Trouble organizing POIs into categories on Garmin Nuvi 350

I spent a few hours trying to figure this out before I posted. Then, as I was typing the original post, the answer came to me. There has to be more than one sub-folder under the main "My POI's" folder in order for it to work. Now it works just as I wanted it to!

I still can't figure out how to get rid of the redundant info for each POI.

You must have the information in two different files. Look in the garmin/pois file and see if you have any files there. I wouldn't be afraid of deleting any files that you created and put there using POI Loader. However, you should create a backup of all the files in your garmin directory as they are hard to replace.

What redundant info are you asking about?Duplicates.

If you have custom poi csv / gpx file(s) in both the main folder and subfolder you will get duplicates (files will load twice - once under custom pois and again under subcategory).

What I am doing is using Garmin Basecamp (similar to Mapsource) in order to mark waypoints, and then exporting these waypoints as gpx files to be uploaded to my Nuvi 350 using POI Loader.
The information that is being duplicated is the text that I put in the "comments" section when I create the waypoint in Garmin Basecamp. It is not a duplicate POI. There is only one POI, but the "comments" info shows up twice.
I have never used csv files, but from reading posts on this website, I would guess that this is the info in the 4th column.
For instance, one of the waypoints I created is titled "Robber's Roost Campsite", for a backcountry campsite my wife and I found near Sedona, AZ. In the comments section for this waypoint, I put, "location is approximate", because I created the waypoint by sight on the Garmin map. I didn't have actual coordinates for it. So, I export this waypoint as a gpx file, load it using POI Loader. Everything is fine. However, when I open the POI on my Nuvi, I see the following:

Robber's Roost Campsite
Proximity Alarm
Distance: 1499ft
Speed: none
location is approximate

location is approximate

Again, the info I put in the "comments" section is duplicated.

I'm going to try to download the POIedit software I have heard mentioned, and see if I can fix it. But I'd really like to not have to do this, since I will be going through this process quite often.

Anyone have any idea why it might be doing this?

Have you have found the Custom POI on the 350? They are located in a different spot than other Nuvi's. They are located in
Where to?>My Locations>Custom POIs

Are you entering the same information in the comment,description and/or address fields of your GPX file? That will cause you to get repetitive information at least on the 350. Enter it one place only or try changing one of the fields to see the affect. If you use the specific address fields, I noticed on the 350 you can only get that to show up if you have either an empty pair of comment or description tags - otherwise you won't see the address.

Yeah, I found them. I was just confused, because I didn't see the "Extras" button that everyone was mentioning.

I am creating waypoints in Garmin Basecamp, and exporting them as gpx files. When I create the waypoint in Basecamp, there is a "comments" field, but no "description" or "address" fields. Perhaps Basecamp is just throwing redundant info in there when it makes the gpx files? I haven't really looked at the files in any other program other than Basecamp.

OK, I downloaded something called GPX_Editor and looked at the files. It looks like the "comments" info from Garmin Basecamp is being written to both the "comments" and "description" in the gpx file. So, my guess is this is just what Basecamp does, and the only way to fix it is to put the gpx files through an editor before uploading them with POILoader. I can check and see if Basecamp can be tweaked to not do this, but I doubt it. It's not a very customizable program.

Thanks for the help guys. If you have any other suggestions, please post.

You could open the GPX file in a text editor and FIND each line that starts and ends with 'desc', '/desc' and delete it.

If you use Basecamp to edit existing files, will it add those descriptions back? If so, you might want to create new files and then use a text editor to copy new data into old files so you don't have to keep clearing out that information.

OK, maybe I'll try that. I opened the gpx files in GPX_Editor, and deleted what was in the "description" field, and then saved the file. But when I tried to upload this edited file using POI Loader, it told me the file was not valid. Hmmm.

I've decided just to live with this problem. It's annoying, but if there's no easy fix, then no big deal. I've posted to the Basecamp forum, maybe they will give an easy answer.

I have a Nuvi 350 and successfully loaded POIs into it and created POIs to load into it. As you gain experience, there are a lot more complex approaches. But first, you need to get things working before moving onto things like GPX_Editor. As one beginner to another, he's my suggestions (I'm sure there are better ways of doing this):

1. Locate your My POIs folder at
C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\My POIs

2. In your Nuvi 350, do you really need subfolders below the folder Where to?>My Locations>Custom POIs? I have about 30 Custom POIs and don't use subfolders.

3. Why are you loading both .gpx and .bmp into your Nuvi (e.g. why are you loading both dogietrailcampsite.gpx and dogietrailcampsite.bmp into your Nuvi.)? Isn't your .bmp files duplicating your .gpx files? Perhaps that is why the comment information listed twice. Without seeing your files, it is hard to figure out where the duplicate info is coming from. Also, it seems that most people use Microsoft Excel .csv files for the Nuvi. If you have ever used Microsoft excel, then you know how to use csv files.

4. I manage the POIs I create separate from the POIs I load into my Nuvi using the following folders and sub folders
C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\Garmin
C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\Garmin\Batch POI download utility 1.04
C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\Garmin\Extra POI Editor
C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\Garmin\POI Creatives
C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\Garmin\PoiLoader

4. For now, forget GPX_Editor, Garmin Basecamp, etc. I use a four column table in Microsoft Word to create my POI files and Forum topics. I then copy the Microsoft Word and paste it into a Microsoft Excel .csv file. The four .csv columns are arranges in the order of (1) longitude (2) latitude (3) name (4) comment. The comment column contains the address, phone number, and any other text that you want. To get the longitude and latitude, just enter the street address into GPS Visualizer's address locator http://gpsvisualizer.com/geocoder/ If needed, you can find complete street addresses or longitude and latitude using Google Maps.

5. In your Excel file, here is what the four columns might look like (minus the "*" characters):

Col. 1: -111.97809 Col 2: 34.91847 Col. 3: Robber's Roost Campsite Col. 4: Coconino National Forest<*br*>Sycamore Pass Rd<*br*>Sedona, AZ 86336<*br*>(location is approximate)<*br*><*br*><*b*>Campsite:<*/b*> Nice red-rock overlook with cave that may have been an outlaw hideout.

6. If you want a "seed" .csv Excel file to modify so that you don't have to figure out what a .csv file is, you can download one of mine at http://www.poi-factory.com/user/162626

7. When I first started here, others helped me get over the initial hump in the thread at http://www.poi-factory.com/node/23125 You might want to read that thread.

Most have reported a limit of 32 POI files per directory, so using subfolders gets around this limitation.

BMP files are icons and don't contain anything more than a picture. GPX files can contain more information than a CSV and can create dialable phone numbers for those users with phones paired through bluetooth.

The 32 file limit applies to subfolders.

You can only have one level of subfolders.

You can have as many files as you want in the main folder.

In my opinion you want to delete the Comment tag rather than Description if you delete anything. See my faq at http://www.poi-factory.com/node/21274 for some reasons why I'm saying that. Some units show info in the Description & Comment fields in different orders than others, and I've recently found out that my 765T will only show 1k chrs in the Comment field (or 4th csv col) but will show 5k+ if it's in description. (The compiled gpi file actually has more than 1k chrs in Comment, but my 765 won't show them.)

While I don't know this for sure, I think Comment might be left over from pre-gpx days. Just my feeling.

Also, I mainly use gpx when I compile to gpi and I'm used to the gpx filename being the 'category' name when viewing under Extras, and the 'Category' field info being the Category when viewed under Favorites! Just the wacky way it is.

I tried your two folder suggestion. It worked. Now my POIs are divided into

1. Custom POIs
2. Custom POIs>Other1
3. Custom POIs>Other2

When I select the "All Categories" features while in the Custom POIs folder, the next screen brought up is a combination of the files in Custom POIs>Other1 and Custom POIs>Other2. When I again select "All Categories", the list that appears includes all the files in each of my three folders: 1. Custom POIs, 2. Custom POIs>Other1, and 3. Custom POIs>Other2.

What I'm looking for is to select "All Categories" while in the Custom POIs folder and only have those files in the Custom POIs folder returned. Is this possible?

(When I'm in the Other2 folder, only those files in the Other2 folder are returned after selecting "All Categories".)

I've had the same problem. I have generally built my POI files in MapSource by manually entering waypoints using the background maps or importing gpx files, setting proximity alerts, then saving as a gpx file to load with POI-Loader. All looks normal in MapSource, but the text I entered into the comments field shows up twice on my Garmin 855. I loaded the gpx into Extra-POI-Editor and see that there is a "comment" field AND a "description" field, both containing the data I entered into the "comment" field in MapSource (MapSource has only the "comment" field, and no separate "description" field). Apparently both BaseCamp and MapSource will populate both fields with whatever is entered under "comments". In order to avoid duplication, one has to edit out the "description" text separately. I used Extra-POI-Editor to globally replace the "description" field with a blank in each of my gpx files, and now there's no duplication. This could be done with any software that recognizes both fields or a text editor.

Sounds like a flaw in the Basecamp software. You can edit a CSV file in many ways. It is a text file after all. The format, comma separated lets it be loaded into spreadsheet programs quite easily as well.