Deleting Download Data

You can delete them if you wish, I often purge mine. Best tool to use is JaVaWa's GMTK program.

I'll delete them after my trip to Myrtle Beach. No rush now.

Also doing backup now and have added these files for backup.

Do you know if its GE thats leaving these?

GE leaves them so if you want to reload the maps, or have more than one device, the main map files don't need downloading twice. Having said that according to this

https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?345104-Installation...

GE is meant to purge them every year, so not sure why yours go back so far unless you used a different way of updating other than Express?

In hindsight, I think I used GE on 2015 and 2016, but I think I had trouble on 2016 and reverted to Mapupdater to get loaded. I used Mapupdater for 2017.10.

Now that I know, I'll make a point to purge.

Thanks again.

At times folks have issues installing a map update. I've always thought one potential update failure could be a corrupt download of some map installation file stored on a computer and that re-running Garmin Express to reinstall would keep failing because the same corrupt file would be used.

Is this a potential source of map update failures? If so, would deleting these files for the map version trying to be installed result in potential success due to the files needing to be re-downloaded? If so, this may be worthy of a FAQ here at The Factory. I'm pretty sure I've suggested doing this in the past for folks with map update failures, but I can never remember where to suggest looking for these files for them to delete. If FAQ-worthy, who should write it?

One last question. During a map update download, are downloaded files stored anywhere else, like Temporary Internet Files, a browser cache or something?

I would delete all but the 2017.10 if it was a successful install
I always keep the last good update incase something on the gps does get corrupt you know you have a good copy to reinstall .

Don't believe so, Garmin's advice when there is the possibility of a corrupt download is simply to delete the files in the relevant folder in C:/Program Data/Garmin/Core Services/Downloads/Map

I thought it was good idea to keep 2017.10. Nice to have some validation of that thought. Also backed up all three sets of files.

I recently noticed the same & thanks to Bennor3814 who gave me the path to these folders so that I could do some house cleaning

I'm sure that many others are encountering the same and believe that a FAQ concerning this would certainly be beneficial to the community.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/45648?page=2#comment-418223

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/45648?page=2#comment-418444

Actually, they are stored in a temp directory. I did a CCleaner wipe, and it wiped the temp files as well.

Which temp directory was that?

Darn it. It sounds like we don't have consensus on the facts so the FAQ will need to wait.

Not sure what you need consensus on, but I can confirm that after you've installed your maps to your device(s) and Basecamp, you can absolutely delete the files from C:\ProgramData\GARMIN\CoreService\Downloads and reclaim gigabytes of UNNECESSARY wasted disk space.

Your installed Basecamp maps should wind up in C:\ProgramData\Garmin\Maps unless you've put them someplace else in which case you'll find shortcuts to the actual map folders there instead.

I was unable to install the last 2 map updates until I purged all of these files.

I'm using Win 10 and also found unneeded map install files in:
C:\Users\(your name here!)\AppData\Local\Garmin\CoreService
C:\Users\(your name here!)\AppData\Roaming\Garmin\CoreService
C:\Users\(your name here!)\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\ProgramData\Garmin\CoreService

All of these folders are normally hidden so you need to make sure you've got "view hidden files/folders" turned on. There is a good article on the AppData\Local\VirtualStore folder & subfolders here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2325762,00.asp

Basecamp maps are in a totally different subdirectory. Does GE also load the map to the Basecamp sub? Or do we have to use Map Updater?

I would question the logic of this, if it was any company other than Garmin.

My concern is not the freeing up of hard disk space but rather where all the downloaded files are in case one or more is corrupt and it causes a map update failure. If this is happening, all the downloaded files may need to be deleted so that they can (hopefully) be re-downloaded properly resulting in a successful map update. If some of the downloaded files are in a browser chase or Temporary file or whatever, it seem we need to know this.

Thanks. Deleted old maps. No extra locations were found.

dobs108

The places I listed are where they are stored. Same info is in the first link canuk posted, except for the users\xxx\AppData folders I added for those users running newer Windows machines.

And, as I mentioned BaseCamp maps (or their links) are in C:\ProgramData\Garmin\Maps. These maps can be moved if you add a shortcut link to them in this folder.

In my case map install failed due to lack of free space plus one corrupted download & extraction due to same.

When GE informs you of "xx gb" of disk space needed for an install, you need TWICE that because once downloaded, it gets uncompressed to install. If there isn't quite enough space the extract screws up and the install fails with no reason given. Been there, done that. Twice.

Not to mention that 10 or more gb of wasted space for every map install isn't trivial if you only have a 64 gb storage card in a tablet or hybrid PC.

Not sure which one Garmin uses when updating maps. But, if you clean the computer before you update a second device, the entire thing will need to be downloaded again.

Assuming you don't do a clean then it's as discussed above. I've certainly never bothered to look at any files that may be in a temp directory during an update process for anything. It's what is left behind permanently that is the issue.

Yes, it would then be as above.

Figured I might save folks some frustration, time, and bandwidth by relaying that info.