Garmin Express not picking up Nuvi 3597LM serial number.

[steynja]

A colleague just called on me for assistance. He recently (< 6 months ago) purchased a Nuvi 3597LM, which includes the lifetime maps. The new City Navigator Southern Africa 2015.3 has been released recently, and he want to update his map from the current 2015.2 version to the latest one. But, because Garmin Express does not recognize/display the unit serial number, it cannot determine that the GPS is eligible for the updated map. Garmin Express does recognize the unit, and displays the correct model, but without the serial number. Does anyone have any suggestions what can be done to address the situation? TIA!

[Neil]

Do you mean the Serial Number is not showing in the 'Device' tab? It normally doesn't show that in the device selection window, only when you press the device tab:

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Garmin will disable map updates for units reported stolen. Did he buy it new or 2nd hand? Did he register it with Garmin? Has he updated maps before without problem? Maybe he should just contact Garmin support about this if he has good title to the unit.

[catymag]

I guess this device is not registered at MyGarmin as Neil wrote too.

[steynja]

Thanks for all the replies. The Garmin was purchased brand new from a major chain store similar to Wallmart in the US. The device is also registered, and the previous 2015.2 was updated with Garmin Express the last time. Neil, the serial number is not displayed at all anywhere in Garmin Express. If you communicate with the device using Mapsource, it does display the serial number, and everything works at it should. I can update his Nuvi with the latest 2015.3 map with Mapinstall, but he prefers to do it the "official" way seeing that he does have lifetime maps with the unit.

[Neil]

Then he should contact Garmin as he has good title to the unit. They will fix the problem and re-instate his Lifetime Maps subscription. He could also try to update using MapUpdater instead of GE.

[steynja]

Problem solved! It seems that some Microsoft security update was the culprit. We added a rule to the windows Firewall to allow Garmin Express, and it is now working perfectly! His Nuvi was subsequently updated to the latest map. I must say calling Garmin was a kind of useless exercise! All they recommended was using another USB cable. This after we told them that we do see the Nuvi in Windows Explorer, as well as with Basecamp and Mapsource.

[Neil]

And yet GE didn't give you a message that it couldn't 'phone home' to the Garmin server. Strange ... but Garmin is Garmin after all. Lol!

Thread marked 'Solved', thanks for reporting back. This info will now help others.