Connecting the Zumo to a Mac is still a royal pain

[cr0100]

..if it even works at all!

I just got back from a 2700+ mile trip (I went around all of the Great Lakes - what a fun ride!) where the Zumo, shockingly, never once rebooted or froze up. I'm happy for that.

Now that I'm sitting at my desk at home, I want to download the tracks so I can have a little map of "where I've been this past week" and ... while it's always been a frustrating process to get it to connect, now it absolutely will NOT no matter what I do.

I've rebooted the XT a zillion times. I'm using a USB-C-to-Mini-USB cable which works excellently with an external harddrive. I've rebooted my M1 MacBook Pro, even, to see what's what.

Android File Transfer agent is not running.. Express/Basecamp bitch if that's running, so that's not the problem - but nothing I can do will get the Mac to see a connected XT, even though I've done this before with no problems.

Is there a foolproof, "this always works" sequence of connectivity steps that will make this work, or ... what?

[cr0100]

Followup: I see I posted the same complaint a year ago, so at least I'm consistent.

My former self said I had success when I plugged the Zumo into a powered hub, rather than directly into my USB-C port on the Macbook Pro, so I'm trying that now. Wish me luck!

[cr0100]

...and... Android File Transfer now works - screenshots have been downloaded.

Killed Android File Transfer Agent, and Garmin Express now sees the XT plugged in. So far, so good.

But Basecamp? Nope. No devices connected. The saga continues.

[cr0100]

Basecamp finally worked by doing the ridiculous:

1. Back up Basecamp config (just in case)
2. Delete the (fully-up-to-date) Basecamp application
3. Reinstall Basecamp
4. Run Basecamp - notice spinny beachball for a minute and a half, and then it starts populating with data from the Zumo XT

What a pile of horse-crap this is. If only there was some other way.

[Grabcon]

I have found with my ZUMO XT that I start AFT, plugin Zumo, start Basecamp and then go have a coffee and come back and it might be connected.I have not done this for a while since I only push files to the Zumo XT using Garmin Drive. I load my GPX files to the cloud and grab them from there.

[cr0100]

Mostly all I use Basecamp for now is to pull the tracks after a long trip.

I wanted to map out my 8-day trip in an overview, and there's no easy way I know of to pull that data with any other software.

2023_Great_Lakes_Trip_Overview.jpg (511.05 KiB) Viewed 1295 times

[SkiTrip]

Think I may have a solution
I run MacBook Air M1 and a Zumo XT

Install MacDroid on Mac and follow directions to debug Zumo
I find drafting a route in Garmin is a big pain because you have to constantly select and deselect pan, waypoint etc
I drafted my routes on MyRouteMap and save as GPX1.1.track file. Do not use GPX1.1 Route,track option as it does not work.
The GPX files will save in base camp in downloads .
I move them to desk top for convenience

Connect Zumo XT to Mac
Open GPX file
select route > click on device on upper basecamp toolbar and transfer to Zumo
Repeat for each route (I create long multi day in segments).
Disconnect Zumo and go to Apps > tracks
Select track and scroll down side menu to convert to trip.

I hope I have got all of this correct and would appreciate someone proofing this for me as I think I may have just succeed in getting over the Android (Zumo) / Mac issue of communication.
I have yet to road test as the tracks were for a European Trip but I will start a local test route tomorrow and trial.
Now 5am and time for some sleep

FYI I did try to export directly from MyRoute App to the Zumo but I keep getting a message "device not found" despite all connections being OK

[Bikeridr]

I don't own a Mac or any other Apple product (and i intend to stay that way).

Can you not do the following?
Export or "backup" your tracks to SD within the XT and then remove the SD from the XT and insert into a card reader (or internal card reader) to copy over the track files directly?

[SkiTrip]

Hi Bikerdr
The mapping in Garmin is not very intuitive and requires constant shifting from pan, zoom, to waypoint etc etc
It will only mange one function at a time.
MyRoute is easy to plot a route
The problem is one OS is Mac and the other Android and a translator is required between
Mac OS is evolving whereas Android appears to me to be relatively stagnant (I may be wrong)

My Route support have been helpful trying to sort this out and they just got back to me a short while ago and suggested transferring route via Explore so I will be trying this method to see which method is easier.

[lkraus]

I don't own a Mac or any other Apple product (and i intend to stay that way).

Can you not do the following?
Export or "backup" your tracks to SD within the XT and then remove the SD from the XT and insert into a card reader (or internal card reader) to copy over the track files directly?

A Zumo will read from the SD card, but I don't know of any circumstance when it will write a file to it. It might format a blank card, but obviously that isn't what's wanted here.