point with the XT have I had exactly 20 files (N.gpx) in the archive. A little while ago, on first look, I had 10 - 27. No gaps. Just before my post, like I said, I had 16-29.

Again, 10-15 have definitely disappeared from internal storage. I can't rule out that I deleted them.

I have no idea what happened to 1 - 9. My best guess is they never existed: recording started with 10, and there was no 1 - 9 on this XT. High confidence, but not guaranteed that I didn't lose 1-9 from autodelete before I went in and grabbed 10-27, even though the dates and math don't quite add up.

I have been pulling archive files for a while and I know for a fact that on prior models:

-- the first archive was 1.gpx, not 10.gpx
-- there could be large numbers of files, >20 (storage space allowing)
-- there was not a time delete; or, if there was, it was a LONG time, years

I have never seen a number be skipped.

What I have seen is some wacky bleeding of changes across the last couple of archives. I think it was my nuvi 2797. For example, one day I copied files 46.gpx and 47.gpx. A little later, it was reasonable to see that there was 48 and 49.gpx, but unexpected to see that there were changes to the prior two. I realize there is a possibility that the "current" tracks being written are in current.gpx and 49.gpx, and that 49.gpx may keep evolving until 50.gpx is created. But it seems that n-1 may evolve, too; 48.gpx (or 46.gpx) in these examples. At least that was my assumption at the time.

Perhaps more to tinker with? I may at some point, but not soon. Good luck with your experimentation!! Seriously. I need to get better at taking concise, accessible notes so I stop chasing ghosts in my mind and do real "science."

[jfheath]

@jfheath I was skeptical of the "it's 20" reply. While I'm encouraged to see you revisiting and analyzing the behaviours now, I'm also disappointed that you were posting uncaveated speculation as Gospel.

Not nearly as disappointed as me when I found out that Garmin may have changed their methods of dealing with the archive files.

I didn't make the quote in this post, so I went back to the link that it came from. I've corrected that to indicate that the figure of 20 may not be the case for the XT.

It was hardly wild speculation though - what I described was precisely what the 590 and 595 do, and I have not seen anything different with the XT. But I had read something on a Gramin page which indicated that files are deleted after about 6 months - which alarmed me. But I coudn't test or verify it, because my XT has recently been changed.

I've just been through my logs from my first XT which I was surprised to find had reached 29.gpx - starting at 1.gpx. No gaps. I didn't think I'd had the XT long enough for 29 archive files. If behaviour had been different from my previous observations I think I would have noticed it - but of course that isn't the same as saying that the XT keeps 20 files in the archive folder and deletes the earlier ones.

So thanks for the comment - you're quite right - I don't usually state things as facts if I am unsure. The quote alerted me, and I needed to post the addtional information that I had only recently come across to indicate that It might not be the case. But with a new XT which hasn't even got one file in the archive - I cannot now say one way or the other.

Providing a bit more info about your situation - particularly with the dates of your first and last file, would help get to the bottom of this.

Or I'll make another post to see if anyone else can help from their archive logs.

[BigBird]

@jfheath, thanks for your follow through. I understand how things can get morphed as they get passed around.

Of the history I've got:

1st point 10.gpx is 6/14/22
1st point of 16.gpx is 7/16/22
Last point 27.gpx is 11/10/22
Last point 29.gpx is 11/13/22

The two things I know for sure that I saw were 10-27 in the archive at one point, and 16-29 at another.

I hope that helps your science project.

I note you have a 1.gpx in your history. That's very interesting to me. I bought the GPS in March 22, but it took me some time to install it because I waited to do some farkling at the same time. I don't remember exactly when, but 6/14 is about right. Or, if it's wrong, it doesn't seem like there would be time accrue 1-9 and then lose them. But IDK.

If I were a betting man, I'd say 1-10 never existed. And I deleted 10-15 when I grabbed my first snapshot of the archive.

[AugustFalcon]

@jfheath here is some additional data:

My XT presently has four archive files: 42.gpx, 43.gpx, 44.gpx, and 45.gpx. The data range contained in each respectively is: 26 July 2022 -31 July 2022, 31 July 2022 - 7 August 2022, 8 August 2022 - 19 August 2022, and finally 8 September 2022 - 18 September 2022. In Basecamp my XT is showing Active Log files starting on 26 July 2022 through 16 January 2023.

In Basecamp I have Active log files going all the way back to 24 April 2015. I try to save all of them. There are many before that but those are probably from my BMW Nav V or an even earlier device.

I do remember looking at Archive files with single digits for identifiers. May even have them somewhere not readily to hand. I used to look at them because I was worried that I might lose stuff when the numbers got past 10 or 20. I do remember those archive files covering a great span of time, i.e., greater than a year. Then I noticed sometime long after a big trip when I tried to review it on the device half of it was gone because the on XT data only went back 18 months. Now that seems to be even shorter; my WHERE-I'VE-BEEN now only goes back to 27 September 2022.

[jfheath]

Thank you for that @AugustFalcon .

Your files don't fit into either of the scenarios that I described ! You have neither 20 files or a 6 month period covered by those 4 files.
So it looks as though there may be a different possibility.

Can I check - when you save your gpx logs to your computer, do you just copy them from the XT and leave the originals in place on the XT, or do you delete the originals from the XT once they are safe on your computer ?

[jfheath]

Thanks @BigBird

Your example confuses me. I've been doing a lot if evidence gathering to convince tech support of what I see as a significant issue with the XT. They exchanged one unit for a new one to see uf that sorted the problem. For both of them I perform system resets before each batch if tests, because the track log can affect future routing.

Every reset and each of 3 new XTs - they have all started with 1.gpx in the archive.
Did you know that there is another copy of the logs - in the .System/GPX folder ?

These are called Drivelog16.gpx - the copy of 16.gpx etc

And Drivelog.gpx without a number is a copy of CurrentTrackLog.gpx

Your log files ranges are showing a range of 18 files for the 10-27 gpx observation and just 14 files for the 16-29 obsevation.

I notice that all my gpx files are around 1Mb long. - give or take.

Yet my CurrentTrackLog which is used to create the archive is growing to over 3Mb at the moment. I wonder if the XT is waiting until it has a big file and then dumping that into 3 or 4 smaller archives less frequently. And clearing out older files in order to make room for a bigger dump.

Hmmmm. Just thinking out loud. But it is certainly still getting rid of older log files as part of the process.