I've been using Kenwood units for years, thanks to the unlocked garmin maps. However, I got this unit recently, and it came installed with 2018.0 maps. I did what i'm used to doing, putting an unlocked image file on the SD card in Garmin/map , but it didn't work this time. When I check to see installed maps, it just shows me a spinning circle, and if I go to map view the whole thing is blank. Searching shows that newer kenwood units may have blocked this method.

I saw in another thread, using gamin express to send the same map files to the SDcard, then replace the map img. I tried that, and when I insert the SD card it just tells me "loading map" only for 3 seconds but when I check on the unit, it still tells me it's using the 2018.0 map. I'm not sure if it's actually using the newer one and just displaying the old version or not.

Any other suggestions?