Are we about to lose GarminMapUpdater?

Also, as someone posted awhile ago, doing a search for MapUpdater or GarminMapUpdater on the Garmin website brings back no results. It's like the program never existed even though, as you've seen, the download links still work.

As you advise, best to download the program before it disappears forever.

I'm afraid that we'll be forced to use Garmin Express even if we save a copy of GarminMapUpdater. At least that is what happened to GarminLifetimeUpdater when I tried to use it after it was discontinued by Garmin. It said "Update Available" and installed GarminExpress instead. There was no option to reject the update.

Lets hope it keeps working

Thank goodness LifeTimeUpdater stopped working, Oh wait, it never did work.

I hope the updater keeps working, Garmin Express does
not support my unit.
My lifetime maps might be coming to the end of its life.

Mark

Than my c580 is waaaaaaay out. Well I guess its time to update

I wanted 2014.10 for Mapsource. GarminExpress would not let me download the map update to new computer.(Don't know why.)
My work around was: Remove the SD card. Garmin Express gave me the option of: Computer only, using MapUpdater & MapInstall. That put 2014.10 on PC. Then I replaced the card and updated the 1450LMT again, using Garmin Express. I checked to make sure I had the complete map & the large JCV file.

I've only used Garmin Express once so far and it worked flawlessly for me. It was even a bit faster than the MapUpdater.

Thanks for the heads up, I downloaded a copy just in case. But, I having been using Garmin Express with no problems so far.

As I posted in another thread, the map updater and lifetime map updater didn't find the last map update -- but Garmin Express did, and successfully downloaded and installed it.

Looks like a subtle hint to me!

Garmin was pushing Express for quite a while now. When you wanted to update maps Express was the only choice, unless you spend time looking for MapUpdater (and it wasn't simple). Until now they were allowing to use MapUpdater because Express was way too unstable. But now they probably decided, that Express is good enough and blocked other software to update maps.

Question is, will they start blocking other ways to update maps than Express?

but I would be very surprised to see Garmin pull this considering the numerous problems they've encountered with Garmin Express since it first came out.

Let's also remember that Garmin has more than one program to update their units software so I'll use that same reasoning and remain confident that this updater isn't about to disappear.

A poor search engine is one thing but it's being able to access the program that's important.

I created a FAQ awhile back so that we can all easily find the link to the Garmin Map UpDater when needed.

Cheers

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/39873

One possibility--and my reason for keeping a copy on my computer--is that Garmin may wish for some reason to limit the use of GMU and try to switch us all to GE.

I agree that for now, Garmin needs to keep GMU since GE fails for some folks. But Garmin could make GMU more and more difficult to find and use, keeping it primarily for folks contacting Garmin Customer Service with a map update issue. Garmin's goal could be to hide GMU to such an extent that its future use only can be done by folks receiving a program download URL from Customer Service. We're not at this point yet but it's possible.

Worst case scenario: at some point in the future, GMU will fail to update maps and will instead download and install GE (as apparently has been done with the old LifetimeUpdater program).

I'm still using MapUpdater and WebUpdater with my nuvi 2555.

I have tried GE 3 times, new versions each time (supposedly with fixes), and it has never worked!

It installs, but absolutely no functions will work. Either it would crash immediately, or clicking on a button did absolutely nothing at all.

I've never had a problem with the old programs. That should tell Garmin something, but obviously doesn't.

Lucky for them their hardware works (mostly). The latest units are actually quite good.

Used GMU for 2013.4 and I got the message that a new version of GE was available. Clicked OK and it deleted GMU in the install process. BTW, DL was fairly quick, but it took forever for maps to install.

After reading about all the problems folks were having I re-installed GMU (I kept the original downloaded file - as I do most DL software) before installing 2014.1. GMU gave me the update message again even though I had the latest GE software and I declined. GMU ran just fine and installed the maps in the usual 2 hours.

I'll keep ny DL copy of GMU for good now.

I agree

Would be a shame to lose updater. For me express has been a dismal and frustrating failure. Maybe next gps unit magellan or tom tom could be woth a try. we'll see.

Very helpful.

It is frustrating how their own products work so intermittently. They just need to have 1 program, and make it work.

The PC version 3.3.4 has been released.

Thanks for the heads-up!