One more time....Steering Map to SD card with a Nuvi 660

Bumping this to top... Want to go over it one more time before I attempt it...

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?...

And since your nuvi 660 isn't among the auto-updatables, follow this from the above link:

If your device is not listed above, please select the appropriate link below for steps on how to load maps to an SD card:

Lifetime Map Update: https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={b2117ae0-202e-11e1-73d0-000000000000}

The Lifetime Link has been removed by Garmin....

And I have lifetime maps....

That's why I'm posting...

I am not sure if the cloning method works with the 6xx series nuvi but it might be worth a try. The basic procedure is this:

1) Fomat the SD card FAT32.
2) Create folder \Garmin on the card.
3) Copy file garmindevice.xml from your nuvi into the \Garmin folder of the SD.
4) Disconnect your nuvi and put the SD card in your computer's card reader. Log into my.garmin.com. The SD card will be recognized as your nuvi
5) Proceed with the map update using MapUpdater as normal. When it is finished, you will have the 3 map files in the \Garmin folder of the SD card. They will be named gmapprom.img, gmapprom.unl and gmapprom.gma.
6) Rename the map files to gmapsupp.img, gmapsupp.unl and gmapsupp.gma.
7) Insert the SD card in your nuvi and boot. You should now be running with the new maps on the SD card. Look at Map Info to make sure the correct maps are enabled.

Thanks for that info. I will try it on a separate SD card.....
I think I have a free 4GB or 6GB Mode 6 card.

I know you've mentioned that procedure in the past but I certainly hope you write this up as a FAQ so that the method can be easily accessible if needed in the futur.

Garmin website DOES SEE the 4GB card with the garmindevice.xml file in the /Garmin directory of the SD card as my Nuvi 660! That is a good thing!

Maps are not out yet, though, according to the Site...

OK... At this point, I'm ready....

(For those who remember, I have turned off all the IPS blocks in the router....)

I did a screen capture of alandb's post and printed it out for the Manual I've Created...

I'll definitely Post what happens when the maps come out!!!

I have considered writing up the cloning method as a FAQ. What has held me back is my suspicion that Garmin is trying to eliminate the manual MapUpdater program, first with Lifetime Map Updater (which was a total failure) and now with Garmin Express. I think I will wait a few weeks to see how well Garmin Express works with the new map update and also see if they do anything with MapUpdater as a result.

I will keep you appraised on how the upgrade goes here, too...

Obviously I'm very interested in the outcome of this map upgrade.... If they ever post it !

Alandb,

Your map update method works great. I was able to download and install to the SD card in about 25 minutes, which is about 1/3 of the time it normally takes to install through the 660 nuvi.
I then renamed the files as you suggested and plugged the SD card into the nuvi. It saw the new map on the SD card right away and loaded it up. This is a great way to do the updates. I didn't see any slow down in loading the maps from the SD card. I checked afterwards to make sure it was seeing the 2013.40 map update from the SD card. JOY!!!
Thanks a bunch.

Raven

for you raven1948.

Give this man an "ATTA-BOY!"

My results are exactly like Raven's....

It saw the SD card as the Nuvi, just like it did last week... Download was faster than when I hooked NUVI to the computer, probably due to USBV2 speeds.

I let garmin do whatever it wanted to do, and Garmin installed the maps on the SD Memory card.

I changed the filenames, as suggested.....

I first did not put it in the nuvi 660, and verified existing maps... Then Shut it off, inserted SD Card, and Powered up again....

Got the scrolling bar indicating new maps....

Reflected new maps 2013.40

So took it out to the car, and did a 15 min ride, verifying that routes, POI's Everything worked....

It works FLAWLESSLY!!! CUDOS TO alandb!!!

You breathed more life into my Nuvi 660!!!

PLEASE MAKE A FAQ OUT OF THIS!! This is great information!!

A PS to all this.....

If there is a difference in Map Loading speed, I did not see it...

As I was downloading the maps I noticed that they were 2013.40 in size...

It wouldn't have fit.... So this 'fix' came at the best time it could have!!

In response to Alanb's comment above, Garmin Express worked great for me this PM as I downloaded and installed 2013.4 on my nuvi 260w. The connection occurred easily, Garmin suggested I take a walk because GE would take care of everything...I did and it did. GE initially suggested loading all of 2013.4 on my sdhc rather than lower 49 on the 260w, I agreed.

Very happy with results. Garmin's interim programs, e.g., Lifetime Updater appear out of date for sure now.

I used Garmin Express (Stated out with Map Updated from the website, but maps wouldn't download until I installed Express, and Express "Took Over" the download.

However.... It did this all with the SD card, the Nuvi 660 was in corner, in the case, un-plugged.

But maps worked, and that's a good thing.... because the maps wouldn't have fit otherwise!

I am working on this FAQ ... hope to submit it sometime this weekend.

JanJ, published FAQ is here: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/39231

Thanks

Ditto, even though I don't see a need for a while to try it, I'm glad it's there for us, especially since my 855 is one of the models not offered the Garmin-auto-install-to-SD option.

Alandb -

I read this topic as well as the FAQ you wrote - thanks for doing that, by the way.

Being a 660 owner, I am interested in possibly doing this at some point. I do have one question. Rather than renaming the map files on the SD card, will it work to just delete the corresponding old map files on the main unit? By leaving the old map files on the main unit, won't the nuvi see 2 map versions available?

I'm looking to be able to free up the internal memory space by deleting the old version map files.

Thanks!

On these older nuvi's, map name gmapprom is only recognized in internal storage, not on the SD card. The name gmapsupp is recognized in either location. Some nuvi models have had a firmware update to also recognize the name gmapsup1, but I don't think the 6xx series is one of them.

You can delete the original map files (gmapprom) from internal storage once you are operating with new maps on the SD card. With my 2 nuvi's if both map sets are left in place, the nuvi only recognizes the newer version and displays only the new map in Map Info. This behavior may be different on your 660. Maybe JanJ will chime in here.

Note, if you delete the gmapprom files, make sure you DO NOT DELETE the gmapbmap.img file. It is the base map and needs to remain in internal storage.

OK, thanks! Right now, my maps are on the internal memory and my mp3's are on the SD card. I was thinking to swap them around.

As a test after loading the new map to the SD card and renaming them as you indicated, I could rename the internal map files to something like gmapprom._mg, gmapprom._nl and gmapprom._ma to see how the 660 behaves. That way I haven't deleted anything yet and the 660 shouldn't recognize the renamed files.

I have the whole 660 (internal storage & SD card with mp3's) backed up anyway.

Then I can delete the 3 internal files and move the mp3 folder & files to the internal memory. If this works, then updating maps in the future will be much faster using the SD card in my laptop's card reader slot than over the 660's slow USB1 connector. It took me longer to install the maps on the 660 than it did to download them.

That sounds like a very safe and methodical approach Gary. Let us know how it works out.

I just noticed that in the /Garmin folder on the internal memory, there is a gmapprom.sum file (1KB) in addition to the other 3 gmapprom.xxx files. Can it safely be deleted?

I do see the basemap file in there too, so I'll leave it alone.

You can delete any .sum files you see on your device. They are checksum files created by running the checksum diagnostic from the advanced diagnostics menu. You will probably find .sum files for your voices, vehicles and some other files. They can all be deleted.

Good news, bad news:

The good news - using Map Install, the download/prepare/install steps completed flawlessly in 26 minutes, total. Way faster than when I did it through the 660 USB1 port. YIPPEE!

The bad news - without changing anything on the main unit internal memory, I plugged the SD card into the 660 & turned it on. It started up the way it normally does after installing new maps - it displays "Loading maps..." at the bottom of the screen & then a green progress bar is displayed as the "new" map is loaded. It gets about 3/4 of the way across and the 660 powers off. It never gets to the screen where I enter my pin.

So I remove the SD card and power it up again. This time it loads the maps normally, gets to the screen where I enter my pin and it goes to the main screen.

Maybe this is because I already had 2013.40 maps (US & Canada but not Mexico) already installed in the main unit storage. I did it this way a couple days ago because the whole NA map would not fit. Now, the unit saw 2 2013.40 maps. I don't know if that confused it or not.

I'm going to connect the 660 to my PC and rename those internal map files as I posted above. I'll reinstall the SD card and see what happens.

Renaming the 4 gmapprom.xxx files on the main unit internal storage worked! This time, the 660 completed it's power up, went to the pin screen, then on to the main screen. Displaying the Map Info screen showed CN North America NT 2013.40 [1] ALL.

Something about having both sets of map files installed caused the 660 to crash.

Thanks for the follow up Gary. The 6xx firmware is probably not as forgiving as some of the newer devices. Also, it maybe would have acted differently if there had been one old version and one new version of the map instead of 2 variations of the same map version. Glad you got it working tho.

I've been getting the irritating insufficient space message for a while. While I do figure out how to get the maps installed, by the time of the next update release I forgot what I did.

This time, I downloaded to the computer and used Map Install to get it on the SD card. Worked nice.

But the approach you have suggested looks to be a great solution too. I'll print it out for future reference.

I did the step by step procedure and it worked... Used it all last weekend, and it worked beautifully!

Maps do seem to refresh faster than before.

I'm presently on a Mode 6 card, and it is a copy from the Mode 4 card that I used for the download.... (Which is now a backup that I put in the Garmin Manual printout).

The Mode 6 card has both MP3 Music and Maps on it. I will hope to try running both simultaneously sometime soon... Just to see what will happen...

I'm Very Happy.

The map updater didn't recognize my 1490 needing a map update. I use an imac and I heard about the express but really stumbled upon it and after down loading the program it worked flawlessly. It showed that I needed a firmware upgrade and one of my voice files needed an upgrade. Even a backup. It even told me to insert a SD card to down load the North America update, or choose which to update. It even tells you how much memory you have and how much is free.

JanJ, Did you leave the old maps in the internal storage? Did you have the same problem as Gary A? If you still have the old map in internal storage, does it show up on the Map Info screen?

I have noticed that when powering on the 660 now, it does spend more time "Loading Maps..." than when they were loaded on the internal memory. Would a faster SD card help, or does that just affect writing, not reading? This card is a SanDisk 4GB SDHC and is several years old.

Also, what's going to happen at the next map update? Will Map Update install the new maps as gmapprom files or as gmapsupp files, thus, overwriting the current files?

Since the GarminMapUpdater program "thinks" the SD card is your nuvi, new maps will be named gmapprom.* and you will need to rename them. I use 2 SD cards, keep the previous map version on one card and install the new map to a freshly formated card. If you don't want to do it that way, you can install the new maps on top of the old ones. The updater should delete the old gmapsupp files and put the new ones on the card as gmapprom.

You can try a faster card, but my experience is not like JanJ's. On my nuvi 855, I notice a somewhat slower load time from SD than from internal memory and the card speed class doesn't seem to make any difference.

Gary. Different set up for me on the 265. The update before this one allowed me to select the sd card. It overwrote the files on this update on sd card.Would think it would be the same for yours.

Charlie, you might want to take a look at this Garmin FAQ. The nuvi 660 is not a supported device.

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={0b087770-5dba-11e1-dd60-000000000000}

Yes I know. Was just commenting on about how it may overwrite the existing files on sd card on the next update.

I can live with the slower startup time. It remains to be seen if it slows down the map updating as I'm driving. But if a higher class card won't help that, I'm not going to spend the money.

Basically, I swapped the locations of the maps and my mp3 files. This arrangement makes more efficient use of my total available space between the internal memory & the SD card. Plus, I'm back to being able to download the full NA maps that I paid for.

We all have a pretty good idea where we'll be travelling within the next 6 months and downloading a region can be sufficient for many.

I know I'll never be going to Mexico so no use for me in downloading it. Just another thought/suggestion

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={80e6d330-f2e0-11dd-f45b-000000000000}

Yes, I left the old maps on the 660....

With SD Card with new maps in the Nuvi, the NEW MAPS ID is displayed on the Nuvi....

Do you want me to remove SD Card, Power up Nuvi, and see what maps is seen???? Or???

The card that's in there now has New Maps AND MP3 music on it... Next time I'm in the car for a long time I'll turn on music and see what happens.

I think you answered the question. It must be that the boot problem Gary A had was because he had two variations of the same map version.

I had to run several errands yesterday, so I put the 660 in the car to see how it performed after loading the 2013-40 NA maps on the SD card and moving the mp3 files to the internal memory.

Everything seemed to work fine - navigating to a loaded custom POI, navigating to a Garmin internally stored grocery store and playing mp3's the whole time. There was no increased lag time in updating the map as I drove.

The only difference I can see is the longer initial map loading time when I first power on the unit. But that is a one-time issue at power-on that I can live with.

This is a good tip - I have an old nuvi that I will try this with - Tks!

I was in Escape all day yesterday.
I ran the MP3 music from the SD Card, where the 'new' maps are.

It's the first time I ran Music in the Escape (2+ years)..... Encountered the bug I've heard about, here, but never saw firsthand....

BUG: When MP3 music playing, "Normal" Custom POI's are not heard, Though Routes are heard, but instead they issue either a random play, or play next command to the MP3 Player...
EXCEPT for any POI's that are set up as TourGuides...
and THOSE OPERATE CORRECTLY, Providing Audio, and returning to same MP3 song...

The one good thing is: The Escape recognized the Garmin Transmitter as HD Audio Transmission, and the Audio Quality was much better than it sounded in my previous Saturn... which sounded more like slope detected FM with poor audio rendition.

I noticed that map draws were a bit slower when I'm zoomed out going through a big city.... when both Maps and MP3 were coming off the SD Card, but never had any music audio drops (except for POI bug's which I remember hearing about here a couple years ago).

Gary, is this how your MP3 audio files acted with POI's with music on internal Drive?? In my case, it did as described via internal speaker or FM Transmitted audio...

Jan

Sounds like you are describing the know bug with the latest software version for the 6XX series. I ran into this several years ago when it first appeared.

The workaround is to convert all mp3 POI alert files to wav format. This is where you need to have sox.exe installed in the POILoader program folder on your PC.

With the audio alert files in wav format, the mp3 music files play normally with interruptions for navigation audio. Then the mp3 music file continues to play normally and does not skip to a different song.

From 2008 http://www.poi-factory.com/node/13093

If that's so, and I don't doubt it, then why does TourGuide POI's work normally with MP3 audio alerts?

dohdeedohdeeeee

I can't answer that question since I never played around with POI files set up as TourGuides.

A big thanks for the great information on running maps off an SD card!

It is working fine.... I couldn't be happier!

Jan

I broke down and bought a higher speed SD card (up to 30MB/s Class 10) to see if it would improve the map loading time when powering on the nuvi 660. The price was pretty cheap.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QUUFRW/ref=oh_details_o...

I did a comparison start-up timing test to see what the difference was. Both cards are 4GB capacity. The times below were measured from pressing the power-on button, through the map loading process until the Garmin Lock screen appeared:

Standard SD card - 51 seconds
New Extreme card - 45 seconds

It only shaved off 6 seconds. I have to believe that the limiting factor must be the speed of the old nuvi 660's SD card port. It must not be able to read data as fast as the card is capable of delivering.

Oh well, lesson learned. Thought I would share my findings.

Hello guys, i hope that this is till an active conversation I have an old nuvi 660 that i like a lot. It's perfect for me. I was shocked when i understood i can't update it anymore and this new method gave me big hopes. I purchased an 8gb SD card class 10 and proceeded with the upgrade as mentioned here. It all worked perfectly. The only issue is that MapUpdater still tells me that i have only 2gb of storage and the entire map i want is 3.14gb. So i have divided it to 2 SD cards which is still a good option but i wonder is there a workaround or am i missing something in the process. Is it possible to install the entire 3.14GB map on my 8GB SD card. Will appreciate any answers. Thanks