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XT - Different Behaviour - Transfer, Import, Delete, Import

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:55 pm
by jfheath
The Zumo XT appears to delete transferred routes so that they cannot be re-imported.

Just a reminder about the terms.
Transfer: Sending the route from Basecamp using the USB cable.
Import: Loading the transferred route into the Trip Planner app.

The answer is that the Zumo XT does not delete the transferred routes.. But unless you know how to stop it, they will disappear - but by your own hand, not the Zumo's.

When you transfer routes from Basecamp to the Zumo XT, the XT over-writes the storage for the previously transferred routes.
This means that when use trip planner to import the routes, only the recently transferred routes are listed.

Previously imported routes are still available in the trip planner app. But if you delete them having transferred some new routes, the previously transferred routes will not be there to import again. (but that is not because you deleted the routes from Trip Planner. They disappeared when you transferred some new routes.

It gives the impression that the Zumo has deleted the transferred routes when the imported version was deleted.

Example:

1 Transfer routes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 to the Zumo from Basecamp
2 Import routes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
3 Check that the routes are in Trip Planner App (yes they are).
4 Check that you can import them again (yes you can)
5 Delete routes 2, 4, 6 from the trip planner app.
6 Check that all 6 routes are available to imported again (yes they are - don't import them though)
7 Create routes A, B, C, D, E, F in Basecamp
8 Transfer A, B, C, D, E, F to the Zumo XT
9 Check which routes are available for import. (Only A, B, C, D, E, F will be there).
10 Import routes A, B, C, D, E, F
11 Check which routes are available in the trip planner app. (A, B, C, D, E, F, 1, 3, 5 should be there).
12 Check which routes can be imported. (Only A, B, C, D, E, F will be available).

Suggestion. If you want to keep all of your routes available for import, make sure that you transfer the full set of routes each time. Don't transfer a few at a time.

Why would Garmin do this ? Well, my guess is that the previous system - used in the 590/595 and probably the 39x models - allowed a lot of very old transferred routes to build inside the Zumo's internal memory, and they were always available to reimport. In fact you could not get rid of them without using a computer and deleting some of the gpx files. The method employed on the XT seems to ensure that this build up does not happen. The only routes available for importing are the ones that were the last to be transferred from Basecamp.

Re: XT - Different Behaviour - Transfer, Import, Delete, Import

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:06 am
by Stu
Thanks for that explanation @jfheath

The way the XT transfers them will work better for me :)

Re: XT - Different Behaviour - Transfer, Import, Delete, Import

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:12 am
by Oop North John
jfheath wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:55 pm When you transfer routes from Basecamp to the Zumo XT, the XT over-writes the storage for the previously transferred routes.
This means that when use trip planner to import the routes, only the recently transferred routes are listed.
Is that true if you transfer the routes both to an installed micro SD card?

Re: XT - Different Behaviour - Transfer, Import, Delete, Import

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:39 am
by jfheath
Oop North John wrote: Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:12 am
jfheath wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:55 pm When you transfer routes from Basecamp to the Zumo XT, the XT over-writes the storage for the previously transferred routes.
This means that when use trip planner to import the routes, only the recently transferred routes are listed.
Is that true if you transfer the routes both to an installed micro SD card?
I don't know. I haven't tested the SD card for this particular behaviour - mainly because I prefer to use internal memory for my routes. That is because there is something else that goes on with routes on SD cards - for example
Waypoints need to be imported separately; Waypoints on the SD card may not appear in the list of favourites. There may be other things that I have not yet encountered.

Having pinned this 'fault' down, looking at the SD card is my next project. Also the behaviour of shared routes - which is weird.

Watch this space - I'll post what I find in this thread.

Re: XT - Different Behaviour - Transfer, Import, Delete, Import

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2021 2:53 pm
by jfheath
Routes Transferred to SD Card.

Routes that are transferred from Basecamp to SD card do not have the same charactersitics as described in the first post.

When routes are transferred to SD card, they behave differently. The routes are saved in separate files Route.gpx, Route1.gpx, Route2.gpx etc. These are save in the Memory Card->Garmin->GPX folder. The Waypoints for all of the routes are bundled together in a single file called Waypoints.gpx

Nothing that you do in the Zumo will delete these files. If you want to delete them, you will have to delete them from your PC.
If you transfer the same route again, the Zumo seems to know that it has already transferred the file and it keeps the same name and over-writes the original. (Lets say that was saved as Route17.gpx. If however you modify the original route and transfer that, it does not over-write the original file but instead creates a new Route file called (say) Route23.gpx

At the Zumo, uou know nothing about these route files. All you get to see is the name of the route and you can Import them into Trip Planner. These become the Saved Trips, or the Imported Routes. Same thing - depending on which Zumo screen you are reading.
If you delete a route from the Saved Trips, or even if you delete all of them, they can always be re-imported. In fact you can import them any number of times. Each time you import them the Zumo will call it (say) 'Road to Hell' or 'Road to Hell 2' or 'Road to Hell 3'. You get the idea. If you had modified the Road to Hell Route in Basecamp and exported it, that would have been labelled in the list of Routes to Import as Road to Hell 2. If you imported it again, that would be called Road to Hell 3.

You now have a problem. Which of these Roads to Hell routes is the most up to date one.

The answer is simple you ask another Zumo which road it would take, and choose the other one (sorry, I couldn't resist the reference an old puzzle)
OR you have to manage the contents of Memory Card->Garmin->GPX to make sure that you do not end up in this situation, by deleting the ones that you want to get rid of.

And this is the problem that I think that Garmin was trying to avoid by wiping the old tansferred routes before transferring any new ones. It would just have been friendly if they had told us about it.

The other issue with routes on the memory card is that the Waypoints do not get transferred to the list of favourites automatically. They are part of the route and the route works OK, and it shows the Waypoints, but go to Where To?->Favourites and they will not be there. You have to import them manually before they appear.

And when you try to do that, and click Where To->Favourites it will tell you that there is 'No Data Available'. And that is because you store all of your data on the memory card, and you have wiped out the standard favourites which let you know such important things as where Garmin's Headquarters are.

The only way you will get to import your favourites is if create a single waypoint in internal memory.
View Map->Tap the screen in the centre->Tap the displated name->Click Save->Give it a name

Now go to Where To->Favourites->3 bar menu->import. Your missing Waypoint from the SDcard will have returned.