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Oregon 450 wont show downloaded geocaches


E&LM

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For a long while I could download pocket queries fine and all was working well. About one week ago, when the garmin was connected to my PC, I accidentally deleted the GPX folder. I created a new one and tried to download a new pocket query to this newly created GPX folder. As I download it appears to be copying okay as it prompts me to give permission to over-write existing caches. However when I disconnect the Garmin unit from the PC and boot it up the new geocaches won't show in the list. The only geocaches listed are the ones I downloaded previous to accidentally deleting the GPX folder.

Has anyone got any ideas?

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Two things spring to mind:

1 - Did you name it correctly? GPX is not the same as gpx

2 - Is it in the correct place?

I've just connected my Garmin Oregon 450 to the PC to have a look.

The folder is GPX (using capital letters) and it is one of the folders in a list of folders; Extdata, Filters, JPEG, GPX, Profiles, RemoteSW, sQL, Text, next is a line of other files which are not folders.

When I open the GPX folder on the computer I can see the new downloaded geocaches. It's only on the Garmin unit that they can't be seen.

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The folder is GPX (using capital letters) and it is one of the folders in a list of folders; Extdata, Filters, JPEG, GPX, Profiles, RemoteSW, sQL, Text, next is a line of other files which are not folders.

When I open the GPX folder on the computer I can see the new downloaded geocaches. It's only on the Garmin unit that they can't be seen.

GPX should be a sub-folder of the "GARMIN" folder. So with your USB connected Oregon 450 as the "[OR Drive]", It should be like this:

[OR Drive]:/GARMIN/GPX

Edited by kunarion
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Two things spring to mind:

1 - Did you name it correctly? GPX is not the same as gpx

2 - Is it in the correct place?

I've just connected my Garmin Oregon 450 to the PC to have a look.

The folder is GPX (using capital letters) and it is one of the folders in a list of folders; Extdata, Filters, JPEG, GPX, Profiles, RemoteSW, sQL, Text, next is a line of other files which are not folders.

When I open the GPX folder on the computer I can see the new downloaded geocaches. It's only on the Garmin unit that they can't be seen.

Are all of the caches in the pocket query more than about 100 miles away from your current location? If so, they won't show up in the list of caches.

 

--Larry

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The folder is GPX (using capital letters) and it is one of the folders in a list of folders; Extdata, Filters, JPEG, GPX, Profiles, RemoteSW, sQL, Text, next is a line of other files which are not folders.

When I open the GPX folder on the computer I can see the new downloaded geocaches. It's only on the Garmin unit that they can't be seen.

GPX should be a sub-folder of the "GARMIN" folder. So with your USB connected Oregon 450 as the "[OR Drive]", It should be like this:

[OR Drive]:/GARMIN/GPX

As far as I can see (I'm not great with computers) it is like you say. It is inside the Garmin folder along with all the other folders I have already listed.

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You may be experiencing the notorious GPX indexing issue that seems to occasionally plague the Oregon and many other Garmin models. Try this: Back up all GPX files in folder \Garmin\GPX, then delete them from the device. Also remove the SD card if you have one installed. Boot the device (no caches or waypoints will show at this point). Shut it down, and recopy the GPX files back into the \Garmin\GPX folder (either on the device or on the SD card). Reboot the device. This will force a reindexing of the GPX files, so check to see if your caches now show up.

Edited by alandb
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Are you seeing other data such as tracks, routes, and waypoints? Try loading other forms of data, which also get stored in the GPX folder. If nothing shows up, there's a problem with the Oregon reading the GPX folder. If they do show up, it could be an indexing issue with geocaches.

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I can see waypoints okay on the Garmin unit. I can even see what I assume must be caches which are from previous pocket queries downloaded before the 'incident.'

When I look via my PC the pocket queries can be seen with the new date as if they've downloaded okay. In fact I was prompted to over write the previous pocket query which I accepted.

I think I'll pluck up courage to try the solution suggested for the indexing issue. The reason I'm hesitating is that at the moment I can still see old pocket queries. In other words I've got most caches just not the most recent updated listing. If I start messing I'm worried I'll lose everything. I love technology until it doesn't work!!

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One of my earlier replies directs me to deal with the indexing issue by backing up the existing GPX files before deleting them. My question is Why do I need to back them up if I can easily do another pocket query to get them back?

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you don't have to delete all GPX files, only those with geocaches. You can always re-download the PQ's. The indexing problem is a known issue with Garmins from this era, and the weird part is that it doesn't always happen after a computer connection. Sometimes it happens out in the field when you turn your GPS on. For that reason, it's recommended that you keep geocaching files on a SD card. That way you can simply remove the SD card and boot up to refresh the index. Then put the SD card back and turn back on. It's the same effect as deleting the files, booting up, then reinstalling the files, but without the need for a computer connection.

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I've now tried to follow the re-indexing suggestion.

I connected the Garmin to the PC and deleted all pocket queries that I had stored in the GPX folder. There was one folder called Current which I left as I didn't know what it was. I re-booted my Garmin unit by disconnecting it from the PC and switched it on. (I assume that's a re-boot)

I could see all the caches in my new PQ but I can also see a load more caches. Any idea why?

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I've now tried to follow the re-indexing suggestion.

I connected the Garmin to the PC and deleted all pocket queries that I had stored in the GPX folder. There was one folder called Current which I left as I didn't know what it was. I re-booted my Garmin unit by disconnecting it from the PC and switched it on. (I assume that's a re-boot)

I could see all the caches in my new PQ but I can also see a load more caches. Any idea why?

"but I can also see a load more caches" Where are you seeing that? Where and when are you getting that message?

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You may be experiencing the notorious GPX indexing issue that seems to occasionally plague the Oregon and many other Garmin models. Try this: Back up all GPX files in folder \Garmin\GPX, then delete them from the device. Also remove the SD card if you have one installed. Boot the device (no caches or waypoints will show at this point). Shut it down, and recopy the GPX files back into the \Garmin\GPX folder (either on the device or on the SD card). Reboot the device. This will force a reindexing of the GPX files, so check to see if your caches now show up.

 

After downloading over 300 caches, I just found I had the same problem (I could see them in my GARMIN/GPX folder but not on when I turned my gps on. I did as alandb suggested (remove them, boot, shut it down, recopy and then reboot) and now I can see them on my gps. Thank you very much - I was worried I was going to have to reload them all!

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Whoa there ...

 

"After downloading over 300 caches..." Just need to be sure of something here...

 

IF you are saying that over some period of time, you pulled down 300 INDIVIDUAL caches off the gc.com site as individual *.gpx files, that would explain it. In spite of what Garmin claims in one of their comparison charts (there's an error in one that claims 2,000), your 450 can't deal with more than 200 *.gpx files without running into issues. If you did them all as one *.gpx file, then it would not be an issue. But do have a look in the Garmin/GPX directory of your unit to assure things haven't cluttered it up over time.

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Whoa there ...

 

"After downloading over 300 caches..." Just need to be sure of something here...

 

IF you are saying that over some period of time, you pulled down 300 INDIVIDUAL caches off the gc.com site as individual *.gpx files, that would explain it. In spite of what Garmin claims in one of their comparison charts (there's an error in one that claims 2,000), your 450 can't deal with more than 200 *.gpx files without running into issues. If you did them all as one *.gpx file, then it would not be an issue. But do have a look in the Garmin/GPX directory of your unit to assure things haven't cluttered it up over time.

 

Nah, somewhere along the line, Garmin upped that limit to 2000 gpx files with a firmware update. See the file limitations FAQ.

 

But otherwise, you were right, and it wasn't too long ago - 2012 - that I ran into the 200 gpx limit. It caught me by surprise when Garmin changed that.

 

The file limit is not the same as the indexing error. When I hit the file limit, I still saw caches I had loaded before, but didn't see any new ones. Found this out the hard way when I loaded some caches, got to my destination and didn't see them on the device. That evening, I made my first pocket query.

 

Which reminds me, Dead Chuffed, how is it that you're not using pocket queries to mass load your caches?

 

I digress. The indexing error causes ALL caches not to appear on the device and is not a function of how many GPX files you have. This happened to me in the field, and since then, I started storing all caches on a SD card so that I can perform the fix without having to connect to a computer.

 

Cheers.

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Have seen that FAQ (that's where I've seen the 2,000), but they have other docs as well that still claim 200. I kept up with firmware updates, and never noted release notes that increased the count. Reference?

 

Yes, I'm familiar with the indexing error. It's why I always check the unit immediately after loading a fresh *.gpx file. Twice over the years I hit the field with no caches. Once the *.gpx has been demonstrated to have processed successfully, I've never had anything 'disappear' in the field, though.

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