A couple of questions

[wks]

Hello all have bought the xt. I have tried to do a lot of reading lol. Have a couple of questions
1: Do I really need explore? I'm still on the steep learning curve of base camp and would like to keep using that.
2: Have I got a old model. It has a mini USB connector????
TIA
Bill

[danham]

Many here feel that Explore introduces more problems than it solves. So no, you don't need it. You can plan routes in BC and transfer them via Garmin Drive (on your phone) wirelessly or by popping an SD card into your computer and then into the XT, or by connecting the XT and computer via cable. I prefer the SD card method.

-dan

[Aushiker]

Yeah, I was a bit surprised by the USB connector too. It really is time Garmin discovered USB-C.

[Peobody]

I completely agree with the response by @danham.

I find transfers via cable are easiest.

Putting routes on the SD card means that they are always there. When you import them on the XT they are copied to internal storage but when you delete one in trip planner it remains on the SD card for re-import.

Wireless transfers via the Drive app eliminates messing with a cable or card. I have found it to be cumbersome but I admit to not having put any time and effort into refining my process. I think having cloud storage accessible by PC and phone is the key to this being easy.

[lkraus]

I use the USB cable for transfers nearly all the time. I don't leave the XT on the bike so wireless route transfers and updates are not very useful to me. I do occasionally use Google to find and "share" a destination to my current route and Drive is convenient for that purpose.

When I first received my XT I spent about an hour with Explore and decided it was not worth the time to learn new methods and procedures. The phone app kind of works but I like a big screen on a computer for route planning. I tried using the web version on my desktop (https://explore.garmin.com/) and all my routes were just straight lines. Explore is very bad at importing existing Basecamp routes (https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=k ... AhusE7WED8). Garmin being Garmin, there is very little documentation and the web version does not even have a link for Help.

I deleted the app and reset the XT. Basecamp and a cable work just fine.

In the interest of fairness I did look at the web site again just now, just to see if it had changed. I can't detect anything new, but I keep seeing notices saying "Lost connection to server. Retrying." My internet is working just fine, so the problem is on Garmin's end.

[wks]

Thanks for the replies cable it is.
Bill