How often do you factory reset?

In location where reflected satellite signals can be received, substantial position errors can arise from multipath problems. This is yet more likely if obstructions considerably reduce the number of satellites observable.

I see this at least once a month at my home near Albquerque's Sandia mountain. As the original poster is in Colorado, perhaps they have seen it.

I wrote a long post to this effect yesterday. It seems not be be here--don't know if I violated some rule, failed to click on the "post comment" button, or what, so this is short and does not provide links.

Had the need to.

ever

Have never done a factory reset, but am going to try it tonight.

I do reset few times but the key is back it up first otherwise you lose your favorites etc.

I've had to do a factory reset a number of times throughout the year and it seems to be the first solution provided by tech support. I'm beginning to think these are sort of like Windows that just needs rebooted now and again - especially with the new 27x7 models that stay on and only goes to sleep instead of shutting off.

Did a reset yesterday. I backed up my favorites first but, after the reset, most of my favorites were still in place. I checked and there were lots of favorites there so I didn't bother to restore the backup. On the way to work in another town I noticed that at least one favorite was no longer there.

Makes me wonder why most favorites survived the reset and that particular one (and probably some others I haven't checked on yet) didn't. I thought that wiping user data would wipe the favorites.

Have you checked your Garmin\GPX folder?
Beside having the current .gpx file I'll bet you have other .gpx files there.

The current.gpx file is stored in hidden memory and re-creates itself on each reboot. Whatever other .gpx files you have in the GPX folder are added to the current.gpx file on every reboot. If you leave those extra .gpx files in place they will ALWAYS be added to your favorites on each reboot.
Even though you did a hard reset it cleared the current.gpx file but added all the other .gpx files you had in the folder.

The solution, once the files are all present in Favorites and to your liking, delete all the other gpx files (except current.gpx). If you don't, you won't be able to delete the favorites included on those extra files. You may want to back them up before deleting from the GPX folder.

After reading this thread, I checked my GPX file to see if any other .gpx files were in my GPX folder. I found an "Archive" folder containing numerous .gpx files. These files were in the format 1.gpx, 2.gpx, etc.

I have files 1.gpx-19.gpx and 31.gpx-32.gpx but there are no files in the sequence 20.gpx-30.gpx.

I have 2 questions: (1) How are these files created? (2) Why are some of the files missing?

(By the way, I did one factory reset a couple of years ago just to see what happened. I have not done one since.)

The files you have in the Archive folder are tracks, not favorites. They are safe to delete but if you want to back them up for some reason you may do so.

Thet are sequentially numbered so gpx.1 will be the oldest. I don't know why 20.gpx to 30.gpx are missing, they may have been deleting at some point.

You may want to give this site a look for more information.

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

muell9k, thank you for your prompt response and help with understanding the source of the archived .gpx files on my unit.

Following the instructions on the link you provided, I took a look at the tracks, saw no reason to keep them on the unit (but did back them up to the computer in case I change my mind!), and then deleted them from the unit.

I don't plan on doing a factory reset at this time and am hoping no need to do so arises any time soon.

Glad I could help.
I doubt you'll ever need those archived files but always wise to backup anything before deleting.

At least you freed up some memory and know what the files are.

What exactly happens when you reset to factory specs? Also, what is kept and lost when doing so?

The main thing that happens is it clears everything out to a state where the unit is the same as when you took it out of the box. It will also go through the initial set-up process (country, lanquage, etc). What many of us suspect also happens is a lot of accumulated glitches get cleaned out when you perform a re-set. Things just "seem" to run better...especially after a firmware upgrade.

[ahem] Except mine doesn't exactly act this way: Can anyone explain why I never lose my saved addresses when I do a re-set? I'll get all the international Garmin ones back (like I'm planning a drive to Taiwan), but I never lose my saved ones or the POI's from here. (I kind of like it and can't see myself actually "fixing" it, even if I learn the reason.

Thank you.

765T acted up twice since I've owned it, haven't had a problem since.

as in not ever

now I gotta try it.

if a GPS has "locked up."

One nice thing about doing a factory re-set is you get to try out a different country if you want. Most folks would probably pick their home country for the first-time set up, but it's fun to try out other countries. The last time I did it, I think I picked Germany or maybe Australia, and some additional options appear in the set up. You get a few more choices on the map themes and colors, POI alarms, and you also get the option of picking what traffic provider you want to use. (If you have more than one installed.) The only thing that stands out when you pick a non-U.S. location is the "Speed Limit" icon... you get the Euro-type round symbol. There's probably other less obvious changes as well. You will have to set the language and voices to English, but it's kind of fun to go through the menus that are now in German, French or Spanish and figure it out!

Just for laughs, have some fun on your next family or business trip with co-workers and set the voice language to French, or even better, Japanese. Act like you understand the directions perfectly and really impress the kids or that know-it-all in the office!

Why Garmin doesn't include all these options when you pick "United States" is one of life's great mysteries!!!

As of this date, I have never done a factory reset on any of my the Garmin units.

I periodically copy the track files to my computer. Once, I noticed that the oldest files were missing and that file numbering had restarted at #1. I've assumed that some storage limit had been reached and that the gps, the firmware updater or the map updater had performed the action.

It's happened one time in the two-plus years I've used the unit.

Can't remember ever reseting

I have never reset my Garmin. No problems

After the factory reset and letting them both gaze at the stars ... okay that was my silly attempt at trying to be poetic about having them zero in on the satellite "constellation."

Anyhow, they seem to acquire the coordinates more quickly and accurately now. In hindsight, it may have a lot to do with the fact that I'm the only driver of the two cars, and there are days when one or the other of them don't acquire the GPS signal. I'm sure it doesn't help that they're both mounted on the center consoles, where they have steel roofs over their heads.

My only complaint now was that the 750 complained about a low battery after half an hour, and this was the one that I replaced the factory battery. That's another issue with plenty of workarounds.

Anyhow, thanks, guys.

I don't believe I've ever reset my 755. If mine was showing the behavior yours is, I'd be looking for outside interference of some sort.

-K

I never had to do a factory reset on any of the GPSr I've had in the past 6 years or so. But I'll keep that in mind for the future. Thanks

2 units I have/had havent done a reset on them

Exactly!

Yep, this is when I have done it. Very rarely

Now I backup my device using Garmin Express and then reset it. I had few routing issues with my 3597. I did the backup first and then reset it and then did restore. It is working very well after the reset.

I have 2 Nuvi's and have had them over 5 years and never have I had to reset them.

Only reset when unit has a problem not as a routine maintenance.

The reset mail cause other issues so why take the risk?

Never......... How?????????????

Does anyone know of a file that will allow you to copy, and transfer back that has all your settings in it?

Things like language, Trends, etc. that would restore your pre-reset settings to the device?

Does the .xml file do this?

AFAIK, GarminDevice.xml is an output file as far as the Garmin device is concerned. It is used as an input file for Garmin computer software (such as Garmin Express), but I don't think the GPS itself reads it.

It would be nice if there was a way to restore settings after a reset, but I don't think it is possible.

Haven't yet.

I received an older Garmin Nuvi from a friend who bought a newer/fancier model. I did a reset to clear out all the old data. Other than that, my other Garmin devices have never needed a reset.

Well, the reset didn't fix the compass calibration issue on my 78S but it did freak me out recently. I looked for a geocache and, no matter what I did, I just kept getting farther away from the thing. I knew approximately where it should be but the GPS said I was 1.2 miles away. Weird. I let it drive me to where it said the cache was and I got farther away. I went back to where I was pretty sure the thing was and it now said I was 2.4 miles away. WHAT THE HECK???

Suddenly I remembered I had done the reset and checked the data field. Yep, the data field on the compass screen was now reset to show me how far I had driven - not how far I was from the destination. D'Oh!

I reset the field to show the distance to my destination and it then said I was 8 feet from the geocache. I found it quickly after that.

The lesson here is, if you do a reset, remember to check ALL of your settings afterward.

As well as backing up your favorites, that is good advice to recheck all your tweaked settings, especially those units that you have to change the MTP settings.

I wish I knew if there was a file where these settings are stored so I can use the backed up file to restore all my tweaked settings. I believe it may be hidden in an inaccessible part of internal memory.

No I never reset the unit unless I have a problem. I did however see my wife's NUVI 760 look like it was riding in the middle of a field, and all I did was to turn it off and then back on and it was good to go.

I think my unit (looks like an iPhone, but can't remember the model)needs to be re-set because it freezes up once a day now.It's gotten so bad I want to throw it out the window, but the thought of spending another 400 bucks every 2 years keeps the highways clear!

But, I've never done one, but remember that holding the top right of the screen while booting might do it. If not how is it done.

I can get most of my Favs back when I sync using bluetooth, so thats not a problem.

I had a burp (reset itself) on my nuvi 1450 the other day and then when I went to my Favorites today I found about 40-50 extra Categories, some named with numbers and decimal points and others named from the Track names on the device. It would not let me delete the Categories so ... Master Reset. I copied the Current.gpx file before the reset, renamed it and sent it back after the reset. The strange Categories were back. So I opened the Current.gpx file with MapSource (which supports categories) saved the Waypoints to another name, master reset again and sent it the new file and the strange categories were gone.

Master Reset did fix the problem.

EDIT - The original problematic reset occurred while driving through mountains when the sat signals bouncing all around and my course kept recalculating.

So far haven't needed to perform a factory reset yet. I'm hoping I won't need to.

I haven't had to factory reset my Garmin 50LM after about a year of use with two firmware and two map updates. I would though if it needed it because it was acting weird. I had to do it once on my Garmin 360 that got five or so years of use but no map updates.

My 1490 (My third Garmin) was working fine until several days ago. We were traveling to St. Louis for basketball when just before entering the city there showed up on the screen "memory full". This baffled me for the unit still worked.This happened randomly as we entered the city.
The next morning before the next games, I checked out the Garmin and I had all kinds of free memory, on the unit and the micro card. I then eliminated all unnecessary files I still had on the unit but it was still showing memory full.
While pushing all items on the screen , I found out that I had 999 favorites. Looking at them I found that listed were many of my POI's from my micro disk (AZ Motels, Truck stops, plus many coordinates. I then deleted all favorites and then looked at the Garmin and the message disappeared.I then did a factory reset and cleared all other information and it worked greatfor the next several days. I did have GPS problems finding a restaurant north of downtown and while following instructions crossed the Mississippi into Illinois (twice) but I had also set up my dash GPS and it also sent me across the river. Both units showed me crossing the river where there was no bridge.
As I am writing this, I looked on the Garmin favorites and it is still reading files from my micro disk and making them favorites. I deleted them and will do more research when I get home.

I was advised by Garmin tech support that an alternative to doing a factory reset is to re-load the software which may become corrupted with many updates. I tried this when my 1350 LMT was having some issues and it solved my problem.

I didnt used to, but for the past 2 years, I do a reset after every map, and firmware update. I did a firmware update and I was beginning to think my GPS was becoming a paperweight. I did a reset, and it performed as goof as new after that.

What he said

I used to have to reset my devices once a day, but the new units seem to do better and I have to reset once a month or so.