Hi, I've recently purchased a Garmin Edge 1000 and I cannot download a route to it straight from gypsies or other websites. Every time I click on the export to garmin button it says " you need garmin communicator plugin " although I have the latest version 4.2.0 it's driving me mad. I have tried to uninstall and re download the plugin I've tried to do it through Google chrome, I have Internet explorer 11 I think. The main reason for buying the thing was to follow routes that people have uploaded but I am having trouble with it. I have managed to load a route from garmin connect but it hasn't got a lot of routes and nothing around the area where I live. Gypsies gas loads of routes that I would ride but as mentioned it won't export .Any help would be massively appreciated.
Thanks
Chrome doesn't support Communicator, but IE11 should be fine.
Or
Download the file from the site
Connect Garmin via a cable
Copy the downloaded file into the 'new files' folder on your Garmin.
Unplug, turn on and it'll create as a course.
I find it better to download a gpx track then as above, navigate to gamin/new files and copy the gpx there. You can then select the route on the device.
Have you downloaded Garmin Express?
I only started getting trouble the other week. Tried a few different browsers but only Safari worked.
I'd you haven't, and can get communicator working, then stick with communicator as Garmin express is a buggy mess.Have you downloaded Garmin Express?
Ah ok - I'll watch out for that.
Thanks for the replies , I have Garmin Express. Also I have tried to just download the tracks, when I download and click open it won't open from my download list in my computer. The download is only about 26kb which doesn't seem much ?
I must emphasise I'm not very computer literate, in fact I'm ready to throw the bloody thing out of the window 🙂
Has anyone else had the same issues ?
Yes,tried for about an hour.downloaded opera and worked straight away.
Chrome pulled support for it in a recent update, just in the past few weeks. You can enable it again though by re-enabling the NPAPI plugin in the settings.
Have you enabled/trusted the plugin? I only use safari, but when you first run it I asks if you want to trust the device, you need to allow it. There may well be a setting in ie you've got that's blocking the plugin from working. I've never got the garmin downloader to work out of the gpsies site directly, I normally download to the computer, reupload to bikehike and make any amendments, then download to garmin.
If you do it manually like described above then make sure you download as tcx not gpx. It won't open on your computer but it doesn't need to, just copy it to the new files folder as mentioned. Then when you unplug your garmin and boot it up it will save the route into the correct place for you and show up in your courses folder.
when I download and click open it won't open from my download list in my computer.
No need to open the downloaded file if I read that correctly. Just copy the file from the downloads folder into the new files folder on the garmin device.
you can enable/install the piggin to your hearts content ... it
doesn't work with chrome 🙁
i used rwgps to track mileage and because of this "feature" I'm
now using Firefox which seems to work (for now !!!)
certainly the easiest method is to export the route (gpx or tcx)
then drag and drop from the computer to the garmin. just don't
put the files in courses like i did once 😉
Also I have tried to just download the tracks, when I download and click open it won't open from my download list in my computer. The download is only about 26kb which doesn't seem much ?
No need to open the file on your computer, just plug the Garmin into the USB port on PC and copy it straight over to the folder Garmin / New Files on your Garmin unit.
26kb is about right - they are just very simple text files, there's not a lot to them.
I've been uploading my Edge 810 rides to Garmin Connect (and then onto Strava) via my phone lately, when it works it's great, but often it takes more than one try.
I'm sure the Edge 1000 can do the same, saves all that messing around with wiggly wires (although you still need to plugin to charge).
yeah drag and drop. "communicator" "express" are anything but, they'll suck your time working out why it's not working and downloading updates when you'r up to date anyway.
Courses to until via folders as above, manual upload to strava via USB and file folders, means you can avoid that direction too, and avoid the garmin connect website.
Out of interest...why do people.download routes to follow? Why don't they just go explore and follow the routes in front of them?
Genuine question rather than a wind-up...I don't understand why people would do this, hence my question.
Out of interest...why do people.download routes to follow?
So that you get to ride the good stuff in unfamiliar areas. Well that's why I do it.
Same reason people have been describing journeys and following others for millenia.
To share experiences. It's what we do. Fun for everyone.
Birds do it, bees do it, etc.
On a slightly related but maybe unrelated note it looks like my Garmin Edge Touring is causing my computer to switch off its wifi connection when I plug it in to log routes. Is this likely or is there another reason my computer is doing this. Google alluded to Garmin and wifi problems but I could not really find much.
If anyone else has seen this how do they get round it?
Garmin are such a crock of shit when it comes to software aren't they. I've had an Edge 705 for a few years now, it's great on the bike. Well apart from that time it corrupted and reset itself and lost all my routes.
But the PC connection has been an endless fight, if I plug it in with any cable other than the one it comes with it'll appear on the computer, but refuse to sync. The plugin must of been reinstalled a hundred times over the years to keep it working. And now it doesn't work on Chrome, even though it has moderately happily worked for the last, what, 4 years?
I installed the Express stuff and it works, but it hasn't bothered to install an icon for itself, so I'd have no idea which button to press to open it if it wasn't for the fact that every single other software company manages to install an icon. No doubt they'll come up with something else I need to use in 12 months time, hopefully that'll come with an icon.
All that time and money spent trying to compete with Strava by adding crap to the Garmin Connect website, now it's a complete mess. But without the plugin I have to bounce everything into connect so that it then syncs to Strava.
Can't believe no one has taken them on with the hardware side of things, with the mess they've made of their software, they're ripe for the picking by someone that can do things better.
Out of interest...why do people.download routes to follow? Why don't they just go explore and follow the routes in front of them?Genuine question rather than a wind-up...I don't understand why people would do this, hence my question.
Uusually because my time on the bike is limited so I don't want to spend half the ride time looking at maps
And bang on cue, Express is refusing to connect to the device!
The most recent express, pushed to my PC whilst I've been unable to cycle, has given up trying to upload any activities. A little embarrassing when a real PC was standing over my shoulder as I tried to upload my last ride as evidence. I did it manually in the end.
I uninstalled all Garmin software and plug-ins and still didn't work. So I've reloaded the plug-in and running it in Chrome to Strava with the tip above.
The plugin doesn't work for me with Chrome, but works fine with Firefox.
I am sad/happy to read this thread. I thought I was being incompetent...
🙂
Out of interest...why do people.download routes to follow? Why don't they just go explore and follow the routes in front of them?
Depends dunnit? If taking the "wrong" fork at the top of the hill will mean you lose all your height on a road rather than an awesome contouring singletrack, you're going to want to know which fork to take. 10 years I'd have had a Landranger map with pencil marks on it, and would have stopped periodically to work out where I was, now I've a Garmin, and it makes an annoying sound when it thinks I'm getting lost.
Fair enough...I'm obviously still wired up for older times...I never consider it a wrong turn, just part of the adventure...but then I don't check a map either...I just follow a trail and see where it goes...which explains why I don't get the need to follow a route and be hand held round a ride. However, I can see why it is a benefit for others.