GPSrChive Discussion Forum

gpsrchive wrote: ↑Sat Dec 12, 2020 1:01 pm

Catch wrote: ↑Sat Dec 12, 2020 6:44 amOne more test: When adding the child waypoint GPX file separately, the GPS do also start up with only one progress bar cycle.

For clarification, are you referring to adding the 'additional_waypoints.gpx' file?

Correct

This loading of GPX files is SO FRUSTRATING. It takes more than an hour to load a 1000 cache pocket query on both my GPSMAP66ST and Montana 750i. This used to be a few minutes in the past. What is it so hard for Garmin to fix this?

Can you please email one or more of these 1000 cache PQ's to webmaster at GPSrChive dot com?

Thank you!

I’m off for the weekend (Geocaching) but wil send the PQ by tuesdasy. Thanks in advance!

Update on slow startup.

I finally found the solution for my device that eventually took 75 minutes to startup with one GPX file with 1000 geocaches and 1000 waypoints (direct download from Geocaching.com). While this normally takes only 1-2 minutes.

I had synching problems with Garmin Explore for a while. Collections were not synching, errors while synching waypoints etc. So I decided to deleted ALL files from the /GARMIN/EDM/ folder before copying the GPX file to the GPSr and before restarting. This folder contains cached data from your Garmin Explore synchronisation.

And that did the trick. The GPSr probably indexes these files in the /GARMIN/EDM/ folder during startup and there might have been corrupted files in this folder. This trick worked on both my MONTANA 750i and my GPSMAP 66ST.

Not sure what the effects are on the Garmin Explore synchronisation but alle the files in /GARMIN/EDM/ were rebuilt after the next reboot so no worries at all.

Startup time 4xPQ ~4000 Geocaches + ~4000 wpts on MONTANA750i -> 2 min
Startup time 4xPQ ~4000 Geocaches + ~4000 wpts on GPSMAP66ST -> 3 min

Thank you rgschmidt for the update!

FYI: after one week I can confirm this was definitly the solution to my startup problems. I’ve put numereous large GPX files on the device (thousands of geocaches) and the startup time is still under 2-3 minutes. Emptying the /GARMIN/EDM/ folder has no negative effects on the connection between the smartphone and GPSr.

I have also tested with emptying the /GARMIN/EDM/ folder, and with 23K geocaches in a ggz file + 3,2K Child points in an additional gpx file, the Montana 700 starts up in apx 2 minutes with only 1 progress bar cycle. But if I then load the gps with updated ggz+gpx files again, without emptying the EDM folder, the startup time and number of progress bar cycles increases each time I load updated ggz+gpx files. I hope this will be fixed in a future FW release.
Still FW 7.10

Bug 41 has been posted to GPSrChive > Montana 7x0 > Common Issues, and Garmin have been informed. However, the more of you that contact Garmin and report this bug, the more likely it will be corrected sooner rather than later, if ever.

I marked the file "points.bin" in the EDM-folder as "read only" and i have no problems with a long startup time anymore.
My points.bin file was 1.680kb as the long startup problem appeared.

I copied a clean EDM folder into the Montana and I marked the whole EDM-folder as read only

After loading about 10.000 Caches no file in the EDM folder was being changed.