Custom POI category sort order

 

I think something was broken on a recent update. For many years I have accumulated my POI files into folders within a single folder for which I point POI Loader to. Within POI Files is one level of subfolders labeled as Campgrounds, Fuel, Parks, Restaurants, etc. All of the campground .csv or .gpx files are within Campgrounds; Flying-J, Loves, etc. in Fuels, etc. This worked on my Street Pilot and then later on the nüvi 750 and then the nüvi 3597.

When I selected Custom POI on the Garmin, I was presented a list that started with All Categories followed by the groups (Campgrounds, Fuel, etc.) in alphabetic order.

Since a recent update, I've just noticed that there is no longer any order to these groups.

I have run POI Loader to remove all from the nüvi and verified that all the folders are listed in alphabetic order within the POI Files folder and then reinstalled via POI Loader, but the groups remain in some haphazard order.

Any thoughts, suggestions?

--
"There's no substitute for local knowledge" nüvi 750, nüvi 3597

Sort order?

I've also looked at the creation dates of the folders as well as the size of the contents of each, and those factors do not seem to have any effect on the order the categories now appear under Custom POI.

--
"There's no substitute for local knowledge" nüvi 750, nüvi 3597

Nothing has changed. Garmin

Nothing has changed. Garmin has always loaded POIs, and favorites in distance order with the limit being 50 items.

--
Frank DriveSmart55 37.322760, -79.511267

Categories.

I think he is talking about the order of the Category headings phranc, not the individual POI's within a category. I just checked on my 3597 and my 755. The category headings under Custom POI's are listed in alphabetic order (I only have 4 categories though). I am not sure what is going on with TXRVer. Have you tried a master reset?

--
Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Same thing here

alandb wrote:

I think he is talking about the order of the Category headings phranc, not the individual POI's within a category. I just checked on my 3597 and my 755. The category headings under Custom POI's are listed in alphabetic order (I only have 4 categories though). I am not sure what is going on with TXRVer. Have you tried a master reset?

I've got a 1450 with about a dozen discrete categories and they remain in alphabetical order.

Phil

--
"No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse."

Talking about change

A few months ago it was an update for my Garmin 1450 traffic update, notice that before the update the traffic icon always show up as soon as I connect the cable..But since the update the traffic icon sometimes it take longer to show up and sometimes does not show up it all..does anyone have the same problem traffic icon not showing up quickly ?

I wish I would had done a traffic backup before doing the update.

Subdirectories

Are you talking about folders or subdirectories on your GPS or SD card, or on your computer. If it's on your GPS or SD card, this may be useful.

I have both a NUVI 350 and a NUVI 2555LMT, and in both cases, the NUVI display subfolders in their creation order, and then they alphabetize the POIs within each subfolder.

I created subfolders, in the following Date/Time order "Vacation", "Hotels" and "Family & Friends". i.e. Make Vacation, 5 or 10 seconds later, you've created Hotels, etc. etc. etc.

I then load the custom POIs to each subfolder. It does not matter if I load the Hotel POIs first and the Vacation POIs last.

When I view the POIs, the first set of POIs that I now see are the Vacation POIs, then the Hotel POIs and Family & Friends POIs, because that was the Date/Time order that the subfolders were created. The POIs within each subfolder are shown in Alphabetic order.

e.g. Branson Trip, Myrtle Beach Trip, Court Hotels, Holiday Inns, etc.

POIs for things like Rest Areas and Red Lights are strictly used with proximity alerts. You are extremely unlikely to do a look up on these. Subdirectories for these categories are created after all other subdirectories.

--
DriveSmart 65, NUVI2555LMT, (NUVI350 is Now Retired)

Good point!

Good point GPSgeek. In my case, I have only one .GPI file, and I point to the top level containing folder on the computer when I run POI Loader. So my my POI categories are derived from the subfolders on the computer. My categories are then listed in alphabetical order on the nuvi.

--
Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

What I do

What I have is a single "POI" folder on the computer, which contains all my *.csv and *.gpx files. I then rename to
"aaa RestAreasCombined_USA.csv",
"aab Truck_Stops.gpx", and
"aac Campgrounds and RV Parks Combined.csv"

So far, with all files in a single folder, custom POIs are listed in alpha order with those three at the top of the list for quick access.

Perhaps having yours in separate folders is the cause of the "scramble".

--
Garmin Drivesmart 61, Nuvi 52, Nuvi 1390

Yes, category order

I understand that the POI shown are the 50 or so closest to my location. But this is the category order under Custom POI. I tried to show the file structure in my original post but the indented outline format got shoved to the left margin so I gave up on that.

My files are grouped into individual folders on the PC. In the past, POI Loader has scooped all of these up and then presented the categories in alphabetic order when I selected Custom POI on the Garmin. As of my latest POI Loader run, these categories are now in no particular order. I did look at folder creation dates thinking that maybe POI Loader no longer was looking at the folder name but something else and they are not in creation date or folder size order either.

I'll try the master reset and see if that helps. Thanks for the reminder to try that.

Edit: After removing the custom poi, performing a master reset, and then rerunning POI Loader to install them, there was no change in the category order. It was worth a try.

--
"There's no substitute for local knowledge" nüvi 750, nüvi 3597

Just to be clear ...

You are looking only at the categories under the "Custom POI" section, and not the categories for Favorites or Saved Places? That is one of the things I found confusing about the 3597, with the "Custom POI" section being so far down the list when you select "Categories" on the menu.

--
Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Takes some work

alandb wrote:

Good point GPSgeek. In my case, I have only one .GPI file, and I point to the top level containing folder on the computer when I run POI Loader. So my my POI categories are derived from the subfolders on the computer. My categories are then listed in alphabetical order on the nuvi.

It takes a bit of work and forethought to set up subdirectories, in a good order.

I have a few more subdirectories, that I didn't mention, but the choice is yours. Don't get carried away with too many, but make enough.

I use Vacation and Hotels, etc. only when I go on a trip. Vacation holds a POI file that I create with EPE to make waypoints to force the GPS to route the way I want. I make one file for the trip south and one for the trip back north, so that the waypoints are on the correct side if the highway.

I want these files right at the top, so there easy to find when you're on vacation. When the vacation is done, I delete the gpi file, "Vacation.gpi", but leave the subdirectory as is.

That removes unnecessary clutter, on the GPS.

--
DriveSmart 65, NUVI2555LMT, (NUVI350 is Now Retired)

Just To Be Clear...

Yes alandb, this is categories within Custom POI and not Favorites or Saved Places. You mentioned that Custom POI is "so far down". Maybe you are unaware that the icons can be rearranged on the screen on the 3597. Touch and hold the desired icon until the colored background disappears and then drag it to the desired position and release.

--
"There's no substitute for local knowledge" nüvi 750, nüvi 3597

Yes,

Yes, I was aware of that. My comment about "far down the list" referred to when you select "Categories" in the Where To menu. That said, the order of the custom POI categories on my 3597 is the same (alphabetical) whether I look at this list or the Custom POI shortcut.

--
Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Category Order

TXRVer wrote:

I think something was broken on a recent update. For many years I have accumulated my POI files into folders within a single folder for which I point POI Loader to. Within POI Files is one level of subfolders labeled as Campgrounds, Fuel, Parks, Restaurants, etc. All of the campground .csv or .gpx files are within Campgrounds; Flying-J, Loves, etc. in Fuels, etc. This worked on my Street Pilot and then later on the nüvi 750 and then the nüvi 3597.

When I selected Custom POI on the Garmin, I was presented a list that started with All Categories followed by the groups (Campgrounds, Fuel, etc.) in alphabetic order.

Since a recent update, I've just noticed that there is no longer any order to these groups.

I have run POI Loader to remove all from the nüvi and verified that all the folders are listed in alphabetic order within the POI Files folder and then reinstalled via POI Loader, but the groups remain in some haphazard order.

Any thoughts, suggestions?

@TXRVer,
please look at
http://www.poi-factory.com/garmin/problemsolver#categories

It may give you some ideas as to what may be going on.

The first suggestion I have is to attach the device to your computer and then do a search on the "device" directory for .gpi files. If you find more than one (the one you say you reloaded), then POILoader did not completely remove all of them and any with time stamps earlier than your last POILoader run will appear first.

Thank you jgermann

I hadn't considered multiple .gpi files and I just now saw this post and explored for any others and found no additional ones on the 3597 or the inserted SD card. I reviewed the info on the suggested link and found that this is how I have been doing it all along so nothing there. I dusted off my old nüvi 750 and ran POI Loader on it and now the categories are no longer in alphabetic order on it either. I'm becoming convinced that something has changed, but since POI Loader hasn't in several years, it may be something I'm doing that I'm not seeing.

--
"There's no substitute for local knowledge" nüvi 750, nüvi 3597

I found the cause

and I found a workaround.

I run POI Loader on a Mac. I recently updated to MacOS 10.13 High Sierra which changed the file structure on the Mac to APFS. I don't understand the interaction with this and POI Loader, but to try to figure out what is going on, I synced my POI File folder to a NTFS partition running Windows 7 and then ran the Windows version of POI Loader from it and the subfolders are now back into alphabetic order on both the 3597 and the 750.

I can see Apple saying that Garmin has the problem, but Garmin is going to say Apple broke it.

--
"There's no substitute for local knowledge" nüvi 750, nüvi 3597

I run Mac, also. I'll ave to

I run Mac, also. I'll have to take a look.

--
Frank DriveSmart55 37.322760, -79.511267