Garmin poi gpi format to csv so that the POI downloader will load file?

I seem to recall the .gpi file is really a GPX file with a different extension. Using the free POIConverter at http://dr5274.googlepages.com/poiconverter should allow you to convert it to a CSV file.

NOTE: There may be some loss of information, as the GPX format supports more than the 4 columns available in CSV format.

Here is another site to convert a file. http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/convert

Where did you download the POI.gpi file from?

Mapsource and POILoader will talk to your GPSr. You can use Mapsource to transfer your favorites to and from the unit and POILoader to handle the POIs.

The reason I ask where you got the file from is that you stated that the GPSr is not recognized as a drive. That means you didn't get it off of your unit. As I said, a bit confused.

To the OP, if you have gotten a .GPI file from somewhere, you would need to just copy that file directly to the GPS unit.

POI Loader takes CSV and GPX files and creates a .GPI file from them to your unit (or to your computer if that's what you select). The GPS unit reads the GPI file(s) as the Custom POIs.

Are they stored within the gpi file, what is easiest way to export them.

With Mapsource, just save as a .gpx file to a location on your HD. The gpx2poi converter will do the rest.

MapSource will not read .GPI files. And you can't send the Custom POI data from the GPS unit to MapSource.

Not sure I understand the question. If you have individual locations in your Custom POIs that you want to save as Favorites, you could go to each one individually on the unit and save them as Favorites. There's no automatic way to do it.

Then you can send the Favorites from the unit to MapSource or EasyGPS or some other software that reads GPX files.

Where do you want to export the data to? You can try GPSBabel to read/convert .GPI files, but then you are going to a bunch of work to do to clean up the data.

If your are talking about your Favorites, your use of the word "POIs" with it has confused some people. A COPY of your favorites is in a file named current.gpx; the original of the Favorites is not viewable as a file.

Yes, my favorite locations, as in, took a walking tour of a city, found a few places I want to group together as a tour I want to revisit. Would like to know how to retrive this info and create the tour.

If you saved as favorites, you can import from mapsource, If you have the old .gpx file, you can just drag and drop into mapsource and add the extra locations. If you used POI loader to create the poi.gpi in the begining, your old .gpx, .csv files should still be in that folder on your computer unless you deleted it.

Just copy curren.gpx to your computer and then edit it with something like GeePeeEx Editor. Then load with POI Loader.

I seem to have an odd problem...I may have accidentally deleted a POI file (actually I wanted to delete it in order to replace it with a newer one) but not using POI Loader. Then when I went into the GPSr, it was still there. So then I went into POI Loader and used it to "re-delete" the old POI file and it says it successfully deleted all POI's. But when I turned on my GPSr, the POI file is still there yet I can't see the POI file in the POI folder on my GPSr. It seems the POI files are permanently embedded in my GPSr. I own a Garmin Oregon 400t. Any idea how I can get rid of the POI files so I can make room for new ones? Thanks...

Typhoon,it sounds to me like you are seeing the pois that are embedded in your map. There is no way to get rid of those.

TyphoonTom0402-
I'm not sure about the Oregon, but on a nuvi it's possible to load poi's as custom poi's with a .gpi file, but then you can 'manually' save them as a Favorite once they are there.

When they are made a Favorite they will stay on the unit even after the original poi file is removed. You may have to delete them manually on your unit by using a menu under Favorites or in Setup. Or, by editing 'current.gpx' (look through the threads here for editing Favorites, etc). I wouldn't think that you made a large number of them favorites though so they shouldn't take up a lot of room.

Just a thought, not familiar with Oregon's.

An afterthought.. if Oregon's can use a memory card you might also have another .gpi file on the card as well that you'll need to find & delete.

Another afterthought (sorry, it's early for me). If you renamed the POILoader-generated 'poi.gpi' to another name like 'My pois.gpi' I don't think POILoader will delete them. You should look at your unit and/or card with your PC so you actually see what .gpi or .gpx files are there. That way you can be safe & back up the files to your computer as well.

You can not copy any files to the 2720 - it does not show up as a drive like the newer units. You will have to use csv or gpx source files and run poi loader to place custom pois directly to device / 2720. You can not save poi loader output poi.gpi file to computer and then copy to 2720.

Hope this helps.

I have an old POI converter, I believe it was mentioned here. It is Richard DAVIES. It does not convert .gpi to anything. Most online .gpi converters are very very limited in how large the .gpi file is but here is one site: http://garmin.gps-data-team.com/poi_manager.php