Why can't my Garmin Nuvi 50 find most places in NY?

You have checked your setting to make sure the map version you downloaded has a check mark in it correct? If yes are you following the
instructins posted by Garmin https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?...?

Post a example for a location not showing up on your device. One of the members may try the search and post the results.

The nuvi 50 has about 1.76GB of storage:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/34375

and may not have sufficient storage for the entire Lower 48 states which is the map offered on the 50.

The questions then become:

-when you updated your map, were you offered and did you accept installing the full map to a SD card?

-when updating your map, did you select a 'less than Lower 48 states' map? If so, a map may have been chosen without New York.

If you can search and find places in NC but not NY, then I think a map update less than The Lower 48 States was chosen and the chosen map is missing New York. If no places in the USA can be searched and found, then it may just be that your newly updated map is not checked in the nuvi's myMaps page.

When you go to your nuvi's myMaps page, tell us exactly what map you have available, and as already stated, make sure it's checked. Once we know what map or map segment was installed to your nuvi 50, we'll have more advice if needed. If it turns out that you selected a Less Than Lower 48 States map, the easiest fix is to buy and install a 8GB SD card into the nuvi, then reinstall the current map update, making sure to select the optional Install Full Map to SD Card option at the start of the map update with Garmin Express.

Good luck and welcome to The Factory.

Once you verify the check marks and map version that will tell the story. Looking at possibility something went wrong on the map update. Want to verify you indeed do have the map selection you made. By the way what was your map selection?

Welcome to the POI Factory forum. Check around on the site. Lots of info in the FAQ and lots of custom pois to add to your GPS.

When I updated nothing was said about an SD card and I wasn't asked what map I wanted. I assumed it was going to be the lower 48. The version is 2017.1 I will get an 8 GB SD card and try again. Thanks !

If you're still having issues give us a few examples as requested above, I'd be surprised if Towns were missing. Also note you may need to ensure the correct state is selected, depends how you're looking for locations.

Before buying the SD card or reinstalling the map, do this and report back:

When you go to your nuvi's myMaps page, tell us exactly what map you have available, and as already stated, make sure it's checked. The map version may be City Navigator NA 2017.10 Lower 48 States...or it may be something like City Navigator NA 2017.10 with one of the following regions selected:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/42542

You are right. If your nuvi 50 had sufficient space to install all of the Lower 48 states, you wouldn't have been notified of the SD card option or a smaller map update option and if you do have the Lower 48 States installed now, we need to look elsewhere for your NY state city search failure. Can we assume you can succeed in a search for cities in North Carolina or say, Florida, and that your failures are always in New York? When doing a search from your home in NC for a city in NY like Buffalo, do you tap WhereTo/Cities/'MagnifyingGlass'/Buffalo which is what works for my nuvi 2460; or for my nuvi 855, tap WhereTo/Cities/ChangeStateOrProvince/NewYork/SpellCity/Buffalo? (I'm not sure which method your nuvi 50 uses. If Cities isn't offered after tapping WhereTo, you may need to tap the Down Arrow. Just tryin' to cover all the bases for you...) If I do that from here in Arizona with my nuvi 2460, Buffalo NY is offered to me along with a city named Buffalo in several other states and I can select any.

Even with the lower 48 states you should still be able to find the location for the state you selected. Just refer to the link
https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?... and follow the instructions on finding a location outside the area you are at. Report back after you try a few selections with the instructions provided in the link. If you find one or several that you have problems with post them here to see if we are also unable to find them.

Info on the SD card. Looking at your model under "In the box" It refers to coming with one of the preloaded maps https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/on-the-road/automotive/previ... .Then looking under "maps" it lists maps for new regions that are avaiable. May be wrong but if unit came with lower 48 a new cost may be involved.