E. Buygum
Registered user
My notebook didn't have enough disk space (it has a 16GB SSD) to go through full map update so I did some digging. If this has been posted before, my apologies: search was not my feckin friend when I looked on this forum 
This post isn't about getting round Garmin licensing, by the way.
Basically, there are just two folders/files involved in the update of maps: the maps themselves and an associated unlock code file. Replace old with new and you have updated your maps. This means once you have updated your first PC, in my case a desktop with large disk, you can stick these two folders/ files on an SD card (or whatever) and move to second PC.
If you go through the full update process, both versions of the map coexist temporarily which is why I was running out of disk space. By deleting the old maps first and dragging and dropping new maps to the appropriate folders, you avoid this; it's also a lot quicker. Clearly, you do need to go through the install process at least once to get the appropriate unlock code file generated for your unit, so this post is only intended to assist for second and subsequent updates.
The maps are in a big .gmap folder in:
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Garmin\Maps
Unlock codes are saved in .gma files in this folder:
%APPDATA%\Garmin\Maps
%APPDATA%, %ALLUSERSPROFILE% depend on your version of Windows. To find out where they are, paste*%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Garmin\Maps and then %APPDATA%\Garmin\Maps*into the adress bar of a windows explorer window and press Enter. Window will do the "translation" automatically.
The above is a summary from: https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?t=16779.
On a related note, I believe that installing Mapsource for the first time normally inevitably involves an installation of maps (i.e. from installation CD) which is a pain if you intend to immediately update Maps and possibly Mapsource itself.
This link http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-to-install-mapsource-if-it-didnt-come-with-your-gps/ shows a quick way to install a recent version of Mapsource without any maps. You can then drop up to date maps and unlock file into place as above. I have just done this on my wife's new laptop and so got Mapsource with latest maps installed in a few minutes without having to dig out the original install disk. It worked a treat.
This post isn't about getting round Garmin licensing, by the way.Basically, there are just two folders/files involved in the update of maps: the maps themselves and an associated unlock code file. Replace old with new and you have updated your maps. This means once you have updated your first PC, in my case a desktop with large disk, you can stick these two folders/ files on an SD card (or whatever) and move to second PC.
If you go through the full update process, both versions of the map coexist temporarily which is why I was running out of disk space. By deleting the old maps first and dragging and dropping new maps to the appropriate folders, you avoid this; it's also a lot quicker. Clearly, you do need to go through the install process at least once to get the appropriate unlock code file generated for your unit, so this post is only intended to assist for second and subsequent updates.
The maps are in a big .gmap folder in:
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Garmin\Maps
Unlock codes are saved in .gma files in this folder:
%APPDATA%\Garmin\Maps
%APPDATA%, %ALLUSERSPROFILE% depend on your version of Windows. To find out where they are, paste*%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Garmin\Maps and then %APPDATA%\Garmin\Maps*into the adress bar of a windows explorer window and press Enter. Window will do the "translation" automatically.
The above is a summary from: https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?t=16779.
On a related note, I believe that installing Mapsource for the first time normally inevitably involves an installation of maps (i.e. from installation CD) which is a pain if you intend to immediately update Maps and possibly Mapsource itself.
This link http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-to-install-mapsource-if-it-didnt-come-with-your-gps/ shows a quick way to install a recent version of Mapsource without any maps. You can then drop up to date maps and unlock file into place as above. I have just done this on my wife's new laptop and so got Mapsource with latest maps installed in a few minutes without having to dig out the original install disk. It worked a treat.
