Saving favorites to laptop

...of current.gpx.

You could also use Garmin BaseCamp.

If you have Mapsource on your PC you can export to Mapsource and then transfer back when you get refurbed GPS

Attach nuvi to laptop with usb cable. Go to [garmin nuvi]:\Garmin\GPX folder and copy current.gpx to some location on the laptop.

Better still, make a complete backup of your nuvi. See http://www.poi-factory.com/node/30394

This is weird. I tried to edit my comment, but I got an error message that I was not allowed access. Now the edit feature does not appear on my post.

??

Edit: But it does on this one!

But remember if you copy the current.gpx file from the old Nuvi YOU MUST rename it before you copy it back to the GPX folder on the new unit. Renaming it Temp.gpx would do the trick.

You can no longer edit it.

It seems that you can just copy it back without renaming it.

See http://www.poi-factory.com/node/30708

On this web platform, you can edit your past replies until someone else has replied to it. At that point, it's locked even to you.

I've often gone back and been allowed to start editing a reply of mine--but before I post my edit, someone else has replied--and that locks my edit from being posted...

The one difference is that if you originated the thread, you can go back and edit your original post that started the thread.

Clear as mud?

current.gpx is an output only file.

When a Garmin boots up it takes any other .gpx file and merges the contents to create a current.gpx file.

It doesn't matter is it's called temp.gpx, current1.gpx, backup.gpx as long as it has the .gps extension.

I guess someone already replied to my post, even though I tried to edit it a couple of milleseconds later. KaBango!

Thanks to everyone for their input and such a fast response! I have copied and renamed the current.gpx file. Plan to do a complete backup shortly.

Did you follow the link?
See http://www.poi-factory.com/node/30708

It's read on boot-up, so that means it is an input file also. Just saying.....

I think that depends on how you define input and output files. I don't believe the Nuvi "reads" the contents of the current.gpx file that's already on the device when it boots.

When the Nuvi boots it reads Favorites, Tracks and Routes, etc. detail stored in it's hidden memory storage and adds to that the relevant contents of any gpx files it finds. The resulting collection of data is placed in a newly created current.gpx file, which is "outputted" to the Nuvi's internal storage, overwriting the current.gpx file that is already there.

OK, t923347, I want you to follow these steps to see what will happen. Here is what I just did to get the steps correct.

1. Connected my nuvi 765T to my computer. After a few seconds, I got an explorer window for I:\ which is my SD card; then I got the Dialog asking what I wanted to do with Garmin Nuvi (H:) - the one that asks if I want to play the music files or open the removable disk and explore files. I chose to open files.

2. I navigated to [Garmin nuvi]:\Garmin\GPX to access my "current.gpx" file. I really did not need to do this step but I wanted to do a backup - and you will likely want to do this also since you do not believe this will work.

3.a. I right clicked on "current.gpx" and selected "Copy"
3.b. I backed up one level into [Garmin nuvi]:\Garmin\
3.c. I right clicked in the right pane of explorer and selected "paste" to make my backup.

4.a. I opened EPE 5.32.
4.b. In the menu bar, I clicked on File.
4.c. I navigated to [Garmin nuvi]:\Garmin\GPX and opened current.gpx

5.a. In the top left pane of EPE, I clicked on the purple "Add New POI" button.
5.b. I gave the POI a name; entered the address of a house down the street from me; clicked on the "Geocoding" button; clicked on the "Grab" button to have EPE enter the coordinates; finally I clicked on "OK"
5.c. I did a File > Save to replace current.gpx in the [Garmin nuvi]:\Garmin\GPX folder
5.d. I closed EPE

6. I "Safely Disconnected" my nuvi.

7. When my nuvi powered up (I do not have to do anything else once it is safely disconnected), I did a Where To? > Favorites > All Favorites > [down arrow] until I got to the new POI I had added.

When I first did this while posting in the thread http://www.poi-factory.com/node/30708, I could not believe it myself. It seems that Garmin has changed the firmware on how the nuvi works with this file.

On my nuvi, as we speak, the H:\Garmin\GarminDevice.xml still says "OutputFromUnit" but nevertheless I was able to change only current.gpx and have the change accepted by my nuvi.

This means the nuvi firmware read the current.gpx file.

Let's talk some more after you try this. I have a theory on when the firmware will read the current.gpx file.

WhereTo?>Favorites>[select one]>Share>Select All>Export will write SD:\Garmin\GPX\share_waypoints.gpx

Put the SD card in the GPS and Tools>User Data>Import>Favorites will allow you to Import them.

But I'm surprised that a discharged battery would lose your Favorites, as they are stored in non-volatile memory.

@jgermann

Since I really find little use for EPE, and have never seen it successfully alter stored Favorites, I have long since deleted it from my PC. I know that lots of people have had success with this but I haven't, so just gave up trying at some point.

I'm not disagreeing with what your saying, just that it never worked that way for me. If your saying that it works for you then maybe turboccc will appear again one of these days and explain how his program is doing this as I've always been under the impression that current.gpx works as I discribed, but I've been wrong a few thousand times before.

Rick, I was surprised too when I read about this a few weeks ago in POI Factory. But jgermann is correct, at least on my old 855 and 755T nuvi's which haven't had a firmware update since who knows when.

When I tested this, I didn't use EPE, but simply edited Current.gpx with Notepad and added a waypoint entry copied from another GPX file, saved the modified Current.gpx and booted the nuvi. Sure enough ... the new favorite was there. That was a shock to me.

I have written many posts in this and the other forums we visit saying that current.gpx was an output only file and you couldn't edit current.gpx to add new waypoints unless you renamed it. But that is not correct.

I suspect the nuvi looks at the file date of current.gpx when it boots and merges it in if the date/time is newer than the version when the nuvi was last shut down.

Anyway, I stand corrected on this point ... the nuvi (at least my two models) does read current.gpx under some circumstances when it boots.

Incidentally, I did not try this with routes, but I am guessing you could not import routes through current.gpx. Routes require the additional step of "Import route from file" after the nuvi is fully booted. I think the edited current.gpx file will already be overwritten by this point and an added route would be lost. Likewise, I don't think you could delete favorites or routes by editing current.gpx.

As I said in the other thread, whenever I changed current.gpx (regardless of how I made the changes (Notepad or EPE) or where I made the change, then, when I put the file back on the nuvi, the new entries were accepted.

However, when I used a utility to change the date/time stamp of the file to a point earlier than the last time that the nuvi was booted, the entries were not accepted.

Thanks guys, yet another day I've learned something.

From Garmindevice.xml
-"DataType""Name>GPSData"/Name"-"File"-"Specification"
"Identifier"http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1"/Identifier"
"Documentation"http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1/gpx.xsd "/Documentation""/Specification"-"Location""Path>Garmin/gpx"/Path" "FileExtension>GPX"/FileExtension""/Location" "TransferDirection"InputToUnit"/TransferDirection" "/File"-"File"-"Specification""Identifier"http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1"/Identifier""Documentation"http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1/gpx.xsd" "/Documentation""/Specification"-"Location""Path"Garmin/gpx"/Path" "BaseName"current"/BaseName""FileExtension"GPX"/FileExtension" "/Location""TransferDirection>OutputFromUnit"/TransferDirection""/File" "/DataType"

From my understanding of the XML string the file is both an input and an output. My guess is the Nuvi system software reads the file and checks for differences. If found, then it process what it read and outputs a new file. This would explain the testing that shows a new favorite is added no matter the source.

Based on what I periodically do with my current.gpx file, that makes sense. I will open it using EPE, shift the location marker to fine tune the location, and then save it back to current.gpx. What happens next is I now have a "favorite" and a "favorite1". I have to go in to the nuvi and delete "favorite" and then rename "favorite1" to "favorite".

Yes, I did this before also. That's why I knew it was an input file.

Thanks! That explains a lot.

So, if someone replies or quotes my post, I cannot edit it.

But, if no one does, even though the thread has later posts, I can. And this results in the red "Updated" to appear on the list of posts ("Recent posts")?

Yes. That's how it works.

Yer a peach!