GarminDevice.xml
     14 years
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I have just done a Continuing Education FAQ dealing with this file.
I will reproduce it here to get your comments.
Uses for your GarminDevice xml File
The "GarminDevice.xml" file is what various Garmin programs look for when determining if you have your device attached to your computer. I suspect that the programs look for a "removable" device that has a "Garmin" folder in which is the "GarminDevice.xml" file.
Thus, one can make a removable drive (such as a USB flash drive or an SD card in a media reader slot) appear to be a Garmin Device.
One can find out a lot of useful information by inspecting the data in the "GarminDevice.xml" file. It contains the serial number, registration code, software version, unlock code, screen resolution, and the current voice used, to name a few.
One can verify that "Current.gpx" is described as "OutputFromUnit" - which is why other FAQs indicate that changes made by you to "Current.gpx" have no effect on the unit, but that files in the folder GPX with an extension of .gpx will be "inputToUnit".
This means that one might muck around with the data in this file without fear that one would mess up the device.
Also, this technique presents us with an opportunity to find out from WebUpdater what new updates are available for our devices without actually having the device attached to the computer. If one has, say, a flash drive with a
Garmin directory containing a "GarminDevice.xml" file attached to the computer and then runs WebUpdater, WebUpdater will find that device and assume it is a Garmin unit.
WebUpdater can be downloaded from
http://www8.garmin.com/support/collection.jsp?product=999-99...
When installed and run, the first thing WebUpdater does is to see if there is a later version of itself. Note that WebUpdater does not need a browser to do its work.
XML isn't the easiest kind of file to deal with. I have looked at a number of packages and have settled on Firstobject XML Editor v2.4.2. This software is open source and "portable" - meaning it is run directly from a folder and does not need to be "installed". You can find this software at
http://www.firstobject.com/dn_editor.htm
Download the .zip file to a folder of your choice (I have a lot of portable apps, so mine is C:\PortableApps\FOXE XML Editor). Extract the contents of the .zip file (and then you can delete the .zip file) and run foxe.exe.
From the menu
File > Open and navigate to the flash drive, select GarminDevice.xml and press "Open". A dual pane dialog will appear. The major elements of the XML will be in the left pane and the actual XML will be in the right pane - initially all strung together. Do a Tools > Indent (or press F8) to get a formatted representation of the XML. At this point you might want to make notes of certain data about your unit.
Since I was working with the file from a removable drive, I changed the name of my unit so that I can recognize it when I have both my 2595 and this removable drive attached simultaneously. For example, I made my "description" read 2595SD because this "GarminDevice.xml" file happens to be on a SD card that is inserted in an attached printer's media reader slot (and shows up in Windows Explorer since I just leave the SD card in the slot all the time).
So, try to see what WebUpdater will tell you.
Without your unit attached to the computer - but with the removable drive, run WebUpdater. Webupdater (currently at 2.5.6) will first check to see if there is an update for itself and tell you such ("No updates were found for WebUpdater. Click Next to continue"). Clicking next will look for devices - in my case, it finds "nuvi 2595SD (unit ID xxxxxxxxxx)" [and if I had the actual 2595 attached, it should have found "nuvi 2595 (unit ID xxxxxxxxxx)"].
Clicking "Next" takes me to a screen where one of the two choices is "Proceed to check for additional updates such as voice updates". When I first did this - using only my SD card technique - I found that there was an available update to "Jill" which I use.
So, I made a note of this and later updated Jill on the real 2595.
Play around - maybe you will find something you want to update.
i would
I would change "one" in the 4th, 5th and 6th paragraphs to you. That way "One can find" gets changed to "You can find." Makes for easier reading.
Illiterate? Write for free help.
@Box Car
Thanks for the suggestions which have been applied
Good
This is a very good, succinct writeup.
I've kept my GarminDevice.xml file, unmodified, on a flash drive for a while now. Another handy trick with that is being able to save points from Google Maps as GPX files.
One other
One other small change to make the write up a bit easier to read is in the first paragraph:
"I suspect that the programs look for a "removable" device that has a "Garmin" folder in which is the "GarminDevice.xml" file."
This could simply read:
I suspect that the programs look for a "removable" device that has a "Garmin" folder containing the "GarminDevice.xml" file.
Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.
@bwarden and t92347
@bwarden - added your comment to the FAQ
@t92347 - applied your suggestion
Appreciate the comments.
Thank you!
For all the work you've put into this and the other FAQ and guides you have been and are currently working on.
Your contributions are very much appreciated.
~Angela
Periodic Checking for Updates
Because Garmin thinks I have my 765 and 2595 permanently attached to my computer (F:\Garmin\GarminDevice.xml for the 765 and J:Garmin\GarminDevice.xml for the 2595 are recognized), I am able to go to
https://my.garmin.com/mygarmin/dashboard/dashboardInitialSel...
and check for updates for, say, voices.
I get a "Device Found" screen with the ability to select which nuvi I want to deal with. When I press the blue "Continue" button, I am taken to the "myDashboard" tab, where (in this example) the details of my 765 are displayed. On the left, is the "Software Updates" section indicating that "Recommended updates are available". Pressing the blue "Update" button takes me to the "Recommended Updates" / "Optional Updatesd" page.
Since I am just interested in what optional updates are available, I select "View Available Files" and the display changes to show that there are both "Text" and "Voices" available. Clicking either opens up a list of updates - most of which have a "notes" link which you can click to get an explanation of what the update covers.
For example, if I select the voice "Karen" - I find that the change was "improved road name pronunciations" - so I might want that; if I select the text "Proximity Alert Text, All languages, GTT" - I find that the change was "Updated French Safety Camera information" - so I would not need that.
I now can verify that the XML code in the GarminDevice.xml file - under the "version" tags - uses "major" and "minor" to hold the two parts of any version number actually installed on the unit. If both "major" and "minor" are "0" then that part number (say, a voice) is not installed. My 2595's "Jack" voice changed from 1 and 80 to 2 and 0 for "major" and "minor", respectively, reflection the change from version 1.80 to 2.00