Which files to delete to make more room on a Garmin device

**catymag** · 30th November 2010, 07:17 PM

Which files to delete to make more room on a Garmin device

If your unit does not have enough space you will need to remove some extra files from the unit's memory. Please be aware that the map update will take place only on the internal memory of the unit, so an SD card will unfortunately not create the additional space the device will need.
To free up the needed space, please connect your unit to your computer with a compatible USB cable and please follow these steps below:

1. If you're using a Windows PC, open the Garmin nüvi drive in MyComputer.
If you're using a Macintosh, open the Garmin nüvi drive located on the desktop.
2. Next open the JPEG folder.
3. Delete out any unwanted photos from this folder.
4. Go back and open the Garmin folder.
5. Open the 'Text' and 'Voice' folders and delete any unwanted voice and text files. For example, if you do not speak French or German then you can delete those language files. Make sure that you keep the languages that you do use, such as American English. Additionally, each language consists of two separate files. One is a .sum file, the other is a .vpm file. You will want to ensure that you keep both files for each language you keep.
6. Finally, you can open the ?Vehicle? folder and delete any unwanted or unused vehicles. You may always re-load these at a later time, should you change your mind.You may now have enough memory on your nüvi for the download to complete. Please note that some units do not have enough internal memory to load the entire map update. In such an instance, you'll be prompted to select a specific region to load into the unit. For these units, you can use MapInstall (which is installed during the update process) to load the rest of the maps to a memory card. I've attached a document that will assist you with this particular process.

Please only delete the files recommended. Do not delete any other files or you may corrupt the software in your nüvi

thanks EPETE111

Kanopus · 30th November 2010, 09:02 PM

You can get following savings:
- voice files about 40MB
- unused vehicle 10MB
- text files about 10MB

Next you can remove help files, no more needed, when you removed language text files. Go to \Garmin\Help directory and remove unneeded subdirectories. You can get additional 2MB.

You can clean track archive, on my nuvi there is subdirectory \Garmin\GPX\Archive. Nuvi gather current track in file Current.gpx. When it grows too big, old content is copied to Archive subdirectory and saved as 1.gpx, 2.gpx etc. You can copy archived tracks to PC and delete from nuvi. Archive directory can contain several MB of data.

Last, but not least you can change basemap in your nuvi. Basemap is contained in file gmapbmap.img in \Garmin or \.System directory. Current nuvis use basemap with DEM data, map has about 100MB. You can swap it with map without DEM, with size form 7 up to 30MB.

I recommend to make a full copy of nuvi content on PC before any attempt to remove files.

**Giomen** · 30th November 2010, 09:46 PM

Just three remark!
1) On some device like Nuvi 2x5 when you delete text file you also lost abilities of keyboard on that language.
2) You can clean track archive, on my nuvi there is subdirectory \Garmin\GPX\Archive. But new data will again record by passing time (limit in hardware - 20 archived files is about 20Mb) and if you do not have reservation for that volume, device will not have sufficient memory for recording service files sometomes that is not good.
3) Deleting help files give much more size on disk then 2Mb. Due specification file system many little files as help required more space on disk in about four times.

Kanopus · 30th November 2010, 10:44 PM

I agree with you

I have checked help files size, including file system peculiarity, savings can be up to 10MB.

**joepjoep** · 6th March 2011, 07:54 PM

Nice tips but also remember the superfluous parts of a map.
If you have your maps up and running in mapsource, then remove the areas you don't need. This will soon save hundreds of mega bytes.

hama2001 · 14th October 2011, 02:00 PM

Hi,
I have deleted TEXT,HELP,KEYBOARD Folders for more room without Backup.
How can I restore those folders.
Thanks.

**catymag** · 14th October 2011, 02:20 PM

Originally Posted by hama2001

Hi,
I have deleted TEXT,HELP,KEYBOARD Folders for more room without Backup.
How can I restore those folders.
Thanks.

Use webupdater, download all the files you need, than do a backup on your pc of all your Nuvi content.
This should be the first thing a user should do after buying a device.
Remember to enable hidden files and folders in your Windows.

**rams1984** · 4th February 2012, 02:15 PM

I have deleted my help folder. But I would like to install it again. But the webupdater is not detecting that. Help plz

**catymag** · 4th February 2012, 02:49 PM

go here

Code:

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if you need it for 1300, next time be more precise and display nuvi model in signature: this can help us