Map update 2020.2 NA broke Find place

crazyfingers

A couple days ago I installed NA 2020.2 to my DriveSmart 61and now Find Place is broken. If I try using Voice Command it tells me that the function does not work in the United States using American English but that's the only language that supports natural language navigation.

If I go into the Find place not using voice command but from the Garmin Find place screen and type a place in to find, for example Walmart, it will list the nearby walmarts but when I choose one the thing spins and spins and never actually locates the walmart on the map.

Any ideas? Has anyone else run into this?

Before going on vacation I tried over Wifi if I could reinstall but it does not give the option. I'm now on vacation and only have my phone hotspot so don't really want to try fixing using map install on my notebook at this time.

Boyd

Have you tried doing a hard reset? That is generally the first thing to try when you have a strange problem after an update. Also, I have learned the hard way that it's a bad idea to do a software update just before going on a trip. :)

crazyfingers

I haven't done anything other than just completely shut it off and turn it on again. Waiting until I have fast wifi at home before doing anything that may require lots of downloading again.

Ordinarily I wouldn't have updated the maps before going away but we are just at our place in Maine and I know my way around here just as well at home. Better perhaps because there are fewer roads.

Boyd

Well the reset should not require any downloading. It will delete your favorites, although they may automatically be restored, depending on what you have done in the past. If you previously sent favorites to the device with either Basecamp or Mapsource, it would have left a file named Temp.gpx in the GPX folder. If that file is present, the favorites will be imported from it.

But if you have a laptop with you and a USB cable, you can copy the Current.gpx file to it before doing the reset. Re-name the file that you copied to your computer "Temp.gpx", delete all files in the GPX folder on the device, then copy Temp.gpx to it. Now do the reset and your favorites will be restored.

I'd say there's a good chance that the hard reset will fix this problem, because it sounds like the classic kind of weirdness that often follows a map/firmware update. The hard reset does not have any effect on your maps, firmware or POI. It just clears the protected NVRAM that sometimes gets corrupted. It will change all your menus back to the default settings though and also clear your search history.

Anyway, you asked for ideas and a reset would be the first thing to try for the problems you describe.

crazyfingers

Cool. Thanks. I'll try that next. I do have my notebook with me and cables. And have my favorites file on it. I just need to see if the manual says how to do a hard reset.

crazyfingers

By the way, voice command does understand when I ask to list Recently Founds and my Saved Places. It's just the Garmin POI database that is broken.

Boyd

Reset instructions: http://forums.gpsreview.net/discussion/21511/x/p1/

crazyfingers

Thanks. Factory new suggests needing to reinstall the maps so I'll definitely wait until I'm home on wifi and not my hot spot.

Boyd

The reset will not erase your maps or firmware. Seriously. As that link says, it restores the factory default settings. This means that all the menus will be set back to the way they are with a new GPS. In other words, it will change the vehicle icon to the standard one, it will set the map view to 3d, it will set map detail to normal, etc.

But it can't hurt to wait, as long as the device is usable the way it is.

crazyfingers

Finally getting back to this. I reinstalled the map and it fixed it.

Glad it did. Before my vacation was over my dad died totally unexpectedly. Since then have needed to "find place" a lot as we got mom moved into assisted living. Advanced Parkenson's. Dad was doing everything.

Boyd

Wow, that is very sad, sorry for your loss. Glad that you got the GPS working properly at least.