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Garmin Zumo XT - file loading tips and the missing 'Show on map' feature.

Updated: Feb 18, 2023


The Garmin Zumo XT has become a favorite for many riders, mostly thanks to it's super bright 5.5" display and simple layout.


It's definitely a major step up from previous Zumo devices.


We've tried it, it's nice, however it's still a Zumo, which is great if you're looking for a feature rich device that handles routing really well.


You'd also have to be happy missing out on some of the map features that keeps the Montana/Tread on top of the list as the best solution for following tracks and having waypoint icons & text visible on the map.


It's not by any means a bad device, but it has been the most problematic for many users, simply because it requires more steps than it should for simple actions.


One of the most common issues has been the missing 'show on map' feature from the tracks menu.

When you have multiple tracks all showing on the screen together, it can be a real pain, there's plenty of work arounds we've seen riders doing, ie: changing each non-current track colours to white or black and the current track to magenta. Once they finish that track or Stage, changing it's colour and then doing it all over again for the next stage.


You can just import the single track (or stage) that you want.

  1. Apps ->Tracks, tap the spanner in the top left, then Import, rather than selecting all, only select the individual track/stage that you want. Once finished delete it from the map screen using the steps in 2.

  2. Apps ->Tracks, from saved tracks, tap the spanner again, then select Delete, from here you can choose which track(s) to remove.

Repeat for each track/stage.

Don't worry, this doesn't remove the tracks from the Zumo, if you want to bring back a previous track, just return to step 1 above.


If you want the 'Show on Map' feature for tracks, follow these steps


You can access the developer mode and disconnect your XT from the Explore App.


Note: before doing this, you should import all of your tracks you want to save by following the steps in 1. above, as disconnecting from Explore may result in your tracks becoming unavailable on the XT, if this happens, just send them across again after you've disconnected. Not a big deal if you still have them on your phone. It's just something to be aware of if you don't have access to them.

Here's how:

1. Main Screen -> View Map -> Tap the Speed button on the bottom left of the screen.(beside the back arrow)


2. On the new screen, press on the speedo display (top centre of screen) for ten seconds and the diagnostics page will appear.


3. Scroll down to >Developer Tests and Tools, tap the arrow


4. Scroll down to >Reset Explore Database, tap it.


5. Use the back button until you get back to the main screen again.


6. Tap Where To? ->Explore, it will show the set up again for connecting the Explore App - this means it's no longer connected, now hit the Cancel button and the back button again to return to the home screen.


Now you've done that, you can go to Apps ->Tracks, select the track you want, then tap the spanner icon, from here you can scroll down and select Show on Map, the menu also allows you to edit other display properties ie: colour track width.


Note: if the above does not work correctly and your device continues to sync with Explore even after showing the connection is no longer active, reset your device and skip the Explore setup when restarting.

If you want to reconnect to Explore at any time,

1. Tap Where To? ->Explore, it will show the set up again for connecting the Explore App - select Connect Now.


 

There's been a lot of questions about the best way to add or sync files to the XT, and the 3 best ways are.

  1. Send to device from basecamp

  2. Drag and drop from your computer to the SD Card or internal storage (SD Card) of the Zumo XT. To do this, open the folder location, open the folder named Garmin, then the folder named GPX, send, copy or drag and drop the .gpx file here.

  3. From your phone, find the .gpx file (either in the phones local file folder or from your Google drive, onedrive, etc) select the file, your phone apps will now appear, select Garmin Drive and wait until a box appears, hit the send button. You'll see a notification on the phone saying the file is being sent. Your XT will also give an on screen notification that the files have been added.


If you have the Explore App still linked, you can select that instead of Garmin Drive in 3 above.


We recommend not importing your .gpx file into the web version of Garmin Explore and syncing, if you have one .gpx file that contains multiple tracks, it will rename all tracks as the folder name, some segments will be either deleted or joined, amongst other problems with duplications etc.


If you do wish to do via the online version, we recommend extracting each track and uploading it individually, but that's pretty time consuming and has no benefit at all.


 

It all seems pretty complicated, but if you spend some time, you'll have it handled like a pro in no time.


There's many ways of performing the actions above, there's also a few pitfalls, we've spent many hours with the XT now and these are just some of the ways we recommend that will help.


We'll add more to this article on waypoints, collections, drive reboots,duplications and other known XT issues as soon as we can.


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