GPSrChive Discussion Forum

Wojtas81 wrote: Sun Jun 28, 2026 11:47 pm I am still curious why they release one map version just after another. Normal release cycle for TopoActive maps is every 6-12 months.
And why for only selected devices, instead of all of them ?

There was apparently something in the 2026.10 TopoActive European map that was causing a boot-loop situation on some select GPS models (mainly Edge cycling models).

The 2026.10 EU update was pulled for a couple of months until it was corrected by Garmin.

The 2026.11 EU update was released to fix these issues.

Other map regions (such as the US) that were also at 2026.10 were also released as 2026.11 but they are byte-for-byte, the same map data as 2026.10, at least for the US maps (I personally verified the map sizes as identical for the US maps). This was likely done to rid the 2026.10 version number from all the maps, regardless if the map data was actually 2026.10 or 2026.11

Did you check they are byte-for-byte the same? Having exactly the same file size does not mean they are identical. Maybe they had to change certain flags, that doesn't increase or decrease the file size.

javawa wrote: Mon Jun 29, 2026 9:36 am Did you check they are byte-for-byte the same? Having exactly the same file size does not mean they are identical. Maybe they had to change certain flags, that doesn't increase or decrease the file size.

Indeed, I verified the file sizes are byte-for-byte the same as I mentioned earlier in this topic. I also used IMGinfo as well as GMapTool to verify the embedded map version identifier flags which were indeed changed to reflect the version number change.
Screenshots below of the file's properties.
2026.10 on the left, 2026.11 on the right for all the screenshots. Note the file's "Modified" timestamps as well.

Spoiler

TopoActive US West

TA US West.PNG

TopoActive US East

TA US East.PNG

TopoActive Canada

TA Canada.PNG

TopoActive Middle America

TA Middle America.PNG

TopoActive DEM Map

DEM Map NA.PNG

That's not a real byte-for-byte check like a binary comparison...

javawa wrote: Mon Jun 29, 2026 5:59 pm That's not a real byte-for-byte check like a binary comparison...

What's in question here is not what internal file flags were changed. They have been...I've already verified that the version number has indeed been changed from 2026.10 to 2026.11 between the same corresponding mapsets.

What's in question is has the mapping data been changed in any way.

If the mapping data has indeed been changed, even in some minute way, would the file size in bytes not have changed as well? The two compared files would be exactly the same size in bytes?

If so, I find that very hard to believe.

The mapping data itself isn't changed, but something in the file caused problems in certain devices. It could be a specific bit in the data of certain roads in the NET subfiles. After correcting those bit values the number of roads or the length of the data of each road isn't changed, so the resulting file will have exactly the same length.
Just like modifying a text file where you replace every "d" with a "t". The resulting file will have exactly the same length as the original file, you'll have to look at the contents to see the differences.

That makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.

WallyGator wrote: Mon Jun 29, 2026 6:39 pm What's in question is has the mapping data been changed in any way.

Possibly the only way to be sure is extract the mapping data itself from each file then do a comparison of them, compare checksums (MD5 or SHA1 etc.) or use 'diff' or whatever.
Because the internal structure has been changed (version numbers) then a full checksum on the complete files will probably show as different for the 2 files, even if the map data is still the same.