GPSrChive Discussion Forum

I don't know if this is expected behavior or what. My 66st (fw v2.50) seems to forget geocaches I've downloaded by copying pocket query .gpx files using the USB link. I haven't figured out exactly what it's doing, but what I'm seeing is consistent with the unit deciding a pocket query is "stale" after a week or so, so it stops showing the caches in that PQ. They don't show up in the geocaching list or on the map. I can't see how this can be any kind of filtering issue since I haven't changed the filtering between seeing the caches and not seeing the caches. But just in case, I made sure to set the filtering to "show all", and the caches still don't show up, neither found caches or unfound caches.

If I download a fresh pocket query or, for that matter, just "touch" the existing .gpx file to set the creation date to today, the caches then reappear.

Is this supposed to happen, or am I just doing something wrong? It came as quite a shock when I downloaded all the geocaches for my week long trip, and everything disappeared on Saturday for no reason I could identify. I made do by downloading the caches I needed over Wifi. That worked fine, but only because I discovered everything was gone before I got out in the field.

To be clear, You are:

1. Copying Geocaching.com PQ.gpx files directly to the GPX directory on your GPSMAP 66 v2.50
2. Are able to see them in the GC List and GC Map pages after rebooting
3. Some time alter (hours, days etc.), you find those geocaches are no longer displayed in either the GC List or Map pages.
4. Applying the 'Show All' GC Filter has no affect.
5. Making any change to the existing PQ.gpx files causes the Geocaches in that gpx file to reappear in the GC List and Map pages again.

Is this correct?

Yes, that's correct. In the two cases I could clearly say what happen, "some time after" was, as close as I could measure, one week after the PQ was created and copied to the 66.

One thing I should mention: it does seem to be PQ by PQ. One of the times I got caught by this, I could see plenty of caches from PQs that were newer: the only missing caches were from a PQ that I hadn't updated in the previous week.

Have you tried downloading them wirelessly instead of manually loading them to see if that resolves the issue?

gpsrchive wrote: ↑Wed Mar 27, 2019 11:34 pm Have you tried downloading them wirelessly instead of manually loading them to see if that resolves the issue?

I wasn't aware there was a way to download PQ's wirelessly, so no I haven't tried that.

If you're asking if I've seen this problem with individual caches I've downloaded wirelessly, I have to admit, I haven't noticed. Downloading caches piecemeal doesn't really solve my problem, so I haven't worked out whether those caches disappear, too.

On your device: Setup > Geocaching > Geocaching Live > Geocache Lists

More info in the GPSMAP 66 Setup Page here at GPSrChive.

gpsrchive wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:12 am On your device: Setup > Geocaching > Geocaching Live > Geocache Lists

More info in the GPSMAP 66 Setup Page here at GPSrChive.

Thanks! I'll check it out. I didn't try to use that feature because I'm downloading PQs, and I assumed "Geocache Lists" would only deal with geocaching.com lists.

(By the way, I must be looking in the wrong place because I can't find any more info on GPSrChive's GPSMAP 66 Setup Page. All it says is "Select Geocaching.com data to synchronize with this GPSr", and I thought that much was already clear from your post.)

I appreciate you helping me find another way to approach pocket queries, but I can't tell what the answer to my question is. Does anyone else that copies PQs over the USB link see them disappear like this?

Your PQs will be available there for download.

gpsrchive wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2019 1:16 am Your PQs will be available there for download.

Ha-ha! That's amazing. The last thing I expected is to find pocket queries interspersed among my lists. It never occurred to me that a menu item named "geocache lists" would take me to anything but a list of geocache lists.

Unfortunately the PQs I'm downloading aren't the ones from geocaching.com. But I'll try to figure out how to use that feature to download one to see if it disappears in a week.

I'm still wondering what we're doing. Do you want me to use that feature as a test to debug the disappearing PQs? Or is this your way of telling me PQs downloaded through a USB link are supposed to disappear, and downloading them through the wireless link will keep that from happening?

No, GPX or GGZ files manually copied to your GPSr do not disappear under normal circumstances.

If your PQ's are not from Geocaching.com, where are they from? And what are they, really?

AFAIK, PQ's are unique to Geocaching.com.