GE leaving excess files

 

After installing 2021.10 with GE I noticed my hard drive was getting quite full.
I uninstalled 2020.30 and noticed only 4g of gained space. Further search found that C:ProgramDataGarminCoreServiceDownloadsMap had folders for 2020.30 and 2021.10. Those 2 folders had 14.4g of files in them. I never select the option to keep files on my computer and it seems GE leaves a large number of files in C:ProgramDataGarminCoreServiceDownloads.

This maybe of value to those finding storage space reductions.

I haven't had any functional issues with deleting all files in C:ProgramDataGarminCoreServiceDownloads.

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DriveLuxe 51, 2017 VW Arteon w MIB3, nüvi 3597LTMHD x 2, 1450 died, 205w retired, iQue first and possibly the best

Excess File Storage

Great catch. The app Treesize reports that C:/ProgramData/Garmin directory size is 96 GB. Looks like everything I've every downloaded from Garmin (8 map updates, 33 GE updates) is stored there. I'm pulling the plug on most if it. Thanks for the update.

Leave

FWIW
The maps and logs folders need to stay.

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DriveLuxe 51, 2017 VW Arteon w MIB3, nüvi 3597LTMHD x 2, 1450 died, 205w retired, iQue first and possibly the best

Disagree

Reading this I looked at my C:/ drive and yes there are 55 GB of files. But this includes 2018.3, 2019.11, 2019.20, 2020.10, 2020.20and 2021.10

I am pretty sure that those can be deleted, just leave 2020.20 and 2021.10 on the drive.

Looking at my second Laptop there are only the 2020.20 and 2021.10 on the harddrive.

That would remove 25.5 GB

Anyone more knowledgeable than myself care to comment?

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Nuvi 2797LMT, DriveSmart 50 LMT-HD, Using Windows 10. DashCam A108C with GPS.

Maps removed

Follow up.
I removed all but 2020.20 and 2021.10. Then opened up MapSource and all is well.
BTW: The files before I removed them did not show in Revo Uninstaller so I copied the names of the file and did a "Forced"removal, one at a time.

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Nuvi 2797LMT, DriveSmart 50 LMT-HD, Using Windows 10. DashCam A108C with GPS.

on mine I see a

on mine I see a Map_Map.NA.2030 as well as NA.2020
Should I leave last 2 or 3?

Total garmin folder size 55Gb GE V6.21.0.0 W7-64
GE Ran fine leaving 20.20 & 20.30 and 21.10

P.S. I see there is another time zone update!

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A 2689LMT in both our cars that we love... and a Nuvi 660 with Lifetime Maps that we have had literally forever.... And a 2011 Ford Escape with Nav System that is totally ignored!

A long drawn out topic

Several years ago some comments were submitted to Garmin but nothing seems to have been done. See https://forums.garmin.com/apps-software/mac-windows-software....

Also this was discussed in these forums about a year ago.

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John from PA

And ...

All the files in that folder can be deleted if you want, they aren't the files used by BaseCamp or MapSource. Express puts those files there in case you need to reinstall your map or have more than one device to update as those are the files it needs to create the map file for a device.

It would be good if Express prompted whether to delete those files after a map update, but it doesn't despite I suspect many requests to Garmin.

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Where there's a will ... there's a way ... DriveSmart51LMT-S, DriveSmart50LMT-D, Nuvi 2508LMT-D, 1490LMT, 1310, Montana 650T, Etrex 20

Just curios?

JanJ wrote:

on mine I see a Map_Map.NA.2030 as well as NA.2020!

How did you manage to get NA 2030?

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Nuvi 2797LMT, DriveSmart 50 LMT-HD, Using Windows 10. DashCam A108C with GPS.

Thanks

Deleted all my maps and got back 74 GB of hard drive space.

It's not a good idea

It's not a good idea to just delete map files manually. When you do that, you leave bogus entries in the Windows registry file. The more entries in the registry file, the slower Windows will be.

It's best to "Uninstall" the map first using "Start + Control Panel + Programs and Features".

Then locate "Garmin City_Navigator_North_America_NT_xxxx.xx" and select it.Then you can right click on it and select "Uninstall" or select "Uninstall" at the top of the list This will delete the map and associated files that were installed LOL. Just about all "uninstall" programs leave something behind.

If you get an error message, it will usually be about the missing ".msi" file. MS needs that file to uninstall the program (map) - no ".msi" file, no uninstall.

There will still be files left behind, but at least the Windows registry file will be cleaner.

Now you can use the Delete button all you want to, but do so carefully!

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Metricman DriveSmart 76 Williamsburg, VA

Careful

That's not what this thread is discussing. Control panel entries exist if you've chosen to install the map to your PC for BaseCamp to use, if you delete them there first you lose them from BaseCamp and second it doesn't delete the files mentioned above.

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Where there's a will ... there's a way ... DriveSmart51LMT-S, DriveSmart50LMT-D, Nuvi 2508LMT-D, 1490LMT, 1310, Montana 650T, Etrex 20

Map directories

sussamb wrote:

That's not what this thread is discussing. Control panel entries exist if you've chosen to install the map to your PC for BaseCamp to use, if you delete them there first you lose them from BaseCamp and second it doesn't delete the files mentioned above.

Do you mean to tell me that no other user here installs a map to their PC so they can install it to an older Garmin like my 660?

The discussion was about deleting "Garmin" map files in the C:/ProgramData/Garmin/Maps/ directory. The directory that my current map is installed on my PC is:
C:/ProgramData/Garmin/Maps/City_Navigator_North_America_NT_2021_10.gmap

This is a sub-directory that is EXACTLY where everyone has been deleting files. So if the users want to just delete everything - I won't stop them. But as a former program writer that learned from the beginning to Always use an uninstall program first, then clean up the missed files. Keeps you from having to muck around in the registry where you can do more serious damage.

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Metricman DriveSmart 76 Williamsburg, VA

Well

The OP was talking about the files here C:ProgramDataGarminCoreServiceDownloadsMap

They are not affected by using the uninstall in Control Panel, that removes the maps in the folder you mention, which are the maps used by BaseCamp. If you want to remove them as well then yes, use the uninstall program.

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Where there's a will ... there's a way ... DriveSmart51LMT-S, DriveSmart50LMT-D, Nuvi 2508LMT-D, 1490LMT, 1310, Montana 650T, Etrex 20

Well put

sussamb wrote:

The OP was talking about the files here C:ProgramDataGarminCoreServiceDownloadsMaps

They are not affected by using the uninstall in Control Panel, that removes the maps in the folder you mention, which are the maps used by BaseCamp. If you want to remove them as well then yes, use the uninstall program.

I was looking at files not touched by an uninstall in the Control Panel.

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DriveLuxe 51, 2017 VW Arteon w MIB3, nüvi 3597LTMHD x 2, 1450 died, 205w retired, iQue first and possibly the best

Working fine

I deleted every map in that folder and computer is working perfectly fine on Win 10.

What Is This?

Help me out. What is this?
C:ProgramDataGarminCoreServiceDownloads

There is no slash or backslash. I have no such thing as ProgramDataGarminCoreServiceDownloads on my C drive.

If a Windows PC

Sixeye wrote:

Help me out. What is this?
C:ProgramDataGarminCoreServiceDownloads

There is no slash or backslash. I have no such thing as ProgramDataGarminCoreServiceDownloads on my C drive.

If you have a Windows PC, look in this directory for the maps' installation files being discussed here:

C:\ProgramData\Garmin\CoreService\Downloads\Map

Note that if you quote this message in a reply, the reply will show no backslashes.

Windows PC

Thanks, got it now. The original post threw me by not having the back slashes.

That said, it sounds as though we have decided in this thread that using Explorer to delete the older map folders is okay.

I just stumbled across this

I just stumbled across this thread. It might have saved me from the last week of pulling my hair out, trying to install and clone a new SSD. That was more painful than I expected, but was necessary because I was almost out of space and couldn't figure out where the free space had gone. Now I know. At least I have much more free space now, which is always a good thing.