Zumo 550- Anyone Still Able To Update The Maps

[Andrew Shadow]

I still have a Zumo 550. Years ago I purchased a lifetime map update subscription for all of North America. I have not been able to load the map updates in to the Zumo internal memory for years because the file became to big. I have been putting the maps on an 8 GB SD card. Regardless of the size of the SD card the Zumo 550 is not capable of processing any individual file that exceeds 2 GB. Once the map updates exceeded 2 GB this was not a big problem either. I simply loaded all of the Provinces/States that are directly around me in to the Zumo internal memory and the rest of North America I loaded on to the SD card. Because neither of these two files exceeded 2 GB this wasn't a problem. I have been doing the map updates this way for years and this has always worked flawlessly.

I currently have North America map update 2023.20 installed on the 550. I checked for an update and now I have update capability for Canada and the US Border states only instead of all of North America. I tried to do this update and it failed. I tried again selecting to install the update on my PC only. This failed also. I logged in to my Garmin account and went looking for a reason why and found the below statement from Garmin;

Map Updates and Downloadable Content No Longer Available to Download or Purchase
In accordance with the Lifetime Maps and Maps Terms and Conditions, map updates and/or Downloadable Content (DLC) are no longer available to download or purchase and cannot be activated and/or associated with your device. This is due to these devices not having sufficient memory capacity and other required technical capabilities to utilize current map data.

I also have a Zumo 595LM which I have updated successfully on both the device and my PC, but I don't think that it is possible to get that update to work on the 550.
What I am wondering is if anyone has figured out a way to update the 550, or I am just going to have to use the 2023.20 map version and never be able to update it again. This isn't the end of the world by any means, but if there is a way that I could keep the maps up to date on my 550 I would like to.

 

[Red.Rider]

Are you deleting the old .img file from the Zumo 550 first to free up storage space?

I would suggest you connect the Zumo to your computer and copy all the files from the Zumo to a new folder on your PC as a backup. (I like to use a program called 'TeraCopy pro' for things like this, it checks for errors while copying and you can even save the hash) Then look for a .img file on the Zumo. Mine is "gmapsupp.img" and is the largest single file in the Garmin folder. Delete that file

Download the new maps only to your computer, and use Mapinstall to install what map sections that you want on your Zumo - you should now have more than enough room now. (The maps that I use on the West Coast are only about 150mb in size)

If you don't know about 'Ninite' it lets you package up popular software into one easy file. It's quick, safe and clean - you can find TeraCopy there

Ninite - Install or Update Multiple Apps at Once

The easiest, fastest way to update or install software. Ninite downloads and installs programs automatically in the background.

ninite.com

 

[jfheilman]

You might want to visit this forum.

Zumo Users Forum

I stil have by Zumo 550 and I did not do the last update that I was allowed to do (don't remember the Map version) because they started using upper and lower case letter for streets.

Here is one comment from the link below:

Re: Is my Zumo 550 now a paperweight​

• 
  
• 
  

Post by Florida Red Wing » Wed Jan 04, 2023 2:16 pm

Great news. I was able to get the most recent maps loaded to my Zumo 550 with email help from mother Garmin.

Here are the details leading up to the problem:
1. I own a Zumo 550 and a Zumo XT.
2. The maps on my pc were loaded with the Zumo XT attached.
3. I was trying to use MapInstall to load the new maps on the Zumo 550 from my pc.

Here is the resolution:
1. Remove all maps from the SD card that resides in the Zumo 550.
2. Attach the Zumo 550 to my pc and reload the latest map version to the pc only.
3. Disconnect the Zumo 550 from the pc.
4. Put the SD card from the Zumo 550 in the pc.
5. Use MapInstall to transfer the maps from the pc to the Zumo 550.

So apparently, maps only become unlocked during the download process from Garmin. In other words, if I loaded my pc with maps that were downloaded while the Zumo XT was attached, those maps cannot be unlocked on the Zumo 550. I had to load maps to the pc while the Zumo 550 was attached to the pc in order for them to be unlocked on the Zumo 550.

I hope I explained this well enough that it may help someone in the future.

End of comment

Link that has the above message.

Is My Zumo 550 a Paperweight

 

[Red.Rider]

Each Garmin device has a 'Unit ID'. For example, to find the Unit ID of a 550:
Menu screen > Spanner > System > About:

The maps are unlocked based on this Unit ID and an unlock code is generated for that ID and that ID only. I think one of the reasons Garmin did away with their 'MapSource' program is because there were hack tools that you could use to generate an unlock code and manually enter it into the MapSource program to unlock the map. Once the map was unlocked, it would work on any device

If you want to download a map update from Garmin onto your PC, you need to have a device attached to do so. If you go into the Maps folder on a PC:

C:\Users\**UserName**\AppData\Roaming\Garmin\Maps

you should see a file "UnlockCodes.ucx". If you open that file with a text editor (notepad, or notepad++ for example) you will see your Unit ID as well as the unlock code. The code is only good for that Unit ID

 

[Andrew Shadow]

Are you deleting the old .img file from the Zumo 550 first to free up storage space?

Yes.

Then look for a .img file on the Zumo. Mine is "gmapsupp.img" and is the largest single file in the Garmin folder. Delete that file

I have been doing the updates this way for years. This isn't the issue.

Download the new maps only to your computer, and use Mapinstall to install what map sections that you want on your Zumo - you should now have more than enough room now. (The maps that I use on the West Coast are only about 150mb in size)

I can't, see below.

I tried to do this update and it failed. I tried again selecting to install the update on my PC only. This failed also. I logged in to my Garmin account and went looking for a reason why and found the below statement from Garmin;

Map Updates and Downloadable Content No Longer Available to Download or Purchase
In accordance with the Lifetime Maps and Maps Terms and Conditions, map updates and/or Downloadable Content (DLC) are no longer available to download or purchase and cannot be activated and/or associated with your device. This is due to these devices not having sufficient memory capacity and other required technical capabilities to utilize current map data.

If you want to download a map update from Garmin onto your PC, you need to have a device attached to do so.

The 550 was connected, and being recognized.
The only update available is an old one- version 2023.20. No further updates are being made available from what I understand and I can't download this one either- see above.

I had to load maps to the pc while the Zumo 550 was attached to the pc in order for them to be unlocked on the Zumo 550.

Can't download any maps to the PC even while the 550 is connected- see above.

Have any of you managed to update your 550 maps recently?
I encountered this yesterday when trying to update the 550.