Garmin City Navigator 2023.20

I've updated my Garmin Drive 51 with City Navigator 2023.20 sometimes in July. Updated both the device and on my PC. Today when I was running Garmin Express it says there is New Map Upadate available and it is the same version City Navigator 2023.20. I did went into both my GPS and PC and confirmed that is the current version installed in my GPS. Wondering why Garmin Express prompt me to update the same version. Anyone exprerience this ?

Thanks

I have seen this situation on one or more of my Garmin devices in the past (not recently though) with Garmin Express indicating a map update when I am already up to date. I don't really know what causes it, but I have selected the "Update" option in Express to see what would happen and it just came back and said it was up to date without downloading or doing anything. Go figure! On my newer DriveLuxe device that has online update capability, I don't know that I have seen this problem, but if I ever do, I will probably tell it to update just to see what happens. My bet is that it will do nothing.

Thanks for posting.

I just had this happen on my nuvi 68, even tho' I updated to 2023.20 back in July.

GE was at ver 7.13 so I updated to 7.14 and same message. Selected "Update" and it is in fact doing the full update.

Earlier today, the unit started acting wonky (the technical term) - would not power-up when I was in the car. (USB cable in the car was Good)

Brought home, plugged in to USB power, no joy. Plugged into PC and still no joy.

Held down power button for many, many seconds, and there was eventually life.

The battery won't last longer than a few seconds, so maybe there is a corrupted file and GE gets confused.

Unit is 6 years old this month (built-in death switch? Nah!)

Might get a new one to be safe.

The other day, I'd opened up GE, and it showed that a map update was available for my Drive 61 LMT-S. It already had 2023.20 installed, with coverage of the Lower 49 States map region. After I ran the update, which required me to insert a microSD card into the unit, I realized it upgraded my map to the full coverage of North America, instead of updating for the Lower 49 states.

Great, works for me

WOW, great news. I will try it this afternoon.

This is the first update I haven't been able to select a region for the 3597s. One of them has a problem with the SD card slot so can't install a card.
Installed 2023.20 to computer and I can install regions with MapSource.
Questions:
Does the MapSource method install the large JCV file?
Is not being able to select a region a map or GE issue?
Suggestions on where to have the 3597 with the non functioning SD slot repaired?

Unfortunately, no.

My guess is that it is a GE issue

It will be hard to find a repair source for a Garmin nuvi, but you could try a cell phone repair shop if there are any in your area. If there are features you don't use like voice recognition, you could open up more space by eliminating some of the files in the ASR and/or SID folders. Make sure you do a full backup before trying this.

If you are comitted to keeping a working 3597, your least espensive option is probably to find a used working unit on ebay ... would be less expensive than repair IMO. Since you have all the accessories for your broken 3597, you could probably pick up a used one with missing accessories on eBay pretty cheap.

I looked at the folders ASR and SID. Can you be more specific what those folders control?
I see in your profile, a DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, is that your primary device or another one?
Thanks
cassel

The ASR contains the support files for the voice recognition system. If you remove all the SRD and SRX files, voice recognition will no longer work but the unit should function normally otherwise.

The SID folder contains other feature files like point addressing, instasearch, traffic trends. I don't really know how to identify which files control which features, but again, I think the basic navigation of the nuvi will work OK without these features. I have not tried this myself, the information is just based on different things I have read in various forums over the years. So you will need to evaluate the risk for yourself. Again, if you try this, make sure you have everything backed up.

Here is an example of a 3597 you can pick up for $40 with free shipping (or maybe offer less?) on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/265944595153?hash=item3deb887ad1:g:...

I use the DriveLuxe 51 in my Kia Optima and one of my 3597's in my Ford Ranger ... these are my two "daily drivers". Of all the Garmin's I have owned, the 3597 is still my all-time favorite. The DriveLuxe has a couple of added features that are nice, but overall is not as reliable as the nuvi 3597.

After thinking about your situation a little more, here is another option you can consider if you don't need Canada and Mexico maps on your 3597.

Since Garmin split the 2023.20 NA map into two files (US in one file, Canada and Mexico in a second file), you may be able with cloning and careful cleanup of unnecessary files on your 3597 to get your device updated with the US map and keep most or all of the feature files. Check out the POI Factory FAQs on cloning and Garmin file cleanup. Use cloning to do the map update to a thumb drive or other external storage, then copy in only the US map file and the feature files from the map update. Make sure you delete all the old map files and feature files from the previous map update. You should be able to identify these old files by file date. If you do a careful job of removing all the unneeded files, I think everything will fit in internal storage of your 3597 and give you a fully featured US map.

Your preferences for the 3597 are the same as mine. I was debating on a DriveLux a couple years ago and a friend let me try theirs for a trip to the 1000 Islands. That was my point of picking up the 2nd 3597. Your idea to acquire another 3597 is a good choice rather than repairing the SD slot. Thanks for the link.
The *.asr files look to have the same dates as the previous map update. I'll experiment with deleting files and see what happens. After a backup of course.
I just updated to GE v7.14 and was still not offered any choice other than install an SD card. I have a couple older versions, 7.12, 7.07, and 7.03, I may try one of those and see if it gives any other results.

Well, curiosity got the best of me so I dug out my spare 3597 and proved to myself that the cleanup/cloning technique I described in the earlier post can work to give you the US map and all the feature files in internal storage (with about 250 MB of free space left over for future map updates). Of course, living in Ohio, you may need the Canada maps so maybe that isn't an option for you. But if it is, it may enable you to keep your sans SD slot 3597 going strong at least for a while. If you do decide to try this, when doing the file cleanup of unused voice files, vehicles, etc, make sure you get rid of everything in the GPX\Archive folder. That folder contains an accumulation of all automatically backed up trip logs, and over time that folder can get pretty large.

Today I tried older versions of GE with no luck on getting to select regions. May try to call Garmin on this one to clarify why no regions are offered.
I occasionally use VR, junction views are more of an annoyance where I travel.
Next idea, similar to cloning, I loaded all the maps in the US lower 49 from MapSource and copied the JCV, SRD and SRX files from my second 3597 that updated properly. So far so good. Next week I have a trip back to DSM and will see if all goes well as I do have my 2nd 3597 as a backup. Seems like the second 3597 can act as my cloning source.
On ebay I noticed that several of the sellers show maps from 2013 or 2015. Those units might not update to current if I understand the 2 year limit forum conversations. I'll keep looking for a current one that is affordable. Anything else I should watch out for on a used 3597?

I also would worry about buying a device with a map over two years old.

As always with eBay, seller reputation is important in terms of the number of sales made, feedback, etc.

If going for a used 3597, even if you don't need another magmount right now, I would be willing to pay a bit more to get a spare mount compared to buying just the GPS device.

Yes, you can certainly copy the files from your other 3597 as an alternative to cloning. This includes the main .img map file as long as long as you have the .gma (activation) and .unl (unlock) files for the current map that download for the specific device.

Note that the 2023.20 map update had two .img map files. The larger one is the US map, the smaller one is Canada and Mexico. On my 3597's Garmin Express installed the US map and all feature files in internal storage and put only the Canada & Mexico map on SD card. So if I remove the SD card, I have a fully functional 3597 with US maps only.

thanks

Great to know. thanks

If I have an 8G SD card, does it put all files on the card or does it still split them?

On my nuvi 3597, GE put everything from the 2023.20 update in internal memory except the Canada & Mexico map file. It depends on the device model and the map naming rules and specific feature files downloaded for that model, the amount of available free space in internal memory after deleting old map files, size of SD card and probably some other factors.

Went smoothly. Had to get a mini memory card, but it worked.

I'm attempting to install the City Navigator North America 2023.20 update on a nuvi 760 with a 4GB SD card, using Garmin Express 7.15 on macOS Catalina. This has worked before but not for this update -- it fails with "Incompatible Card". It says, "Insert a card with at least 4 GB...", but I do have a 4GB card. (Actual capacity 3.96 GB, where GB is powers of 10)

From the logs it looks to me like it sees the SD card because it wants to remove the main map file: "SD file to remove: garmin/gmapsup1.img (3942776832 bytes)". But while in previous map updates it said the SupplementalMaps1 rule applied this time it says "SupplementalMaps1 could apply if an SD card with more free space is inserted.".

So does this mean 4GB SD cards no longer work, but an 8-32 GB would?

I thought I saw in this forum thread some people were able to install it on a nuvi 760 with a 4GB card, where Garmin Express would split it into two maps, with some data in the 760's 2GB internal storage?

I don't have an authoritative answer for you, but I can tell you how GE handled the 2023.20 map update on my nuvi 755T which has a 8GB SD card. It put the larger USA portion of the split map (under 4 GB) on the SD card and put the smaller Canada/Mexico portion in internal memory. It also put the large JCV file and all other feature files that were part of the map update in internal memory. I don't think most of those feature files apply to your 760, so it seems like a 4 GB SD card should work in your case.

That said, I suspect GE might look for enough space on the SD card to hold the entire update, just in case it is needed. I bet if you used cloning and manually deleted the old files and copied the cloned update files to where you want them (and where they would fit) that you could make the 4 GB SD card work. But probably the simplest solution is just to use a bigger card.

I encountered this when updating the map in the thrift store 1450 I had purchased. Garmin Express must be using the base 10 gigabyte in calculating the free space available. So, from this point onward an 8GB or larger card is required, as a 4GB card is smaller than what Garmin Express requires. 3.96GB is less than 4GB, and on top of that you are likely bumping up against the FAT32 file size limit.

I've never used the cloning approach but it may work. Getting a bigger card is easier.

New to the forum,where can I download the file

From your member profile, it appears you have a nuvi 255W. That device did not come with lifetime map updates when it was sold as new. So, unless you have a paid lifetime map update subscription for your device, you can't legally update the map. If you do have a paid map update subscription, then the map is updated using the Garmin Express app for Windows or Macintosh (free download).

https://www.openmapchest.org/maps/united-states/ if money is an object, https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/1456 if money isn't. I will point out however that neither option provides lifetime updates, and OpenMapChest's address search may not function as well as Garmin's.

If you're looking for Garmin's map gratis, you're in the wrong place. We don't do piracy here.

Thanks for the info.

it's about time

My guess is that Garmin will be changing the map update frequency again, as they did in 2016 when they changed from 4x to 3x updates per year. There were only two map updates in calendar year 2022, 2023.10 and 2023.20., so I'm thinking Garmin may be moving toward only 2x map updates/year.

New EU map just released, NA should be soon

2023.20 for North America was released last July or so.

are the EU maps that far behind that they are now getting 2023.20?

Different numbering that's all, not behind at all.

Thanks for the information

Thank you for the information

So you guys have a map numbering system that makes sense.

I wouldn't go that far

Thanks!