Garmin GPS Database file!

It is my understanding that the POI Loader always creates a file called poi.gpi in the \Garmin\POI folder on your Nuvi. All of the POI files used by POI loader in the last execution are bundled together in this single file.

So, to get rid of a POI file loaded by POI Loader, you do not include that POI file in the folder to which you point POI Loader during its running.

Why do you want to remove the Red Lobster file? Did you set alerts that are now annoying you or is it for some other reason.

The Red Lobster file could still be in its subfolder on the PC, so every time you expect POI Loader to delete it from the GPS, it installs again from the PC to the GPS.

dobs108

Do you remember renaming the Red Lobster file after you had loaded it onto your gps? Because if you did the renaming method then POI Loader won't delete the file. You have to delete the renamed file manually.

"The Logo that shows this database file is the Mapsource Logo. I opened it in mapsource just to see if I could dump the file using Mapsource but could not find a way to do it."

This may not be a POI file, POI file and it's logos don't show up in Mapsorce program.

Did a search for the poi.gpi file and there are no such files on my computer. I have no sub folders, each folder is named differently. It would take hours to delete each one seperatly. Come on lets find a way.

There's no magic in deleting a poi file from your gps. It all depends on how you loaded such file in the first place.

If you used the default method then all you need to do is rerun POI Loader and ensure that its not pointed to the folder containing the red lobster file. Because every time you run POI Loader it overwrites the existing poi.gpi file in your gps.

If you used the renaming method then you need to go into your gps and delete the red lobster gpi file.

Lew are you boycotting Red Lobster and switching to Harrys?

poi.gpi is not on your computer hard drives. It is on the internal storage of your GPS.

hook your GPS to your PC using the USB cable and wait until your computer recognizes that a new "device" has been added.

Ususlly you will get a dialog box that offers to play the mp3 files on your GPS for you, but you want to scroll to the option that allows you to view the files in Windows Explorer.

Navigate to the Garmin\POI folder in the Garmin Nuvi and you will find some .gpi files - one of which should be poi.gpi.

This is the file that was created when last you ran POI Loader.

Ok, I see the files in my GPS and in the Garmin folder there is a POI folder. In that folder is one POI.gpi file. Are you saying delete the POI.gpi file from the GPS. By deleting the gpi file is this going to remove any other files. What is the purpose of the gpi file?

Yes, it will remove all POI's. Remove the POI's from your computer folder first, and then reload using the POI Loader.

The .gpi file holds all of the POI's from your computer that you've loaded.

Yes, as Juggernaut said, removing "poi.gpi" may (probably will) remove all of your custom pois (Extras).

The .gpi file format is a compressed file that holds your added poi's, and is the format that Garmin units natively use. You CAN have multiple files with the .gpi extension in the unit's poi folder, but if you only see one and it's named "poi.gpi" then it probably holds ALL of your custom pois.

All is not lost though, if you have all of the originals (minus Red Lobster) because you can just rebuild the file & pois with POI Loader and your source files (minus Red Lobster).

Lastly, if you don't have the originals, you do a bunch of poi/Garmin file homework, and get a copy of GPSBabel (free), you could even turn your poi.gpi file back into a gpx or csv file and re-edit/re-compile it.

Whatever you do, I'd suggest copying the poi.gpi file from your unit to your PC and rename it to something meaningful to you so you have a backup.

As JD4x4 was suggesting, back up the poi.gpi file along with everything on your GPS. Create a folder on your PC and name it GPS Backup 20100714. Into that folder place a copy of everything in your Garmin Nuvi drive.

Funny..I can't edit my earlier post. Maybe loosing your windmill does that??

Anyway... I'm assuming that these Red Lobster poi's are something you added and not some of the unit's built-in poi's, yes? Because you can't edit or delete those (I assume you know already).

Just an afterthought.

You can edit your posts until someone replies to that post with the "reply" button.

Thanks MM. I think Jgermann was replying as I tried to, but hadn't pressed submit yet. I had an "edit" button but pressing it gave me an "unauthorized" error. Confused this old, tired brain.

Some of my colleagues are assuming that you keep your source poi files on your PC hard drive. Personally, I keep mine on the SD card so I can work with them regardless of what computer/PC I have available.

There are two points: 1) back up, back-up BEFORE you delete anything, and 2) if it came with the unit when you bought it, be VERY CAREFUL what you delete!

One little trick I learned is whenever I'm loading a new POI file I delete everything first, check the unit and then load/reload everything. Sort of full cleaning before I put anything new in!

Here is what I did. I backed up the poi.gpi file and deleted it from the GPS. I see it removed all the special poi's. I removed the Red Lobster file from the GPS folder on my pc. The folder that keeps all my special POI's I d/loaded from the POi factory. I put the poi.gpi back up file on my second hard drive. I reloaded all my special files back to the GPS. Hundreds of Red Lobster locations are still in my favorites. I don't know what else to do........

Lew, if they are loading into Favorites rather than Extras/Custom POI's, it sounds like you have a stray GPX file in your \Garmin\GPX folder. Look both on the internal storage volume on the nuvi and on your SD card if you have one. Remove the extraneous GPX files, then go in through the nuvi menu and remove the entries from your Favorites (Tools\My Data\Delete Favorites). Restart your nuvi and that should take care of it.

If alandb's suggestion doesn't work then maybe you should tell us your method for loading pois to your unit.

If you compile your .csv and .gpx files using POILoader, it makes the poi.gpi file which a)goes into your unit's POI folder and b)shows up on the unit under Extras.

If you put .gpx files into the unit's GPX folder, the unit looks at them during boot-up and adds them to a file called current.gpx (also stored in the GPX folder), and they appear under Favorites rather than Extras. The only way to remove poi's from Favorites is to manually edit it or delete it through the unit's menu as alandb suggests, or use something like ExtraPOIEditor to edit current.gpx. Otherwise the poi's will stay in your Favorites.

It's hard to know what to suggest without knowing how you loaded these Red Lobster POIs in the first place. Having them all individually in there as favorites indicates something went seriously wrong in the first place.

I just tried this. I took a .gpx file and placed it into the \garmin\GPX folder on my 765T. I safely disconnected the 765T and looked to see if Favorites had been increased by the entries in the added .gpx file. They were not in Favorites nor in Recently Found.

Will someone else try this and report your results?

1.Hook your gps up to computer'
2.Go to Garmin folder then click Gpx folder then you will see current.gpx file.If you see any other gpx files there other then current.gpx delete them.Make a copy of your current.gpx while there.
3.By chance if you have Mac computer delete the recycle bin contents before removing gps from computer.Now re-boot gps.
4.I don't see any thing in your manual http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/nuvi200_OwnersManual.pdf allowing you to delete all at one time.So you have three methods.

a.Hook gps back up to computer go to Mapsource and select transfer and receive from device .Once you see all the waypoints hold the control tab down on your computer and highlight the ones you want to delete.Once completed go back up to transfer and select send to device.

b.Edit each favorite on gps and delete one at a time.

c.Do hard re-set and clear all of them out at one time.Hold finger on lower right of screen while turning on the power.Keep finger on screen until screen comes up allowing you to delete favorites.

If you used method outlined in c.Load the current.gpx to mapsource or Extra Poi Editor and edit as needed.Once completed changed name to temp.gpx and paste back in the gpx folder.Mapsource use the transfer method.

Again if you have Mac computer delete the recycle bin when deleting files.

Just get your favorites problem fixed first before loading custom poi files to your unit.See http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25721

Yep.. I am incorrect (partially, it seems). I just tried it on my 765T and it DOES NOT add them to Favs (current.gpx). However, it DOES on my 200W (and deletes the orig .gpx file as well).

I could have sworn my 765T did that as well, but either it did prior to my current version (v3.90), or I was totally mistaken. My 200W is running v4.00, by the way.

This is getting interesting. Now I'm curious if Lew's 220W and/or other series units act like my 200W, which DOES NOT act like my 765T!

On my 200W- any .gpx file put into EITHER the POI or GPX folder is added to the current.gpx file in the GPX folder and the pois are found in Favorites but not Extras, and the original .gpx file is deleted.

Any .gpi file put into EITHER the POI or GPX folder is added to Extras/Custom POIs, and the .gpi file remains where it was put.

If Lews 220W is like my 200W, then that could explain a few things, I think.

If you click on his name you will see that he has a 200.

Silly me. I see it in this signature, too. A typo in his original post. So, there you go. He needs to remove them from current.gpx with EPE, or delete the whole file & start over.

Since I've learned to read signatures ... I'm curious to know if your 265 acts the same with .gpx files.

If I name the gpx other then current.gpx file it will add it to favorites.But it will remain in the gpx folder.That is why I told the OP to delete files other then current gpx because it will re-load them even if you delete manually from gps.

I have not put a gpi file no where but the poi folder.Not knowing the results and heart aches it may cause to put it some where else I don't want to take that chance.

Thanks for the info. I'll refrain from hijacking the topic any further. He should have enough info now to get it sorted out.

..Wacky Garmin. Seems like if you own more than one series, you don't stand a chance of remembering how to use it.

I know what you mean.Like when you send from Google,Bing and Mapquest to gps.Some units maintain a copy along with current.gpx and others reported their's don't.

Any way hoping OP reports back if problem solved.

One last item, for jgermann..

More experimenting on my 765T (v3.90) reveals that if a file named Temp.gpx is put in the GPX folder it WILL add the poi's to Favorites (not Extras) by adding it into Current.gpx. The odd thing is that it doesn't delete Temp.gpx, but if you remove the entry from Favorites it will NOT re-add it on subsequent power-ups. Can't figure out how it "knows" just yet. Also, if you have a matching Category already in Favorites for other poi's it will use the category in Temp.gpx and include it with the others already in Favorites. The 765T seems to ignore gpx filenames other than Current or Temp otherwise.

Once I think I understand all of this better, I'll maybe post another thread or a faq.

Go to Google,Bing and Mapquest and use the send to gps.It will have a number with the gpx.It will load to current.gpx.But will remain until you delete it from the gps on some models.If you delete it from the gps manually and don't delete from the Garmin drive it will re-load it.

Sorry for the typo on the 220W. Glad we saw it was a 200. Anyway I plan on doing some of the things mentioned and will report on the outcome later. Thanks all!

Tried both temp.gpx and Temp.gpx and neither would add to Current.gpx.

It's a dumb computer. You need to reboot it.

Maybe he added one using temp.gpx that was already in the current.gpx?

What firmware version are you using? Maybe that's the difference? Mine is v3.90 and I tried both temp.gpx and Temp.gpx, letting it reboot with the usb cable plugged in after safely removing the drive, as well as removing cable, shutting down, power-off, power-on and it always adds to my Favorites. Are you maybe looking at current.gpx before it reboots?

From comments I was reading, I was assuming that I could add a .gpx file to the \Garmin\GPX folder on the 765T and whatever was in the file would become part of Favorites. When that did not happen, I reported it but should have also given the software version I was running. My oversight.

That's the way my 765T with v3.90 works, but unlike my 200W which accepts any .gpx, my 765T will only do that with Temp.gpx or temp.gpx.

Thanks for the version info. I'm about ready to upgrade my 765 to v4.00 and I'll make sure I can restore it to 3.90 if I ever want that 'feature' back.

I finally got rid of the Red Lobster files. I opened the "Current" file in the GPX folder on my 200w using Easy GPX. I used the Select Tool and captured many of the Red Lobster waypoints by dragging the select tool when holding down the mouse button and then delete. I also dumped the "Send to the GPS" files that had Red Lobster files in them. I made sure to save the modified "Current" file before leaving the Easy GPX program. I also found a few left over NPR Stations I deleted. I appreciate of all the help folks.
One thing I would like is to have a Map of the USA on the Easy GPX program. The Map on Mapsource in not very detailed.

Glad it worked out Lew.

Reports my Nuvi now has 722MB of memory.....