Bushwalk Australia

I installed an optional memory card in my Garmin Etrex 20 shortly after I purchased it about a year ago. On reflection it would have been better to wait until I gained an understanding of the how to use the device and, more particularly, how to integrate it with Garmin’s Base Camp software. Lacking that understanding, I was somewhat indiscriminate in how I copied gpx files. So I now have a quite unintelligible mess of files on both the card and the Etrex’s memory. Some of this combination of downloaded and self-created files do have meaningful names, but many are named Track1, et cetera and Waypoint1 et cetera. How these auto-named files relate to what I see on the Etrex display is a complete mystery to me.

Added to this confusion has been the behaviour of the SD card. It worked for about six months, then would not mount, so I ceased using it. Then after a while I found that it would mount consistently (not that I’d changed anything), so I went back to copying gpx files to it. But now it has again decided that it will not mount, so the obvious solution is to ditch it. I found that it does mount on someone else’s computer, so I’ve copied all of the gpx files to my computer to allow me to see what I can then copy to the Etrex’s memory.

I believe the logical solution is first to copy all gpx files from the two GPX folders (Etrex memory and internal card), then erase all gpx files from the Etrex and start again. I.e. re-copy files back to to the device one at a time so that I can determine what names to give them. How this effects what I’ve currently got in my collection in Base Camp isn’t clear to me at this point, as it displays no auto-named files. But I guess I can also work my way through that one file at a time where necessary. Unless someone has a better suggestion, of course!

I have a copy of the original Etrex 20 fileset if that helps you at all?

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I have the same device peregrinator. I keep all tracks and waypoints stored on my pc.

After a walk I copy any new tracks and waypoints I've recorded to the computer, view them in basecamp and rename if necessary.

Prior to a walk I usually clear all existing tracks and waypoints from the device and I only copy the things I need for that walk to the devices internal memory keeping number of items to a minimum. I find it's easier to find stuff if necessary.

All the upload/download/renaming of tracks and waypoints to and from the device is done from within basecamp.

The software is bit clunky but has a reasonable method of organising tracks and waypoints.

My SD card only stores my garmin maps.

Strider wrote:I have a copy of the original Etrex 20 fileset if that helps you at all?

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Strider, thank you for that offer. But I should have been more exact by stating that the only stuff-up is with my DOTgpx files. I.e. Waypoints and tracks. Everything else is fine.

GBW wrote:I have the same device peregrinator. I keep all tracks and waypoints stored on my pc.

After a walk I copy any new tracks and waypoints I've recorded to the computer, view them in basecamp and rename if necessary.

Prior to a walk I usually clear all existing tracks and waypoints from the device and I only copy the things I need for that walk to the devices internal memory keeping number of items to a minimum. I find it's easier to find stuff if necessary.

All the upload/download/renaming of tracks and waypoints to and from the device is done from within basecamp.

The software is bit clunky but has a reasonable method of organising tracks and waypoints.

My SD card only stores my garmin maps.

GBW, you make some good suggestions. I was beginning to get peeved by the amount of data on the device that is irrelevant for a given trip. I'll adopt your strategy of storing everything except current stuff on the computer only. Well, it's already there of course, but needs sorting.

I had the same plan as you regarding putting maps on the SD card but lost the plot when I was stumbling through the initial stages of learning BaseCamp.

A supplementary question as I continue to figure out issues that may or may not have relevance.

In my Mac’s User folder, in Library/Application Support/Garmin . . . there’s a TrackSegments folder containing 135 files totalling 3.6 MB. Any clues on what this is all about? (Apart from GBW's apt "clunky"?)