Nuvi 260w not reading Europe map from SD card

 

I recently purchased the City Navigator Europe NT map on a microSD/SD card (SanDisk 4GB microSDHC), but my nuvi 260w isn't reading the card. With the card inserted, when i go to tools-->settings-->maps-->info, the Europe map isn't listed as an option.

Initially I thought the SD card was corrupt, but when i connect my garmin to the computer, with the SD card inserted, the SD card shows up as an removable disk. There are 2 main folders: EULA contains the languages, and GARMIN contains 3 files: GMAPSUPP.GMA (3KB), GMAPSUPP.IMG (3,585,104KB), GMAPPSUPP.UNL (1KB). It's formatted as FAT32.

I updated to the latest firmware but my garmin's still not reading the SD card.

After searching the forums, I'm at a loss. Anyone have any tips?

.

Can Base Camp read the card, and display the maps?

--
nüvi 3790T | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable ~ JFK

nuvi 260 and Europe maps

This model cannot read a file that is bigger than 2 gig. It is why you cannot see the Europe map.

update - To test the SD

update - To test the SD card, I saved a jpeg to the card and I was able to view the photo on my Garmin (but still not the map). It appears the issue is not with the the device reading the card, but with recognizing the map file.

thanks for the quick reply.

andrep2182 wrote:

This model cannot read a file that is bigger than 2 gig. It is why you cannot see the Europe map.

thanks for the quick reply. that's frustrating - it's listed under Compatible Devices when i selected microSD/SD card, but I guess it's inaccurate? https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/maps/on-the-road-maps/city-n...

Are you sure?

andrep2182 wrote:

This model cannot read a file that is bigger than 2 gig. It is why you cannot see the Europe map.

The Garmin faq does not include the 260W as a model unable to read large files (copy and paste this link to your browser):

http://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?supportPage=nuvi%20310&caseId={b4b6e4a0-f1af-11df-ea12-000000000000}&locale=en_US

The 260W is listed as a compatible device for City Navigator Europe and the City Navigator Europe is listed as a compatible map for the 260W.

katsai, can you give us details of the map on SD that you bought? When you mention it being a SanDisk card, I fear that your map on SD card is not a Garmin-made and Garmin-sold map, but instead is a map created by someone for his or her nuvi and s/he sold you a copy. If true, it won't work on your device since maps installed or updated from another device are locked to that device and will not work on any other--including your 260W. All in all, we need more details on the origin and history of your map on SD--and if purchased from someone else and it's not a Garmin-made map on SD, then you are entitled to receive a refund from the seller. In any event, welcome to The Factory.

Additional info: 1) if the map on your SanDisk card was created from a map or map update for another device, it is locked to the original device and can only be opened in that device; 2) if the map on your SanDisk card was a copy from a genuine Garmin map-on-SD card, it's locked to the SD card's unique ID and will not work if copied to a different SD card.

you might be on to something

CraigW wrote:

katsai, can you give us details of the map on SD that you bought?

Thanks for the welcome smile So i purchased the card from a "Top Rated Plus" ebay seller with 99.8% positive feedback...prob too good to be true.
The listing said "This card is new/unused in original packaging (with license number)
Part Number : 010-10680-50
Latest Version 2015.10
UPC:753759066451"

It arrived in what appears to be actual sealed Garmin packaging, along with a Garmin microSD card booklet.

It may just be defective

katsai wrote:
CraigW wrote:

katsai, can you give us details of the map on SD that you bought?

Thanks for the welcome smile So i purchased the card from a "Top Rated Plus" ebay seller with 99.8% positive feedback...prob too good to be true.
The listing said "This card is new/unused in original packaging (with license number)
Part Number : 010-10680-50
Latest Version 2015.10
UPC:753759066451"

It arrived in what appears to be actual sealed Garmin packaging, along with a Garmin microSD card booklet.

You may just have a defective SD card. If it were me, I'd given the ebay Seller an email and request an exchange for another.

What you describes sounds very much like a genuine Garmin SD card offering. Given the Seller's feedback, and especially if they have sold these in the past, I'd given them the benefit of the doubt for now. eBay is a great source most of the time for steeply-discounted City Navigator maps on SD cards, since so often a North American family plans a one-time European vacation, buys and uses the Europe map-on-SD in their nuvi, then offers the used SD card on eBay after they return home. Your case is even better since it was a new sealed Garmin package.

If you know of anyone nearby with a nuvi, it'd be a great experiment to see if the card's map can be seen and used in another device. Earlier, juggernaut offered another great test for you to try.

You mention having updated to the latest 260W firmware. Did you use Garmin Express or WebUpdater? It would not hurt to reconfirm, maybe with both programs above, that your firmware is up to date. It may be that the current version is 4.10:

http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=3985

One last thought just to cover all the bases: is there a chance that when you looked at the settings>map>info and didn't see Europe, that maybe it was off the screen and you would need to tap the up or down arrow to be shown and be able to select the map on SD? Not likely, but it'd be wonderful if this was the whole problem wink

no luck...

thanks for such thorough replies!

i double-checked both Garmin Express and Webupdator, and both my software and firmware are up to date.

no nuvi's nearby unfortunately

BaseCamp recognizes the map from the SD card and I can view it.

double-checked and there's no option to scroll down under Map Info on the garmin..def not there

i'm starting to feel crazy since this card seems to be passing all the tests, but my device still won't show the map.

any chance you think it could be related to the file name on the card (in original post) eg folder location, extension, etc?

Map files

katsai wrote:

...any chance you think it could be related to the file name on the card (in original post) eg folder location, extension, etc?

You say the three map files are in the SD card's Garmin folder and that's where they should be.

The filename gmapsupp is correct since it's a supplemental map (your nuvi's internal North American map is gmapprom). Also, the .img is the map data, the .unl is the map's unlock file associated with the SD card's ID, and the .gma file is needed to authenticate the map. And if the item you received from ebay is a genuine Garmin map-on-SD, the files and folders will be correct.

Does you nuvi have any extra maps besides City Navigator? When you go to Tools>Settings>Map>Info, what choices are there now?

Was your last firmware update quite recent? I wonder if you need to fully power down the nuvi, then restart it, or do a hard reset of the nuvi for the firmware update to fully kick in. What firmware does your unit say it has (probably Tools>Settings>System>About)? When doing the firmware update, did you see the "update" screens when restarting after the update was transferred from your computer or Garmin's servers to your GPS? If you power down and restart, is the SD card in place--or did you install the SD card to an already-turned-on nuvi?

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/26136

Since Basecamp can view and use the European map, it's almost like your 260W is behaving like the older devices that can not utilize files greater than 2GB in size which could either be a nuvi that can't handle large files or a firmware version that's too old preventing the recognition of large files. If none of the above works, this may be the time to call Garmin Customer Service and describe your problem. I suggest calling rather than emailing.

After Checking Firmware & Hard Reset

It appears everything is correct with the map you bought. A true test would be to insert the card in another Nuvi but you say that's not possible.

I doubt this will work but no harm in trying.
Have the SD card in the Nuvi, got to the map info page and UNCHECK the North America map.
Shut down the Nuvi then start again. Now check the Map Info page and see if the Euro map is present.
If not, recheck the North America map and reboot.

BTW, your 260W CAN read a map over 2GB so that should not be the issue. Have a friend with a 265W that had a Euro map on SD and it recognized it.

--
Nuvi 2460LMT 2 Units

sofware/firmware

CraigW - the only map i have on the nuvi is the north america one it came with. i did a hard reset after updating the firmware yesterday through Garmin Express.
Under the nuvi's About tab, it says:
Software Version 7.60
GPS SW Version: 410b
Firmware version isn't listed

ive tried powering down and restarting both with and without the SD card inserted. and did another reset with the link you provided...still nothing.

Also tried muell9k's idea of unchecking/rechecking the maps, but that didnt work either.

Emailed garmin customer service yesterday but they just suggested my nuvi's sd drive was broken (not true because it can read jpegs from the card)and to just buy a replacement gps device. how convenient smile

i may try calling them tomorrow and see if that's more helpful. if not, i'm thinking of just returning the sd card and try renting a mifi mobile hotspot and use my iphone's google maps instead.

Thank you guys so much for all of this thorough advice! i really appreciate you taking the time to help me out. so glad i found this forum!

You've got one of the last

You've got one of the last 260W units. These units used the firmware of the 2x5 series, but had the features of the 2x0 series. The last software revision for the older units was 4.10, from last year if I recall.

So you should definitely be able to see the map. You cannot, so either the map itself is corrupt, or else there is an issue with either the .unl or .gma files, or both.

I'd return the card.

--
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." --Douglas Adams

Return The Card

Strephon_Alkhalikoi wrote:

You've got one of the last 260W units. These units used the firmware of the 2x5 series, but had the features of the 2x0 series. The last software revision for the older units was 4.10, from last year if I recall.

So you should definitely be able to see the map. You cannot, so either the map itself is corrupt, or else there is an issue with either the .unl or .gma files, or both.

I'd return the card.

I agree with the SD card being corrupt, however, I think the map itself may be corrupt. If only you were able to test it in another Nuvi that would answer the question.
If the gmapsupp.unl file is corrupt you should be receiving the message "can't unlock map".

Regarding the gmapsupp.gma file (Garmin Map Authentication) I'm stumped on that one.
I have the latest 2015.10 full North America installed on my 2460LMT. As an experiment I backed up the gmapprom.gma file then deleted it from the Nuvi. I rebooted and everything worked normally without the file being present.

I don't know if it's (gmapprom.gma) registered in the GarminDevice.xml file that it enables it to boot normally without the file present. Perhaps it doesn't record it when on an SD card, I just don’t know.

I would certainly contact the Ebay seller and explain the situation and have him\her send a replacement.

One other thing you can try is to bring the card to a BestBuy or other Electronics store and ask a salesperson if they could take one of their Garmin’s out of Demo mode and test your card in that unit to see if the map is recognized.

--
Nuvi 2460LMT 2 Units

Basecamp

muell9k wrote:

I agree with the SD card being corrupt, however, I think the map itself may be corrupt. If only you were able to test it in another Nuvi that would answer the question.
If the gmapsupp.unl file is corrupt you should be receiving the message "can't unlock map".

Regarding the gmapsupp.gma file (Garmin Map Authentication) I'm stumped on that one...

One other thing you can try is to bring the card to a BestBuy or other Electronics store and ask a salesperson if they could take one of their Garmin’s out of Demo mode and test your card in that unit to see if the map is recognized.

The OP reports that the European map on the SD card can be seen and used by BaseCamp so I'm leaning more to some unknown issue with the nuvi 260W.

I agree that taking the card to a store that has nuvis on display and hoping that they will allow the SD to be inserted, then fired up, would be great in understanding the problem. If the problem is with the 260W, then no Garmin Europe-on-SD card will work, while if it's the card, a replacement SD will work, so this is a question whose answer is needed for katsai sad

Regarding gma files, I found one forum topic on another site that stated that a missing, corrupt or incorrect unl file will issue a "Can't unlock map" while a similarly flawed gma file results in a "Can't authenticate map" message. I report this finding for what it's worth since I haven't confirmed it.