Nuvi won't show purple active route

Start with the device turned off and unplugged from power
To verify the device is powered off and not in standby mode, press and hold down the power button until prompted to turn off the device
Power on the device
When the first copyright screen appears press and hold the lower right hand corner of the display portion of the touchscreen
Remove your finger from the touchscreen when "Erase all user data?" appears
Touch Yes
If text language is not in English, this is the button on the right
Another option to perform a master reset for these devices:
Touch View Map
Touch the Speed icon
Touch and hold the speedometer for approximately 5 seconds
Release your touch when the Diagnostics Page displays
Touch Clear all user data
Touch Yes when prompted to "Erase all user data?"
The device will now be reset. Follow the on-screen prompts then place the device in an area with a clear view of the sky until it acquires satellites.
Although the master reset will erase all saved favorites, any loaded custom points of interest will remain intact on the device.

Just a word of caution:

- note that erasing all user data will erase all of your saved favorites/saved places so if you want to keep them it's important to save a copy of them before you perform the procedures noted in phranc's post. If you have access to Garmin Express, that program provides an easy way to save your favorites prior to doing the reset.

I agree with all of phranc's advice.

But first, given that you flew from Atlanta to Fort L, and assuming the nuvi was off or sleeping leaving a large gap of geography, I'd first give the nuvi a solid chance to figure out where it is. From an off state, turn on the nuvi and leave it stationary for 5-10 minutes with a clear view of the sky to realize it's in Florida and not where it was last used. I've read here of similar issues when folks from the Lower 48 or AK fly to Hawaii and report that the GPS doesn't work in Hawaii.

What does the Satellite page info state regarding satellites seen and accuracy?

Some of your results indicate a different issue and if that's the case, phranc may have helped you. But a 5-10 stationary startup to give the nuvi a chance to figure out where it is could avoid the need to erase and reset the GPS. Wait, I've just done a bit of Googling and a 15-20 minute stationary startup may be needed.

Here's an old but still valid explanation:

http://gpsinformation.net/main/almanac.txt

If the GPS has moved more than a few hundred miles or accurate
time is lost, the Almanac data will be invalid and if you are
far enough off, none of the SVs that the Almanac thinks should
be overhead will be there. In such case, the GPS will have to
"sky search" or be reinitialized so it can download a new Almanac
and start over.

haven't had the chance to check it out yet. The funny thing is, the GPS knows where we are, it's just that the car won't lock on to a road.
I have taken this nuvi even to Iceland and it worked just fine. The GPS part of the nuvi seems to be working, it's the behavior of the unit as a navigation device that is acting all wonky. I was trying to avoid doing a master reset, but I may have to do it. I'll have to see later on today maybe?

Just to confirm the map:

Is your City Navigator NA map checked and is the map for all of North America (meaning Florida is part of the map)? If the map's not selected or if the map is a partial map, maybe Florida is not there for you. Depending on your use of a SD card or not, and what you've previously removed from the device, the 3597 is currently close to running out of room internally for a map. If the map is not active or if the map is for a subset of North America missing Florida, you will have routing problems in FL.

... given that you say you have a satellite lock what you also say indicates you don't have the relevant map loaded and it's using just the basemap.

The entire City Navigator NA map has been unable to fit on the 3597 for at least the last four map updates. If Narvik has not installed an SD card and allowed Garmin Express to update the map, then a partial map must have been installed. Florida could be missing.

It is possible the GPS never got a good position after the airplane ride. It is difficult to do this when the car is moving. Like Craig says, put it outside at a fixed location with a clear view of the sky for 10 minutes or longer. If you still can't view the map after that, the Florida map is missing.

dobs108

The full NA map still fits on my 3597LMTHD in internal memory with no SD card and I still have 253 MB of free space. I have removed all non English voice, text and help files. I have also cleared out all the saved trip log files in folder /GPX/Archive.

I also still have (barely just enough) room on my 3597 for all of North America and I've only removed the foreign language voices in spite of adding all seven English language TTS3 voices plus the non-TTS voices and also added a supplemental National Forest MVUM map.

But as we all report, the 3597 is just on one side or the other of having sufficient space to install all of North America, and given Narvick's findings, we do need to know if Florida is part of the installed map from its most recent map update. On the other hand, given that Narvick lives in NC, it's doubtful that at the last map update a partial map excluding Florida would have been chosen when the SD card warning popup arose given so many better choices for a resident of NC:

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

If a 3597 owner has space issues resulting in the inability to install all of North America, we may need to refer to other threads discussing ghost files in the problem 3597s. Ghost files can be slightly more likely to be a problem if the owner of a 3597 has ever used the "clone" map update procedure and not exactly followed the instructions and also if the 3597 owner has ever used GarminMapUpdater rather than Garmin Express to perform a past map update:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/44415

And you thought you were on a relaxing vacation, Narvick.

I removed nothing. It has all the original files.

I still haven't been able to check the GPS, but I will say this: The map itself is fine, it is not the basemap. For the record, I have an SD card in the unit as well and have plenty of space.
The full map displays and the GPS knows where I am. The problem is, the nuvi is not locking on to the road I'm traveling on (and therefore, not displaying the road name or the speed limit). Additionally, when putting in an active route, it doesn't give me directions as though I were on the road. You know how when you are not locked on in a parking lot or something and it simply says "continue to Elm St"? That's what it's doing all the time. The purple line is not showing either, but the thick white arrows that *show* where to turn are there.

The traffic shows fine as well through Garmin Smartphone link.
It's bizarre, I've never seen this before.

You may not want to but a master reset is probably required. If that doesn't resolve it I suspect the unit may be faulty.

Narvick, are you the guy who made the custom theme? (It's great, BTW!) Have you tried using the default theme, just to eliminate that possibility?

Used Narwick's theme since 2014 on the 3597 and now on the DriveLuxe 50 and still like it better than anyone I've ever seen from Garmin. I haven't seen any issues like he's currently having with the display but you never know.

I made my own theme. My active route is blue.

Ah, since you flew to FL, I assume you have a rental vehicle. Is it possible that the rental has a windshield with an embedded antenna, defroster, or some other wiring that's affecting the satellite fix? (Your Icelandic rental probably had a clear windshield! )

What does your Satellite page indicate its Accuracy is?

PS: Are there images anywhere of this Narvick Theme everyone is talking about? Where can I get it? I don't see it offered at The Factory but then I may not know where to look.

What is the "Narvick theme"?
Am I right to assume it replaces the purple color of a route?

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/40354

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/40296

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/37431

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/44699

It doesn't replace the purple color of the route. See:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/37431

Thanks, I never understood what this stood for though I'd seen it in my Garmins.

I was worried that getting and installing the Narvick theme would be tough after going through all the suggested threads but it was just a little copy and pasting. It looks good. Melaqueman, it's worth a try.

I plan to give it a good workout and will likely keep it rather than my only other nuvi theme, the default Garmin one.

b4 I did an MR I would go thru and check each one of the setting to make sure they were not somehow erroneously changed.

Thank you! I had no idea anyone ever even bothered with the theme I made. I didn't think I could even upload it here to the factory since it's not a POI file. If I'm able to, I'll be happy to upload it. I made a version of it that I think works better on the 3597 compared to the 37xx series, but I don't know if I shared that one yet.

Anyway, the bad news is that I tried a master reset and it still doesn't work! The Default theme is now what I have displayed instead of my theme.

Upon further use, I can see this is a bizarre situation. When I get back home, I may need to reupdate my maps?
To be clear, the GPS knows where I am so there isn't an issue with satellites or anything like that. The problem is that I can *see* the map, but my position never *interacts* with the map. It doesn't lock on to the road I'm on, even though it's right there. No speed limits, street names, or active street. Also, when I do an active route, route doesn't show. (to make matters even weirder, I found it actually *Does* show, but the layer it's displaying in is under all other layers except the base map layer. Meaning, the purple route gets hidden under the roads, "city limits", etc. I can only see it outside of an urban area, and even then it is under the road instead of on top of it.)

If re-updating the maps won't work, I don't know what to do.

Narvick, good to hear from you!

Before your Florida trip, did you update the map? I try to update the GPS and load POIs weeks in advance of a trip to avoid problems.

It is possible that the map update did not complete. When you get home, run Garmin Express and reinstall the map.

dobs108

I updated them the day that 2018.20 came out, so it's been awhile. There have been no issues so far in NC, GA and TN. I think that's all I've been to on this map update. I'll be interested to see if it works again after we land back in Atlanta.

Never heard of that before. Do you have any other maps loaded? As you say, will be interesting to see what happens when you get home.

Yes indeed, we want to know what comes of this as we've exhausted all typical and many atypical potential causes. It's also clear that Narvick is an experienced Garmin owner.

If things go back to normal as soon as narvick returns home, that could only add to the confusion. Resolution after a full map reinstallation makes more sense to me if the last map update was flawed somehow.

In any event, Narvick, be sure to get outa town before Irma arrives in Florida, and even then, hope Irma doesn't hit North Carolina.

I've downloaded and installed the file. No problem with it. Thanks for the effort and sharing it.

I should not even suggest anything since most people here are far more experienced than I am.

Is it possible that somehow accidentally a file was damaged or maybe even deleted while Narvick was doing his thing? Thus causing the unusual route under road.
Maybe compare the older files? I'm sure that Narvick would have the Garmin backed up, as we all should do, before the Map download.

We may be leaving early because of Irma :/ We are currently in Palm Beach Shores, but our flight leaves out of Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday. That might be too risky.

Anyway, I actually do have other map files for the Caribbean and Iceland still loaded on my SD card and still active. I unchecked them after the master reset just in case. I haven't tested it on the road since then.

Wonder if the Caribbean map has coverage over Florida ... if so that could indeed be the issue. Try a route in simulation mode now you've deselected that map.

Safe travel back home. Leave early sounds like an excellent strategy.

This may be a long post so I'm going to divide it into sections.

1.)

*ding ding ding* we have a winner! This was the issue!
Apparently the OSM Caribbean map was causing some sort of overlay problem. This map contained no roads in Florida, but once I disabled it THEN did it a hard reset (power off/on), everything worked fine!
My theory is that even though there were no roads included on the Caribbean map, the *extent* of the map may have included a slice of Florida where I was even if it was just land. For whatever reason, when I was in Florida, the satellite position on the GPS (the car) would only interact with the Caribbean map with no data in the area. So it would know my position, but that's it. However, I could *see* the Garmin map, but the GPS wasn't interacting with it because the car was only interacting with the Caribbean map. This would also explain why the purple active route was only showing *under* the roads and urban areas...I guess it was getting confused and using the data from the Garmin map to route, but was displaying the route on the Caribbean map's layer.
I don't believe a factory reset was necessary to fix this issue.

2) I want to thank you all very much for helping me solve this problem. We were forced to evacuate from Irma from Palm Beach on Thursday with little warning. The Garmin being fixed and working helped *tremendously* and I can't tell you how important it was in the evacuation process. Not only were the distances and directions now working, but I could use the traffic again. With the GPS not working originally, it would display traffic on the roads as it was there, but since the GPS was not interacting with the Garmin map correctly, it wouldn't try to reroute or let me know traffic up ahead. We used the Garmin Live traffic and Smartphone Link to bypass as much traffic as we could. We evacuated from Palm Beach to Orlando on Thursday, then had to get another rental car in Orlando to drive to Athens, GA (this would normally be about 8 hours and change, but it took us 15 hours!). Today, we had to go from Athens to Atlanta and pick up our car (we had flown down originally) and drove back up home to North Carolina. What an adventurous 5 year anniversary trip! So anyway, that whole ordeal would have been made worse if the GPS wasn't working properly, so my wife and I thank everyone for their efforts in helping to fix it!

3) Again, I didn't know anyone even bothered with my custom theme I made. I made the theme to differentiate colors and features a bit better for both day and night and also make streets easier to see. I believe the theme edits some characteristics that none of the built in Garmin themes alter from theme to theme such as color of railroads, dirt roads, and trails, etc. and also changing the size and border width of roads. Am I allowed to upload this theme to the Factory? I didn't think I could since it wasn't a POI (despite this being POI factory, believe it or not I do not use POI files! I just like this community and am a GPS enthusiast!). Which section would I upload it to if I am allowed to?

Thank you everyone!

Thanks to sussamb for coming up with the idea that two maps must be active!

We are glad you were able to drive out using the fixed nuvi!

dobs108

Thanks for the report, Narvick. As my mother would say, you've made some memories this past week.

It was great your nuvi issue was resolved. When you talked of layers with a route in a lower layer, then hearing of overlapping maps in use (in Florida but no overlap in North Carolina), I was hoping sussamb's thoughts could cure your device instantly.

Regarding your theme, I am still trying it out. It was a shock to me (green interstates, etc.) to see such a change from the Garmin theme, so I wasn't sure I'd keep using it, but now that the shock is over, I've continued to use it for the time being and give it a good chance as being my theme of choice. Thanks. I agree it'd be nice to have it available to download from The Factory, maybe with the download included in a FAQ.

Sounds like a song?

Now does anyone know a way of changing the theme on an ancient 855?

I cannot see anything theme related in any settings nor using Windows Explorer checking files in the 855. I still use my 855 in my car since it is easier to work with than the VW Nav unit in my car. For real long trips I use my 2797.

It's based off the Italia theme. That's what I liked the best until I decided to make changes.

Themes started a lot later than for our old nuvi 8xx models:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/43193