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eponymous

GPS: Nuvi







Post SD     
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Try zeroing the SD card:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M.

This will remove everything on the SD card.

Alternatively, you can just erase the partition table and then re-partition and re-format.
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tony007

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Post SD card     
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Try putting all the maps into a folder named garmin.







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Post Re: SD card not recognized     
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jandrioli wrote:
elpolloloco wrote:
Hi! I have a Nuvi250 and I just bought a SD card to put Mexico maps on it. My computer reads the SD card alright but the Nuvi doesn't! I also have a Nuvi350 and it can read it's SD card just fine. Any ideas? I tried to download the Mexico maps (1.25 gig) on the Nuvi internal memory but it says it is too big...hence the SD card! Can I create more space on the Nuvi, paste the Mexico maps and foget about the SD card? Thanks for your help!


It's the partitioning of the SD Card!!!
I struggled for days with my Garmin and different SD cards from all brands, qualities, speeds, specs.
Finally I found out that SD cards must be very strictly partitioned: you must have only 1 PRIMARY PARTITION on the card. Several tools on windows like Windows' disk management tool and MiniTool's Partition Editor create nested partitions... phones and gps devices can't open those.

How I found this out is when I got home and tried to manipulate some map images. Linux saved my day and now I can navigate american maps with a european Nuvi.
So the tip here is: try to see if your SD card has been partitioned to have EXTENDED partitions or LOGICAL partitions. IF that's the case you need to delete them, create a primary partition, format it to FAT32, and re-copy your maps.


This doesn't work if the device does not recognize there is a card inserted, I tried it, no worky. My 550 would read even 8gig micro sd cards with an adapter. But took forever to load. So I took the files off that SD card and put on a shorter list. Then it wouldn't read it at all, and has not recognized ANY SD cards since.





Thankful

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Post Re: SD card not recognized     
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jandrioli wrote:


It's the partitioning of the SD Card!!!
I struggled for days with my Garmin and different SD cards from all brands, qualities, speeds, specs.
Finally I found out that SD cards must be very strictly partitioned: you must have only 1 PRIMARY PARTITION on the card. Several tools on windows like Windows' disk management tool and MiniTool's Partition Editor create nested partitions... phones and gps devices can't open those.

How I found this out is when I got home and tried to manipulate some map images. Linux saved my day and now I can navigate american maps with a european Nuvi.
So the tip here is: try to see if your SD card has been partitioned to have EXTENDED partitions or LOGICAL partitions. IF that's the case you need to delete them, create a primary partition, format it to FAT32, and re-copy your maps.


Thank you. This was the solution for my Garmin Nuvi 2455 not recognizing the SD Card.
I used the minitool partition editor, deleted the partitions on the sd card and then created a single FAT32 partition & set it to Primary. The tool defaults to logical, so you need to change that.

Garmin Express is now loading the updated maps onto the SD card. Thanks again.





Boettcher

GPS: TomTom Via 1500







Post Garmin 3580LM     
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Thanks for the postings. I had struggled with a brand new SD card for my 3580!
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Ole Timer

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Post Garmin 1450 not recognizing my sd card!     
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I have a NUVI 1450LMT. I had a micro sd card in it that I was able to download maps to last year and it still works fine. I recently received a message from Garmin that updates for my system was available. I attempted to download the updates to the micro sd card I downloaded to last year, but like many of you my NUVI 1450 did not recognize the sd card. I thought this was strange since it let me download to it last year. I had another smaller sd card that I reformatted to FAT32, put it in my 1450 and it downloaded the updates just fine. I will now keep at least two sd cards that I can interchange every time updates are posted. Just remember to reformat the sd card before you download the new updates. I would think that this procedure should work for any GPS product. I have successfully used a 4GB as well as a 32GB sd card in my Garmin 1450LMT. I have found information stating that I should not go above a 32GB sd card. Hope this helps anyone having the problem of your sd card not being recognized.





HT

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Post Re: SD card     
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Zoltan wrote:
Hi!
The SD card problem could be related to filenames.
For example, a 'gmapprom.img' file is only readable on the GPS unit, but if you copy it to the SD card, you have to rename it 'gmapsupp.img', and then the GPS unit can read it.


Just to say 'THANKS!' That's great advice. Just got mine working! Smile





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Post format SD Card for GARMIN GPS's     
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I was going crazy installing the official Garmin Map on my touring, waited 3 hours to finish just to find that the map didn't appear on the device. Had to format the SD card as MS-DOS FAT so its contents was FINALLY recognised by the Touring. Why Garmin Express find the SD card and says it's ok to copy the map there beats me...

Below formatting instructions for MAC and PC
Code:

Format the microSD/SD card to the FAT or FAT32 format. A 2 GB or less card can be formatted in FAT or FAT32. Cards larger than 2 GB should be formatted in FAT32. Cards larger than 32 GB should be formatted in exFAT2.

    Place the SD card into the SD card slot in the device3
    Press the Windows key + E on the keyboard to open Windows Explorer/File Explorer
    Click This PC (Windows 10 only)
    Locate the Removable Disk1 icon representing the SD card
    Right-click on the Removable Disk icon
    Click on Format
    Change Allocation unit size to Default allocation size
    Ensure Quick Format is checked
    Click Start

Mac:

    Open Spotlight (CMD + SPACE on the keyboard)
    Type Disk Utility (in Spotlight search box)
    Press Return on the keyboard
    Click the parent icon for the SD card in the sidebar on the left (the parent icon is the one that is not indented)
    Click on the Erase option on the right
    In the Format drop down menu, select MS-DOS (FAT)
    In the Scheme drop down menu, select Master Boot Record (Mac OS X 10.11+)
    In the Name field, type a name/title for the SD card (Do not leave the name as "Untitled")
    Click Erase

These steps will format the microSD/SD card to be readable by the Garmin device.





helpful

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Post This worked for me.     
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If you want to reformat the disk. Make sure its a FAT32 format not EXFAT or NTFS etc. I copied my .img files into a garmin folder and it works fine.





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Post fat32 format works     
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Below is what worked for me. My garmin 265w did not read the sd card and did not show any maps on map detail screen. Reformatted the SD card and now I got the map working.
SD card partitions: https://www.gps-data-team.com/pda-gps-navigation/topic/4934.html#21045







Boettcher

GPS: TomTom Via 1500







Post MiniTool for examining partition     
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Try formatting with the partition tool. That should let you not only confirm there is only a single partition on the card, but also allows you to format outside of Microsoft tools.
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monikbm

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Post 2015/2016 map pilot sd card not recognized     
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Just bought a brand new Garmin map pilot SD card for my new Mercedes C300 and when I insert the card into the SD slot reader, a message appears saying: no memory sd card inserted.
HELP, just spent $500!





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Post For me, using ExFat was the trick     
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For my Nüvi 200 and a 8 GB SD card, what actually worked was to reformat it to ExFAT, and _not_ FAT32. Kind of strange, but it seems to work now...





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Post SD worked initally     
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Just tried to update old Garmin nuvi 350 maps for two days. Europe map is 3.8Gb so I needed to do SD card update but had no luck. However when getting maps for countries of my interest, SD worked fine.
So sometimes the gmapsupp.img may be too large or not working properly otherwise. And there is no way telling why maps are not loading. It may be advisable to try with smaller .img first to make sure that card is OK.





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Post Re: SD card     
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tony007 wrote:
Try putting all the maps into a folder named garmin.


This worked
Great!




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