My Gpsr Ate My Waypoints (again!)

[+Velvet]

I did a search on this, but either I'm not using the right keywords or it hasn't really come up...

 

I turned on my GPSr yesterday morning (a Magellan eXplorist 300) to see if I had already marked a particular cache. I went to my Points of Interest List.................No Objects Found. Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!! The day before they were there. The batteries are new (and had not been changed in between when the POI's were there and when they weren't). This happened once before, right after I got the unit, but at that time I had thought I had done something wrong because I was still figuring it out. Now, I am NOT HAPPY.

 

Has anyone else run into this? Is there a reset button on this unit I may have accidentally pressed? I looked all over it and in the manual but didn't find one that's labeled "reset", but I've learned from other things that doesn't mean it isn't there.

 

So what do I do now? Just re-enter the points and move on? Or is this a defect I should take up with Magellan? I just turned the unit on now, the ones I re-entered yesterday are all present and accounted for...this is is just really weird.

 

Thanks for any help you can give.

[+Cardinal Red]

Thanks for any help you can give.

Buy a Garmin

[+groovetopia]

I've had that happen on my explorist 500 - I made a backup sd card (you could backup to your computer) with everything on it, so if something happens in the field I just pop in the other card and I'm good to go. I know that doesn't help you now, but there's always something to be said for backing stuff up. My condolences on your loss.

[+YuccaPatrol]

I tried to duplicate your problem with each of my Garmin units but I could not get any of them to randomly delete all of my waypoints.

[+Velvet]

I tried to duplicate your problem with each of my Garmin units but I could not get any of them to randomly delete all of my waypoints.

 

Buy a Garmin

 

OK, OK, I get it......our other unit is a Garmin, does that count? And no, I never had this problem with that one. If we ever have money, the plan is for me to upgrade and pass this one along to my stepdaughter who's about ready to have her own GPSr. Oh well, guess I'll just have to deal in the meantime and not keep too many waypoints in there at a time.

[+jon & miki]

Buy a Garmin

Wish that was enough . It doesn't quite match my experience though. My streetpilot decided to clear about 2/3 of the waypoints we had carefully chosen along our route while we were on a caching run many miles from home. The deleted waypoints were apparently chosen randomly, but seemed to be mostly the last entered ones, that is, the caches we had picked out as targets, and of course we had no way to restore them on the road.

 

It only happened once and we managed by hand entering a lot of cache locations, but I've learned not to be too sure of a GPS memory. Even as reliable a unit as the Garmin occasionally has problems.

[+embra]

I'm not 100% sure that the 300 works closely enough to the 4/5/600/XL, but if you are able to maintain multiple POI files in the 300 you should check menu/preferences/active setup to ensure that the POI file you were using is still there (or not) and is active.

 

This is one of those situations where having the file data on SD card rather than internal memory is safer, in that it is less prone to loss and easier to recover from. I think I lost all the data in my Meridian once because I had to do a hard reset, but all I had to do was to reload the waypoint file from the card.

 

A data connection with the computer also allows for data backup (and potential recovery). I don't mean to heap it on you in your dark hour...but I just wanted to take the opportunity to point out another reason why units lacking computer connection capability are not in high favor among many of the data-intensive users here. When you have to manually input coords into units like the 1/2/300 Explorists, you're doing a sort of high-wire act without a net. All units, all models, al manufacturers can potentially lose data (it *is* rare, fortunately), and recovery measures are bells/whistles that are easily overlooked or discounted--until you need them.

 

And if it's any consolation, I doubt very much it's due to anything you did. There are ways to reset the unit, but there are warnings that everything will be erased and it's hard to do by accident. My impression is that most of the data losses I have heard of involved the unit powering off in an unusual way.

[+geognerd]

I'm not 100% sure that the 300 works closely enough to the 4/5/600/XL, but if you are able to maintain multiple POI files in the 300 you should check menu/preferences/active setup to ensure that the POI file you were using is still there (or not) and is active.

 

This is one of those situations where having the file data on SD card rather than internal memory is safer, in that it is less prone to loss and easier to recover from. I think I lost all the data in my Meridian once because I had to do a hard reset, but all I had to do was to reload the waypoint file from the card.

I'm basing this on my experience with the 100. I assume the 300 is similar in menus and POI organization. Which brings me to my point. There is no organization of POIs on the 1/2/300. These units do not allow for folders and POI files. All your POIs are in one big bucket.

 

As for storing data on the SD card, I agree with Embra. All of the maps, POI files, and saved tracks on my eX400 live on the SD card. After hearing about Meridians getting screwed up by bad map uploads and file transfers to the internal memory, I decided it would be good practice to only use the SD card so I don't risk corrupting the unit's internal memory.

 

As for the OP's problem. I have no idea how to fix it or if it's even possible. Likely a defective unit and not the result of operator error. On second thought, does that Russian website list a secret key combination for deleting POIs?

[+hogrod]

I have owned a few magellans(5), and we had all the waypoints delete themselves on two of them. one was a explorist 200 the other was a meridian gold. when the meridian lost its waypoints the unit powered off, when we powered it on again it needed to be re-initialized.

 

I can't beleive this bug is still around, to me a unit that may delete all its waypoints is pretty useless, Imagine this happening in the middle of a woods you don't know well. thats why if you buy a new magellan get a explorist 400,500,600,xl so you can store all your waypoints on the removable card.

 

I have never had this happen with my garmin units.....

[+Grandma Nan]

This is the first time I have searched the forums--even though I have been a Groundspeak cacher for about two years--and would you know--you reassured me that it is a bug in my otherwise wonderful Magellan SporTrak Color that has twice driven me crazy during the time I have been using it.

 

The first time that it lost all my waypoints, I attributed the loss to a high concentration of electric wires overhead. As it was said in a previous note, I was directed to reinitialize etc--I was pretty darned annoyed but as I did not have too many waypoints in (I had just gotten the GPS about two weeks before)--it wasn't too bad.

 

When it happed several months ago--I was really angry since I was on a caching trip far from home. Luckily, I had my paper cache sheets available but it was annoying to have to put everything back that I had so carefully put in the day before. I attributed the loss to the high temperature in the area where I was caching.

 

I do not know if either condition would cause a problem with the GPS--but I have learned now not to store everything in my GPS.

 

Nanda (Grandma Nan)