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Caches not appearing on screen of GPS


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I have a Garmin Dakota 20.

I load Geocaches into the Garmin through the program “iCaching". I can not load them directly anymore from the Geocaching site. The Plug-in has been disabled I think.

When I get into the field, many of the caches that I loaded do not show-up on the GPS Screen. Very frustrating.

When I go back home and look for them through Finder on the computer they show as being in the GPS. They just don’t appear on the GPS Screen.

When I go to reload them I get a message that says they are already in the GPS. I click on load anyway. After I load them for the second time, then they show on the GPS screen.

This is quite a pain because now I have to either check to make sure that they are there or just re-load all of them all the time.

This same problem happened even before I started using iCaching, only it seems to be getting worse.

Does anyone have any ideas as to the problem? I'm almost to the point of buying a new GPS because of this issue.

Any suggestions?

If you had to buy a GPS today which one would you buy?

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You can load them directly by clicking "GPX File" (not to be confused with "Send To My GPS"), and saving the GPX file in [Drive]:Garmin/GPX

 

But rather than load caches one at a time, it's even better to use Pocket Queries. Same thing, except you first unzip a Pocket Query, then save the GPX file(s) in [Drive]:Garmin/GPX

 

By loading things directly, you not only have control over exactly what files are placed, but you can delete old files. And it saves a couple of steps. Start by simply saving files directly to [Drive]:Garmin/GPX and see if it helps.

 

It's strange that loading files twice causes caches to appear. Without specifics, it's hard to guess what's going on. But it's possible that the GPSr is not "indexing" the files for some reason. In Windows, some people notice that if they unplug the USB too soon, the file is not readable by the GPSr, yet the PC sees the file just fine. Leaving it plugged in a little longer (or actively "ejecting the drive") fixes the problem. I don't know if the effect could occur on a Mac.

Edited by kunarion
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You can load them directly by clicking "GPX File" (not to be confused with "Send To My GPS"), and saving the GPX file in [Drive]:Garmin/GPX

 

But rather than load caches one at a time, it's even better to use Pocket Queries. Same thing, except you first unzip a Pocket Query, then save the GPX file(s) in [Drive]:Garmin/GPX

 

By loading things directly, you not only have control over exactly what files are placed, but you can delete old files. And it saves a couple of steps. Start by simply saving files directly to [Drive]:Garmin/GPX and see if it helps.

 

It's strange that loading files twice causes caches to appear. Without specifics, it's hard to guess what's going on. But it's possible that the GPSr is not "indexing" the files for some reason. In Windows, some people notice that if they unplug the USB too soon, the file is not readable by the GPSr, yet the PC sees the file just fine. Leaving it plugged in a little longer (or actively "ejecting the drive") fixes the problem. I don't know if the effect could occur on a Mac.

Well Thanks for the info Kunarion but you lost me. Where is [Drive]: Garmin / GPX ?? I can see the button for 'GPX File' and I even tried it with a 'Test' Cache. When I hit 'GPX File' it just sent the info to my download folder and then when I clicked on it it sent it to iCaching, even though I had iCaching closed. NOTE: I'm not as computer literate as I wish I were. My excuse is I'm an old guy (70).... :)

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Have you updated icaching (new update this month)?

Maybe an issue earlier, fixed now?

Hi Cerberus1,

Yes I did update iCaching, However, the caches that didn't appear this morning on the GPS screen were loaded on the GPS before I did the update. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

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Well Thanks for the info Kunarion but you lost me. Where is [Drive]: Garmin / GPX ?? I can see the button for 'GPX File' and I even tried it with a 'Test' Cache. When I hit 'GPX File' it just sent the info to my download folder and then when I clicked on it it sent it to iCaching, even though I had iCaching closed. NOTE: I'm not as computer literate as I wish I were. My excuse is I'm an old guy (70).... :)

When you plug your Garmin GPSr into a USB port, Mac's "Finder" will show a new drive. Whatever the new drive is called, that's the "[Drive]". I have no idea, but as an example, suppose it's "Dakota". The Finder will then show the directories in the "Dakota" drive. One directory is "Garmin". In the Garmin directory is the "GPX" directory. That's the where iCaching or other helper programs place GPX cache files. In the above example, it's the "Dakota:/Garmin/GPX" directory.

 

I don't know why iCaching would mess anything up. But if you place the files yourself (without iCaching) and it works that way, that's one piece of the puzzle.

 

When you click a GPX file, iCaching starts up because it recognizes certain files it can use. As a convenience.

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Have you updated icaching (new update this month)?

Maybe an issue earlier, fixed now?

Hi Cerberus1,

Yes I did update iCaching, However, the caches that didn't appear this morning on the GPS screen were loaded on the GPS before I did the update. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Garmin GPSrs sometimes operate in ways that are unexpected. If the files are there, but not consistently shown, one thing to try is to shut it off and restart it (sometimes doing that twice). The GPSr then sees the new files, "indexes database", and now it shows the caches.

 

It's not something you should have to do all the time, but it happens.

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Well Thanks for the info Kunarion but you lost me. Where is [Drive]: Garmin / GPX ?? I can see the button for 'GPX File' and I even tried it with a 'Test' Cache. When I hit 'GPX File' it just sent the info to my download folder and then when I clicked on it it sent it to iCaching, even though I had iCaching closed. NOTE: I'm not as computer literate as I wish I were. My excuse is I'm an old guy (70).... :)

 

When you plug your GPS into your computer, it mounts like an external hard drive or a USB thumb drive would. It creates a new disk volume that you can open in Finder (the icon might even appear on your desktop) and browse the files and folders on your GPS. Geocache files are of the GPX file type and get stored in the folder /<volume name>/Garmin/GPX where <volume name> is the name given to the device's drive. By default, it's named Garmin. Open it up and there's a folder called Garmin, and inside that, there are a bunch of files and folders, one of which will be named GPX.

 

The issue is that your browser is currently set-up to automatically download files to your download folder. If you go to your browser preferences (whether you're using Chrome, Firefox, or Safari), you can change the default download location and set it to ask you every time. You can then choose to download the GPX files directly to the GPX folder on your gps.

 

iCaching is not a bad way to load caches onto your GPS, though. You can use the API searches to bulk download and install up to thousands of caches for an area at once, which is what a Pocket Query does. But maybe you'll have an easier time using iCaching instead of direct Pocket Query downloads?

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Well Thanks for the info Kunarion but you lost me. Where is [Drive]: Garmin / GPX ?? I can see the button for 'GPX File' and I even tried it with a 'Test' Cache. When I hit 'GPX File' it just sent the info to my download folder and then when I clicked on it it sent it to iCaching, even though I had iCaching closed. NOTE: I'm not as computer literate as I wish I were. My excuse is I'm an old guy (70).... :)

When you plug your Garmin GPSr into a USB port, Mac's "Finder" will show a new drive. Whatever the new drive is called, that's the "[Drive]". I have no idea, but as an example, suppose it's "Dakota". The Finder will then show the directories in the "Dakota" drive. One directory is "Garmin". In the Garmin directory is the "GPX" directory. That's the where iCaching or other helper programs place GPX cache files. In the above example, it's the "Dakota:/Garmin/GPX" directory.

 

I don't know why iCaching would mess anything up. But if you place the files yourself (without iCaching) and it works that way, that's one piece of the puzzle.

 

When you click a GPX file, iCaching starts up because it recognizes certain files it can use. As a convenience.

OK... The reason I was lost is because on my Mac it calls it "Devices" and not drive. I am familiar with all of that but when I hit GPX File or Waypoint File it goes directly to my Download(s) folder. from there when I click on the file that I just downloaded it goes right to iCaching and I can't figure out hot how to make it go to the Garmin / GPX folder without using iCaching. Mineral2 suggested I change my browser preferences to ask where I want to put downloads. I may try to figure that way out.

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Well Thanks for the info Kunarion but you lost me. Where is [Drive]: Garmin / GPX ?? I can see the button for 'GPX File' and I even tried it with a 'Test' Cache. When I hit 'GPX File' it just sent the info to my download folder and then when I clicked on it it sent it to iCaching, even though I had iCaching closed. NOTE: I'm not as computer literate as I wish I were. My excuse is I'm an old guy (70).... :)

 

When you plug your GPS into your computer, it mounts like an external hard drive or a USB thumb drive would. It creates a new disk volume that you can open in Finder (the icon might even appear on your desktop) and browse the files and folders on your GPS. Geocache files are of the GPX file type and get stored in the folder /<volume name>/Garmin/GPX where <volume name> is the name given to the device's drive. By default, it's named Garmin. Open it up and there's a folder called Garmin, and inside that, there are a bunch of files and folders, one of which will be named GPX.

 

The issue is that your browser is currently set-up to automatically download files to your download folder. If you go to your browser preferences (whether you're using Chrome, Firefox, or Safari), you can change the default download location and set it to ask you every time. You can then choose to download the GPX files directly to the GPX folder on your gps.

 

iCaching is not a bad way to load caches onto your GPS, though. You can use the API searches to bulk download and install up to thousands of caches for an area at once, which is what a Pocket Query does. But maybe you'll have an easier time using iCaching instead of direct Pocket Query downloads?

I found, in Google Chrome, advanced settings. There is a box to check if you want to be asked where downloads go. It was already checked to the 'Ask Where Option" but it never asks me. I unchecked and rechecked but it still doesn't ask.

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I found, in Google Chrome, advanced settings. There is a box to check if you want to be asked where downloads go. It was already checked to the 'Ask Where Option" but it never asks me. I unchecked and rechecked but it still doesn't ask.

I can't provide exact steps (nor even the names of what Mac calls "Drives" or whatever). In Windows, I can right-click and "Save As", to manually choose the folder to save it in even if another program would have popped up when I left-click. I've tried Macs once in a while (usually someone with a Mac is extremely uber-protective of it and I cannot even touch it B)). But when I am faced with one, It's a blank screen and I'm all like, where is... everything? ... anything? And the owner doesn't even know :blink:. I'm almost positive that a Mac can do more than show a blank screen. Not 110% positive, but almost. :anicute:

 

Anyway, you probably shouldn't change a whole lot of settings. You may figure out that it's not a problem with iCaching, in which case you must set it all back the way it was.

Edited by kunarion
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To All who took the time to help me on this topic...... I Thank You.

Since I am not a big numbers Geocacher I guess I'll just have to remember to make sure all the caches that I intend to look for on my outings are actually in my GPS before I leave home.

Thanks Again.....

Satch

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hi

check to see what filters are set on your GPS you may have turn one on it error if so turn all filer off

had same error on my 64S I had turn on NO small caches filter in error and loss about 50% on the screen

 

hope this helps

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