The Garmin Drive App Can Help Find Street Addresses That Your Garmin GPS Cannot Find
Sun, 04/12/2026 - 8:55pm
Jim1348
19 years
My wife and I are on the road in our RV. This morning, we were looking for 21 Campers Circle, Ashland City TN 37015, which is the campground we are staying at. I found it interesting that my Garmin DriveSmart 65 (with Amazon Alexa) using City Navigator could not find it. Google Maps did find it.
So, my challenge as the passenger, while my wife was driving, was to find it so the Garmin and Google Maps could both be used to navigate. I went to the Garmin Drive app and it found it. I then used the Garmin Drive app to send it to the Garmin DriveSmart 65.
Before I retired, I would frequently get new addresses to drive to for my work. Back then, I would go to the county property records website, pull the GPS coordinates and drive to the new address. Oftentimes, the street was new, so it didn't show up on CN, yet.
Does anybody know who Garmin Drive used, since neither Garmin NA or Open Street Maps could find this? Could Garmin Drive be using Google Maps?
I can also add that https://explore.garmin.com does find it and I noticed that the Road and Aerial layers are from Google Maps.
When I checked Smarty, it found it and stated:
Analysis: Address is real but not present in USPS data
Garmin Drive devices find addresses by searching pre-loaded map databases, powered by sources like HERE or OpenStreetMap, which allow searching by house number, street, and city/state. Users select "Where To?" and input address details, with the device initially searching nearby before allowing users to change the search area to different cities or states.
How Garmin Drive Finds Addresses:
"Where To?" Menu: Users select Where To? > Address and enter the address, street, and city information.
Search Bar: A central search bar accepts Addresses, Categories, and Business Names.
Location Awareness: The device automatically searches near your current GPS location, including neighboring states, to speed up results.
ZIP/Postal Codes: To narrow results, users can input specific zip codes.
Points of Interest (POI): Pre-loaded data allows searching for specific locations, such as hotels or restaurants.
Coordinates: Users can input specific longitude and latitude coordinates.
Tips for Better Search Results:
City Change: If an address is not found, select "Search Near" or the top search bar to change the search area to a specific city or state.
Alternative Search: If an address is tricky, search by the business name or POI instead.
Map Updates: Regular map updates are necessary as Garmin relies on pre-loaded data, which may become outdated.
POI Focus: If an address doesn't exist in the database, searching for the name of the place, such as a business, often works better.
If a street or address still isn't found, you can search for the destination on a smartphone, get the coordinates, and enter them into the Garmin device.
My wife and I are on the road in our RV. This morning, we were looking for 21 Campers Circle, Ashland City TN 37015, which is the campground we are staying at. I found it interesting that my Garmin DriveSmart 65 (with Amazon Alexa) using City Navigator could not find it. Google Maps did find it.
So, my challenge as the passenger, while my wife was driving, was to find it so the Garmin and Google Maps could both be used to navigate. I went to the Garmin Drive app and it found it. I then used the Garmin Drive app to send it to the Garmin DriveSmart 65.
Before I retired, I would frequently get new addresses to drive to for my work. Back then, I would go to the county property records website, pull the GPS coordinates and drive to the new address. Oftentimes, the street was new, so it didn't show up on CN, yet.
Does anybody know who Garmin Drive used, since neither Garmin NA or Open Street Maps could find this? Could Garmin Drive be using Google Maps?
I can also add that https://explore.garmin.com does find it and I noticed that the Road and Aerial layers are from Google Maps.
When I checked Smarty, it found it and stated:
Analysis: Address is real but not present in USPS data
This may have been known as Cheatham Dam Road.
https://www.smarty.com/products/us-address-verification#try
This is what Google/AI shows.
Garmin Drive devices find addresses by searching pre-loaded map databases, powered by sources like HERE or OpenStreetMap, which allow searching by house number, street, and city/state. Users select "Where To?" and input address details, with the device initially searching nearby before allowing users to change the search area to different cities or states.
How Garmin Drive Finds Addresses:
"Where To?" Menu: Users select Where To? > Address and enter the address, street, and city information.
Search Bar: A central search bar accepts Addresses, Categories, and Business Names.
Location Awareness: The device automatically searches near your current GPS location, including neighboring states, to speed up results.
ZIP/Postal Codes: To narrow results, users can input specific zip codes.
Points of Interest (POI): Pre-loaded data allows searching for specific locations, such as hotels or restaurants.
Coordinates: Users can input specific longitude and latitude coordinates.
Tips for Better Search Results:
City Change: If an address is not found, select "Search Near" or the top search bar to change the search area to a specific city or state.
Alternative Search: If an address is tricky, search by the business name or POI instead.
Map Updates: Regular map updates are necessary as Garmin relies on pre-loaded data, which may become outdated.
POI Focus: If an address doesn't exist in the database, searching for the name of the place, such as a business, often works better.
If a street or address still isn't found, you can search for the destination on a smartphone, get the coordinates, and enter them into the Garmin device.