When does auto archive of tracks happen?

Discussion related to the Garmin GPSMAP 66s/st GPSr
scotte
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When does auto archive of tracks happen?

Unread post by scotte »

I just purchased a 66st (despite all it's known issues), I believe it's my 6th Garmin GPSr.

Something that I haven't been able to figure out is exactly when auto archive of tracks occurs. On my trusty 76csx, writing GPX files to the SD card, my tracklogs were always "just there".

On the 66, I have auto archive set to daily, with auto activity start, and GPX archiving doesn't seem to be so consistent - sometimes the daily archive only appears after some time, or some event, but I haven't figured the trigger out yet.

As an example - I started an activity two days ago, so the receiver has been collecting a tracklog for the past couple of days as I've turned the unit on and played around with it, gone on a walk, etc. This morning, I turned on the unit (for the first time today) and found there was no auto archived log for yesterday. I plugged it into my computer, and likewise - no archive for yesterday. I ejected the unit and turned it back on - and now the auto archive for yesterday shows up!

The timestamps for archived tracks are the local time of when I turned the unit on for the day of the archived track, which seems fine.

Does anyone know what event triggers auto archive? Thanks!
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GPSrChive
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Re: When does auto archive of tracks happen?

Unread post by GPSrChive »

Where on the GPSMAp 66 did you look for the daily GPX archive files?
scotte
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Re: When does auto archive of tracks happen?

Unread post by scotte »

On the unit directly via Saved Tracks->Archived Tracks->Auto or USB in Garmin/GPX/Archive/Auto. As I mentioned, the archived track for the previous day did show up eventually.

Tomorrow (or over the next few days, anyway) I'll do some other tests and see if I can figure it out. Maybe it's as simple as I didn't wait for a fix before I looked, so there was no new trackpoint to cause archive (in which case that would answer my question as to what is the trigger is). Since I can only reproduce it once per day, it'll be a slow process. :-)
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GPSrChive
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Re: When does auto archive of tracks happen?

Unread post by GPSrChive »

When set to archive daily, the GPSr will not know to save the daily archive until after it has acquired satellite signal on a following day. It does not save at power down, but rather after power on on a new day.
scotte
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Re: When does auto archive of tracks happen?

Unread post by scotte »

Thanks, that's probably it - and I bet my 76csx works the exact same way, I just never noticed because I wouldn't normally do the sort of stuff I'm doing now while learning and playing with the new 66st.

It doesn't help that they've introduced this whole "activities" thing, which I don't see any real point to except making things confusing, so I thought maybe that was all intertwined and I had to stop the activity to get things to archive or something. Routes, tracks, waypoints - that's the way it's been for 20 years, and all I need. :-)

I'll reply here when I verify - might be another useful bit of info to throw in the wiki, for the next numbskull like me. Thanks!
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GPSrChive
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Re: When does auto archive of tracks happen?

Unread post by GPSrChive »

Yes, please do let us know if you still see anything that seems strange or incorrect so we can investigate!

The 'Activities' management you refer to have long been requested and most users find them very useful once they learn what they are.

You are not the first Garmin user to upgrade multiple generations from an ancient GPSr like the 76 to the newest 66. Other than the brand name and a few small details, almost nothing functions as it did before, but that is all down to many years of innovation and improvement based on customer input.

The initial learning curve may be a little steep, but you'll get it!
steerage250
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Re: When does auto archive of tracks happen?

Unread post by steerage250 »

I am interested in the final answer as well - I see the auto-archives from time-to-time. My solution is to end and save the activity, then connect it to Basecamp to retrieve the track. Unfortunately, I almost NEVER remember to do stop & save the activity before connecting it to the PC - then I realise and have to disconnect it, turn it back on, save the activity, then reconnect it in USB mode (and waste another 5 minutes of my life :D
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GPSrChive
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Re: When does auto archive of tracks happen?

Unread post by GPSrChive »

steerage250 - in that event, you can just use the Garmin/GPX/Current/Current.gpx file, which is the same tracklog recording the GPSr is going to save as your activity when directed to do so. This way, you do not have to eject, reboot, save, and reconnect to accomplish the same result.
CheminerWill
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Re: When does auto archive of tracks happen?

Unread post by CheminerWill »

gpsrchive wrote: Sat Sep 14, 2019 12:44 am You are not the first Garmin user to upgrade multiple generations from an ancient GPSr like the 76 to the newest 66. Other than the brand name and a few small details, almost nothing functions as it did before, but that is all down to many years of innovation and improvement based on customer input.
The initial learning curve may be a little steep, but you'll get it!
I completely agree with this advice! I had a 60CSx since it was first released and last December got the 66st. I was lost for quite a while trying to figure out how to make full use of the 66 while my brain's muscle memory was still on 60CSx autopilot. I would even have things explained to me about how the new GPS receivers worked and would then ask the same or similar question a week later because it just did not make sense! Eventually it all came together and now I find myself not only making full and easy use of the 66, but wanting additional features that Garmin could add or fix that would give more reliability and functionality. Be patient and it will all gel. Be even more patient and maybe Garmin will update a few of those features!
scotte
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Joined: Fri Sep 13, 2019 3:41 pm

Re: When does auto archive of tracks happen?

Unread post by scotte »

Hey now, my 76csx isn't that old, only 12 years. If I still had my 12XL that would be ancient. :-)

OK, so auto archive definitely doesn't behave the way I would expect - I'm not crazy with what I saw yesterday.

This morning I turned on the 66 and waited for a fix. Yesterday's tracklog was not archived. I drove 8 miles, took about 15 minutes, and checked again at my destination. Yesterday's tracklog was still not archived. After doing some business for about 4 hours I turned the unit back on. Now yesterday's tracklog was archived, finally.

Perhaps it takes a couple of power cycles of the unit for auto archive to work. This sure seems like a bug to me.

Thanks for the advice to use "current" - but that only contains yesterday's data until auto archive happens, once that occurs current now contains only today's data. So I guess the process would have to be to first check the archive - if no archive is there, then use current - but note that current is not going to be exactly the same as what the archive will be once it occurs. OR - I have to get in the habit of explicitly starting and saving activities - which might not be an unreasonable answer, and the only one if auto archive isn't reliable. Unfortunately, once an activity is archived the tracklog now disappears from the map.

Which brings me to the next thing that's a bit cumbersome - displaying an archived tracklog seems to require first making it a favorite (which removes it from archive), and then selecting "show on map". I don't see an option anywhere to just show me all my tracklogs (with current being a different color) - that would be a super useful option.
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