lifetime updates and drive space

When you do the update it will over write the old map, it may or maynot increase in size with each update.

It should be assumed that each successive map update will be larger than the last one. That is unless we really do enter a "Great Depression" and businesses close by the thousands and road construction stops due to no new homes being built. Which I hope never happens.

Having the same concern as you, I've kept track of the free space on my 660 with each map update. Here are my results:

For the record, this was the amount of free space on my 660 with each of the mapsets I've installed:

I was able to install the update without having to delete any files.

Also posted near the bottom of the page in this topic:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/27390?page=1

That means that we should be updating our map perhaps once a year to save disk space? I recall the update of the map came out once a year before, and now is 4 times a year?..Why? is it because it's lifetime of the unit, and garmin is trying to fill it up faster, then we have to buy a new one?

Hi Pete

When you purchase nüMaps Lifetime, Garmin states that a new update is available up to four times per year. There're objective is trying to give you the latest most precise map and POIs available and not because they're trying to fill up your units free space. The more updates Garmin does the better it is for the consumer.

If you update your unit once a year or 4 times per year it won't change a thing because as adcusnret wrote when you do an update it'll overwrite the map thats on your unit. Historically as Gary A outlines, the maps are getting a little bigger with time.

The solution IF EVER needed: Go on Garmins website and search support. It'll explain how you can free space on your unit by deleting voices, vehicles and help files that you don't need or use.

Cheers

I removed all the voices other than english. You can always run webupdater and reload them if you ever need them.
On my 765t my computer finds it when I hook it up. Just open with windows explorer or hook up your garmin to your computer..go to my computer..find your garmin device...click on it..then open file named "garmin"..then find "voice" file. Once you open this file you see all the voice files. I deleted everything except the english jack & jill
and english american. I have 6 files now instead of 30+

Garmin users were complaining that once per year wasn't enough. Actually, they wanted real time but Garmin offered this unit lifetime option with 4 x per year.

If you only update once a year you'll STILL get the largest map file available at that time so it won't make any difference. I plan to update every time I can. I bought the lifetime maps VERY recently and updated at that time. I updated again last night because a new map set was available.

Eventually the map size will be greater than the total size of the unit and this has happened before(330C). Hopefully Garmin will allow the full utilization of SD cards to overcome this issue instead of their previous solutions such as install only a limited area instead of Canada/USA.

It is the life we live, and GPSs are "commodity" items, expected to be tossed aside for the newest/latest/greatest etc.

Vis

This has also been my thinking in case if my unit runs out of space after deleting everything I can (ie. voices, pictures, mp3) and still have enough room to do the update. You would think this would be possible since many of the units are using 4gb SD cards.

Garmin only offered the quarterly maps because they bowed to peer pressure, not customer pressure. Since NAVTEQ first put out the quaterly for the Navigon line others NAVTEQ supplied GPSr's soon followed. even forcing TeleAtlas into the same groove.
Thinking that you as a Garmin user had anything to do with it is actually funny. The same goes with free traffic.. It was pushed on Garmin by NAVTEQ giving free to the Navigon Users first. Public demand had nothing to do with that either.

While you need to put some maps on the GPSr, you can put the remainder on the SD card through MapInstall. My complaint is that the terminology or method is different between the MapInstall and the Update to the GPSr. On the Update, you are provided regions (East, West, Lower 49, etc.). On MapInstall, you create the map by selecting many small areas (states and portions of states) into one big map. Would be better if MapInstall allowed the same terminology so I could load East on my GPSr and West on my SD card.

The default voices folder on a 765 uses ~384 MB. Deleting all the voices except the one(s) you're using along with unused vehicles should (hopefully) create enough space to accommodate future map updates for a couple of years. Having a unit or an electronic device two years old is considered "old" in electronics. In case you keep the unit for that long and end up running out of space, I see the following happening:

1. The maps will be split among the unit memory and memory card (memory cards are dirt-cheap nowdays) and is commonly used today when on-unit map memory is low.

2. The maps will be installed only to the memory card, totally bypassing the unit memory. Since the newest units ship with an SD Card slot but no MP3 player capability, about the only logical choice for SD Card useage would be for mapping.

3. Garmin may reduce map sizes in the future by using a more advanced and efficient compression technique. The NT (New Technology) map compression currently in use has been around for a few years now (since the original nuvi 3xx/6xx series was introduced) and may be due for an overhaul.

the lifetime updates are definitely worth the money.

you could just save space by not including areas you wont be visiting like hawaii or alaska

My Map 76S has this problem. The unit has a very limited memory so I had to use Mapsource to load only the sections of map that I would be needing on a trip. I could not load enough detail maps for a trip from Montreal to Detroit, thats when I bought a Nuvi. Now the 76S is just used for fishing trips.