How can I delete all favorite waypoints? (nuvi 250W)

Reset user data, it is different depending on model you have.

I called Garmin support center and they told me that I have to delete one at a time. How can I reset user data on Nuvi 250W ?

I am not sure. On the C530, you have to touch the bottom right hand (I think) corner of the screen while booting up. On the Nuvi, it is the left corner (I think).

On the nuvi 2xx you touch the lower right corner of the screen as you turn the GPSr on. That will delete all favorites.

Many thanks.

That you are deleting all user data so all the setup you have done will be gone. Before you delete, go into setup and write down all of the settings.

You GPS Nuvi knowlege is better than Garmin tech support. Thanks again.

You should be able to delete current.gpx in the gpx folder under garmin. Current.gpx is your favorites loaded in your unit. Just access this folder by using Windows explorer. I have not done this but I am sure you can do it.

I believe that the gpx file is just a file that is a "Backup" of your favorites, so deleting it won't help.

That's how it is on my Zumo. Deleting the current.gpx doesn't delete the Favorites. And the current.gpx gets re-created by the unit.

that is what it does too on the nuvi

And a mostly undocumented one at that...kind of a 'forced back-up'...

The other day, one of our distributors and us were arguing if something in our software was bug or feature. We said feature, he said bug...who knows who was correct.

just undocumented features - and when a client wants a feature changed, they have to pay for it.

Oh that is good, I am going to use that the next time they complain!

I'm sharing this info to help anyone with this dilema. I have experience! You CANNOT delete all of the POIs in the "Favorites" at one time on a Nuvi250W. You MUST delete each favorite one at a time in the unit itself. By doing this you will not delete any by mistake. Please be advised that you will not be able to remove them using "Mapsource." Even if you delete them all after you import, create 1 POI, and then send that POI to the unit. That will only add to the existing file in the unit. You can ONLY add to your POIs that go to your "Favorites" by default through "Mapsource." Unfortunately you can't remove them once there installed EXCEPT removing them through the unit itself one by one. So be careful when adding to your POIs because upon removing the unwanted ones they can add up. Though you can import or open the "current.gpx" from the unit through Mapsource and delete them there, it does not delete the hard data from the nuvi250. If you delete the "current.gpx" in the nuvi250W, it will reinstall upon reboot. It's automatic, even if you added to it and saw a "TEMP.gpx" in it's place before rebooting. When you reboot your nuvi 250W, the file becomes the permanent; "current.gpx" in it's place with all of the original POI data plus what you added from "Mapsource." Be also advised that by reinstalling your maps and updating the software on the nuvi 250W WILL NOT remove them. I'd advise everyone who owns a nuvi250W, to get to know your unit and read the manual. This is one of the better units out there.

You can delete them all, but it involves a master reset.

Garmin says
https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?...

How do I perform a master reset on my nuvi 200 or 205 series device?

03/19/2012

To perform a master reset on nuvi 200 and 205 series devices:

Note: A master reset will erase all favorites1 and will restore your device to the default factory settings. If you would like to back up your favorites to your computer, you can find instructions to do so here.

1.Start with the device OFF and unplugged from power
2.Touch and hold the lower right corner of the screen with an index finger or the eraser end of a pencil
3.Continue touching and holding the lower right hand corner of the screen then power the device ON
4.Release the power button when the device powers ON
◦You will see a new message: "Do you really want to erase all user data?"
5.Remove your finger from the touch screen when this message displays
6.Touch Yes
◦If text language is not in English, this is the button on the right
The device will now reset. Follow the on-screen prompts and then place your device in an area with a clear view of the sky until it acquires satellites.

1Although the master reset will erase all saved favorites, any loaded custom points of interest will remain intact on the device.

This is also covered in http://www.poi-factory.com/node/30019

On one hand you and Garmin Support are correct in that you will delete all of your "saved" favorites when you do a master reset. However, the problem is that custom POIs loaded from Mapsource will not be and they load into the "favorites" which can be many. I had 400 in mine once. Every one of them had to be manually deleted one by one from the Nuvi250W. I assumed that they would go directly into the "Extras" folder because they were "Custom POIs" when I transfered them. That was not the case.

I just want to let everyone know that by doing a master reset on a Nuvi250W, will not completely empty your "Favorites" folder if you have POIs transfered from "Mapsource."
I believe that by default they should transfer into the "Extras" where they could be deleted all at once if need be. That would make better sense.

Are they in the [nuvi]:\Garmin\GPX folder?

I am out of my element here because I do not have Mapsource. However, I would be surprised if Mapsource puts anything in the [nuvi]:\Garmin\POI folder (which typically contains the .gpi files that are compiled by POI Loader).

Could you still have .gpx files from Mapsource left in the [nuvi]:\Garmin\GPX folder?

If you remove all of your POIs from the "POI" folder which are your .gpx or .csv files within the folder, you only remove all "Custom Points of Interest" but all favorites will remain. However, any and all POIs you create through "Mapsource" and transfered to your garmin, will be put into "Favorites" automatically and not "Extras" or "POI" folders respectively. Those POIs cannot be remove except one by one through the unit due to there placement in the unit. As an example, if you open "Mapsource" software and navigate to your POI folder from your garmin... [nuvi]/Garmin/POI then open any of the .gpx files, Mapsource will list them in the left pane and show them on the map. If you modify them and transfer them back to the garmin, they go directly to your "Favorites" instead of back to the "POI" folder. They then only load from "Favorites" and not as a "Custom POI" that would normally be found in "Extras" folder within the nuvi250W. It is a shame that an option as to where you would like them to load from before transfering does not exist in Mapsource. That simple command option would save a lot of headaches for many users.

The best way to add the modified POIs to the garmin would be to save the newly created POI from "Mapsource" as a .gpx file on the PC by clicking "save as" in the drop menu from "Files" at the top left and choosing .gpx in the new window drop menu. Then use "POI Loader" to install into the garmin. This method, I highly recommend.

I have a 765T and do not have Mapsource.

I used Extra POI Editor (EPE) to create several files
Fav gpx gpx archive.gpx
Fav gpx gpx.gpx
Fav gpx poi.gpx
Fav gpx root.gpx
not a favorite.gpi

All of these files had one (1) entry. The entry in each file was names the same as the file name (without the extension, of course).

I attached my 765T to my PC and tested what nuvi does with .gpx files in the [nuvi]\Garmin\GPX folder or in other folders like [nuvi]\Garmin, [nuvi]\Garmin\Archive, or [nuvi]\Garmin\POI.

What I found is that the nuvi will one-time-only integrate the data from ONLY the .gpx file in the [nuvi]\Garmin\GPX folder with Favorites. It must make note of the fact that it has looked at the file (and must use file name and timestamp) because, if you delete from your list of Favorites the data that came from the [nuvi]\Garmin\GPX folder and power cycle the nuvi, that data will not reappear in Favorites (even though the "Fav gpx gpx.gpx" file was still in the [nuvi]\Garmin\GPX folder). However, if you go into nuvi and change the name of the .gpx file in the [nuvi]\Garmin\GPX folder to something else (which gives it a new time stamp), the data will reappear in Favorites the next time the nuvi is power cycled.

Note that the .gpi file in the [nuvi]\Garmin\POI folder gave me a new Custom POI entry (which appears as the very last “category” under the “All Categories” entry under Extras > Custom POIs).

What this tells me is that you could let EPE create a .gpi file in [nuvi]\Garmin\POI folder from the .gpx file one gets from “Mapsource”. If you wanted to call them “Favorites” – you could do that.

The final thing I did was test whether having a copy of my favorites in the [nuvi]\Garmin\GPX folder would, in essence, replace all old favorites after a Master Reset. So what I did was to just rename “Current.gpx” to “File20120425.gpx” just before safely removing my nuvi from my PC. Once I got the message that it was safe to remove the nuvi, I turned the power off and then disconnected the nuvi from the USB cord. I went thru a Master Reset – said yes to the messages about “do you want to delete all user data”, answered the questions about where I was (United States), etc, and waited for the unit to get to the main menu. Lo and behold, my favorites (even thought the master reset deleted them) were reloaded from the “File20120425.gpx” file.

What this tells me is that leaving any .gpx files in the [nuvi]\Garmin\GPX folder will make one think that Master Reset does not really delete favorites. But, it does. All the nuvi did was what it was asked to do – take any previously unrecognized .gpx files in the [nuvi]\Garmin\GPX folder and “add” them to Favorites. Note that even though my “File20120425.gpx” was in the nuvi before I did the Master Reset, the Master Reset went back to factory conditions before it looked at it.

Looked at another way, it you have accumulated a lot of “Favorites” and you want to get rid of them, you can
1. delete them one at a time
OR
2. you can make sure that all .gpx files have been removed from the [nuvi]\Garmin\GPX folder and then do a Master Reset.
OR
3. Go to Tools > My Data [down arrow] > Delete Favorites

Great information and thanks for the testing. Do you plan to summarize your test as a FAQ?

Thanks for the comment. I am trying to think how best to frame a FAQ. One thought I had was to start a series called Continuing Education.

Up until I started to think about this thread's problems, I had never tried to make a .gpi file in EPE - although I had read that turbo was working on reading .gpi files.

It just blew me away when I did it. There are lots of possibilities for teaching Beginners about how to do alerts or simulations, or saving favorites, etc when one is able to take a .gpx file and get it into one's GPS. While I have not tried it - but it should work - I think being able to sit at your computer and build a .gpi file and only later "copy" it to your GPS has exciting possibilities.

Note to Turbo - EPE is terrific - I just cannot say it enough!!!!

@Box Car, would you check me on something? Do all of your units have the
Tools > My Data > Delete Favorites capability?
I am just assuming that all units do.

I know it's on my primary unit, the 885. The 255WT is in a drawer and I drag it out occasionally, but I'm fairly certain it has the same capability. The 200 is in my daughter's hands and she uses the unit so infrequently it would take her a week to find it. She doesn't do much traveling outside of her local travels, so it's an occasional item. (I think it still has the original 2008 maps.)

Tools - My Data - Delete Favorites - Select All or Tick ones to be deleted and delete.

Trip log can also be cleared here.

No easier way found