New dumb question about categories within favorites. (Updated - w/SOLUTION)

You can indeed create categories, and may need to. Custom POIs don't show up under "favorites", they show up under "Extras". There I have a single choice "Custom POIs, this seems a poor choice on Garmin's point, as I don't know what other than custom POIs could be there. Under custom POIs I have many choices, some are single POI files (for example Airfields), but many are categories in themselves, like stores or fast food or better restaurants. You may be wondering why I would bother breaking my dining choices into more than one category. It is not just for organization, it is necessity. There is a limit on how many POI files can be in one category. I think that limit is 31, but I'm going on memory there and could be wrong, but whatever it is, there IS a limit and I have exceeded it, so I needed to break my dining choices into multiple categories.

I actually do see a list of categories when I open my Favourites and appreciate this feature in my 765T.
The categories in favourites allow a faster browsing. i.e. I have Business, Personal, Shopping, Service etc... Rather than flipping All Favourites pages, I can select a category and scroll fast to what I may now be looking for...

Categories are easier to use. Instead of going through 100's addresses you can find category then search within category.

I use the catefories within my favorites to quickly access the correct site that I want. Much more user friendly.

When you save a favorite to your gps unit.Touch that favorite and you will see edit at bottom of screen.Touch edit and you will see several selections.Touch change category and a list will come up.Put check mark for the one you want.If you want something else select new at bottom and put what you want.

Many advantages to having categories just like you do for custom pois.

I also have a 765T, and as eolkha said I also see categories when I go to Favorites ...
Did we understand correctly that your 1300 doesn't show them in categories? Maybe another 1300 user can address? Or did charlesd45 answer it by describing how you select them?

May be a 1300 issue. It sounds like a great concept. Hoever, when I assign a category to a favorite as Charles described, it doesn't really do anything. After I have assigned a few and then I go to my favorites it still just gives a long list of all favorites as it usually does.

Let say for example if you are driving on a vacation to visit several cities. You can create categories based on the city names and place your favorites in those categories. So that when you are scrolling down on your favorites, depending on which category you are viewing, it's list favorites for that city only.

Hmm. I took a quick look at the 1200/1300/1400 Manual on the Garmin site and it sounds like you should see categories right after you select Favorites, like my 765T does. Re pg 12-
"Finding Saved Places
1. Touch Where To?.
2. Touch Favorites.
3. Select a category. Your saved locations are listed."

Sounds like we need a 1300 owner that has it working on their unit. Maybe an activation selection someplace on the 1300?? Just guessing.

Thanks for all the great info here....it really helps alot with these step by step instructions if someone is not familiar with their GPS. Thanks again!!!

When you go to favorites after you have changed categories.You should see selection All Favorites that allows you to see all favorites you have.Below All Favorites should be list of categories for favorites that you touch for what you have listed there.Touching All Favorites will not show categories.As stated above it is in your manual pages 12 and 13 covering this feature.

I actually looked at the help menu on my nuvi. IT says that I will have categoreis and a selection for all favorites when I touch the "Favorites" icon. However, no matter what I do, when I touch the Favorites icon all I get is a list of all my favorites with no categories.

When you touch a favorite you have saved.Do you see edit?Then scroll down and see change categories then the list to put check marks in for your selection?Also be sure to try new at bottom to make your on category for a certain favorite.

Yes, I have selected a favorite. Then I went to edit. I created a category and then checked the box. Then when I go to the favorite icon and touch it, there are no categories. Just a long list of my favorites. I wonder what the heck I am doing wrong. I am doing everything the way I am supposed to (I believe). This is frustrating.

I just noticed that when I go to my custom POI's the categories that I have created are there and then there is a selection for "All Categories" If I touch "All Categories" the same page comes back up with my created categories and then the "All Categories" selection is theer again. If I touch "All categories" again then it takes me to all of th POIs uncategorized. I wonder if the two problems are related.

It sounds like you are doing every thing you are suppose to do.One suggestion is that if you have mapsource you can do the same thing there to see if you get the same results.This is a faster method.
Making categories for favorites using MapSource

1. Hook gps up to computer using usb cable.
2. Bring up map source.
3. Click on Waypoints then click on Transfer at top of page and select receive from device and click on it. You will now see your favorites.
4. Click on edit, preferences and click the waypoint categories.
5. Change the 1-16 as needed for the categories you want listed on the gps. Not necessary to change all of them. Hit ok after each one you select until you complete.
6. Go back to view at top and click show user data tabs.
7. Now click on the waypoint and put check mark in the category you want for that favorite. Complete all waypoints.
8. Select transfer on mapsource, send to device and put check mark in waypoints only. Click send.
If doesn't work you may need to call Garmin.

Doing it through Mapsource was how I initially came across this problem. It didn't work either.

Is there a way to do a hard reset to the unit?

Yes hold your finger on the bottom right of your gps screen while turning on the gps unit.Keep finger pressed until pop up screen appears.Note you will lose all your favorites when you do this.Connect gps to computer and make copy of current.gpx file located in Garmin folder.You will need to re-name it temp.gpx to put back on unit.

of the current.gpx folder.

is it not possible that I screwed up the current.gpx file while in mapsource?

Did you do the hard re-set?That will clear the favorites file out.Then try a few sample favorites out using categories to see what happens.Don't put the copy of the current.gpx until you try the test.

I did the hard reset and it did not even clear out the favorites. It asked me if I wanted to do a reset and I said yes. THen I had to reset everything when I got in. I am very confused.

I did the hard reset again and I noticed that it keeps throwing in the same three favorites I created in Mapsource. I even deleted these favorites out before I did the hard reset. So to recap, when I do a hard rest, it keeps adding in these three favorites.

You have a temp file in that folder it is reading. Look for and delete Temp.GPX. Do the hard reset again and it will be clear.

Yes...this is also a way to keep your favorites from being deleted when performing a hard reset. Simply copy current.gpx to the x:\Garmin\GPX folder and rename it to temp.gpx. Your favorites saved from current.gpx at that point in time will always be accessible on your unit, even after a hard reset.

When you go to gpx folder inside the Garmin folder if you see any others beside the current.gpx in the same folder delete them.What happens when you send new favorites with Google,Bing etc it creates another file along side the current.gpx.Once you re-boot those files are trnsfered to the current.gpx.The other files stay there.Once you reboot they load back to current.gpx again.You have to delete them.You can delete them while the gps is connected to the computer. To delete the current.gpx you have to do it manually from the gps itself or the hard re-set.Like I stated before retain copy of current.gpx.

There is also a file in the GPX folder named 3758802362.lpt. Should I delete it as well?

If you don't know what it is, leave it alone. Personally, I would leave it. It's a small file anyway, if I recall correctly.

Deleting the file from the GPX folder got rid of those pesky favorites that wouldn't go away. However, it did not fix the main problem. Still, when I add favorites and then categorize them, nothing happens.

Deleting the file from the GPX folder got rid of those pesky favorites that wouldn't go away. However, it did not fix the main problem. Still, when I add favorites and then categorize them, nothing happens.

When I bought the Garmin the favorites were preloaded with three Garmin locations. At that time when you touched the Favorites icon, it took you straight to these three "favorites". There were no categories or a selection for "All Categories" even then.

I don't know...things like this bug me to no end. Frankly the unit is fine and I love it but I hate it when there is something I can't figure out.

Did you setup at least two categories not just one for favorites?If yes and still no success you need to call Garmin.Something has to be wrong with the unit.Everything you said you done sounded like you followed all the right steps.Plus removing all the favorites and starting from scratch.Not much else to do.

Live and learn--I did not realize you could put your favorites into different categories or folders.
I have already put my custom POI's into category folders which is very useful. Will use this feature in the future. I have tested it on my Nuvi 255W and works fine.
Thanks--guy

This is news to me. I categorize my custom POI's but had no idea this could be done with Favorites as well. I'll check and see if my 760 has this ability.

Don't believe the 760 will do it.The xx5 and the newer models has the feature.

FINALLY found this in the model specific FAQs section on the Garmin website:

The nuvi 1200, 1300, 1400 and 1600 series devices will not allow you to create categories until you have over 12 favorites. Once you have 12 favorites saved within the device you can create and manage a category by following the steps below:

Touch Where To
Touch Favorites
Touch All Favorites
Touch the favorite you wish to place in a new category
Touch the information bubble
Touch Edit
Touch Change Categories
At this point you can either create a new category or add your favorite into a pre-existing category.

Didn't see that any where in the manual.Thats a new one.I would put this new information in the Faq on the site for other users.

Edit.Just curious and tried the same search on my unit and didn't see that limit of 12.

I would love to add that to the FAQs. How do I do that? LOL

Go to create content and click on FAQ http://www.poi-factory.com/node/add

It almost a week trying to find how...

I found this thread looking for info on Favorites.
I have the All Favorites catagory, then a LONG list of numbers. Some of the numbers look like dates with other digits added. Some are just numbers like; 10.3

I just found that at the bottom of this list are some catagories: Address, Attractions, Map Points and Coordinates, Resturants and Vehicle Services. I didn't put any of these in there except Resturants. But! It seems like I can't add any more. My guess is that all the numbers filled up all the available Catagory slots. I don't see any way to delete the long list of numbers. Anyone have a clue on what all this is and how to manage it? Thanks!

Are you the original owner of this GPSr, if so did you buy it NEW from a reputable source other than eBay, Craiglist or the local Pawn Shop?

In addition to what is already asked...Address gets added when you add a new address. "maps and coordinates" gets saved when you save a favorite by coordinate.

Yes, this was purchased new from Amazon. These numbers are connected with Favorites I've added myself. As I add Favs, the number list gets longer. It's really no big deal except the "real" catagories are at the bottom of the list and it takes a while to get to them, making the whole catagory thing pretty worthless to me. I'd like to find a way to delete these numbers. My text titled Favorites are correctly located under the All Favorites heading.
I can live with this but would rather not. By the by, It's a 1350LMT...

Are you saving favorites with the same name? Because if you have a "Dennys" and then save another "Dennys" it will become "Dennys1".

Here's an example:
I have a fav under All Favourites labeled: ZOR
The Catagory screen list starts with All Favourites and then the numbers start under that. So, that screen shows
All Favourites
10.98
1009.04
1014.81
etc.

If I press 10.98, then ZOR comes up as it should. This happens just as if I had pressed ZOR under All Favourites. The other numbers also bring up locations that I already have under All Favourites. Multiple number listings seem to be attached to a single Favourite.

I know this sounds confusing but I can't think of a way to make it more clear. Like I said, If I could delete the "numbers" then I would just have my custom catagories for the Favourite files.

Just to make it a little more complex; some of the numbers seem to be a log of some sort. For instance, 2011-12-07T20:15:10Z will also bring up ZOR. This says to me that I accessed ZOR fav on 7 Dec 2011 at 9:15 pm which isn't totally accurate since I wouldn't be playing with the GPS at that time of night.

Anyway...Interesting situation. I'm lovin' the GPS, first "automotive" GPS I've had though I've had handhelds for years. Would just be interest to hear if anyone else has this situation.
Cheers.
Konrad

One way is whenever you save a new location go ahead and give it a name instead of just letting default to a number, my 2460 will categorize like hotels and such.

For the ones already in the unit they may be meaningless to you since you probably don't remember where you made the save at, if you do remember just go and rename them to the correct location or just delete them and start fresh.

It sounds to me like you are saying you have the numbers and the Name of the favouite, both. Is that correct? If so how are you saving them.

To delete the numbers save the file to your computer. There sould be a post on here telling you how. Then delete all favorites. Then go to Mapsource or some other program and delete all the numbers from the file you saved and then save the rest back to favorites.

Every time I save a Favourite I DO give it a text name. It goes and shows up in the All Favourites folder. At The Same Time, the GPS generates a number of some sort. This number is Not in the All Favourites folder but listed Under the All Favourites folder where other Catatories would be.

Even though I have only One instance of a Favourite, there are multiple instances of these numbers tied to that text named Favourite.

I guess this is a situation that would be easier to Show than try to explain. I'll have a go when I get together with another Garmin person and see what their unit does.

A possible solution for this would to be able to Edit/Delete Catagories but I don't see a way to do that.

Thanks for your input. I'm putting this one to bed and moving on.
Konrad

It is the easiest way I've found to save, edit and transfer my Favorites to my GPSr.