Problems transferring routes from My Route App via MacBook to Zumo XT

A rather lengthy explanation I'm afraid..............

Up until this week I have been happily using a Tomtom Rider 550, transferring routes from MRA via my MacBook and Tomtom My Drive to the device with no issues at all.

I decided to buy a Zumo XT largely because I thought the bigger screen would help my eyes, but I have had no end of problems learning to transfer routes to it!

I have been using the following procedure to send routes from My Route App on my MacBook to the XT;

1) I saved the route as GPX 1.1 to the downloads folder on the Mac.
2) Drag & drop the route from the download folder into Garmin Explore, and when loaded click “save”.
3) The route syncs with the Zumo.
4) On the Zumo go into Apps → Tracks → find track.
5) Click “convert track to trip”, select “OK”.

Having done this, on checking the Zumo, the track has been imported and saved. It can be seen in “tracks” as well as “Trip planner” but instead of the trip going from point “A” (which is approx 400m from my house) to point “B,” the Zumo seems to change the trip into a circular route with a straight line back to point “A” and the milage is affectively doubled. If I try to navigate the route, the Zumo will take me to point “A” and no further!!

I have tried repeating the exercise with different routes many times with the same result and I have no idea what is going on.

I then tried using MRA Mobile on my IPhone to export a route to the Zumo (MRA mobile also accesses the routes stored on my MacBook) as follows;

On MRA Mobile, click “My routes”.
Select the required route to export from the list, save as GPX1.1 and save to Garmin Drive on the iPhone.
This synced with the Zumo which imported the route.
A message appeared on the Zumo saying “New tracks were received and were added to tracks.”
Route appears in “Explore → tracks.”

This seemed to work, and the route can be navigated correctly. However, I need to try it with more routes, because so far I have little confidence that I can successfully send reliable routes to the Zumo, and I would prefer to be able to use the laptop to do this.

I realise I am probably the cause of these problems, but I have no idea how to solve it - I am hoping you chaps can help.

One other question - why is it necessary to save the routes into trip planner and not just leave them in “tracks”?
Is it because if you do not do this you will only see the route on the map, and will not receive turn by turn instructions?

Many thanks for any advice offered.

It often helps if you ask just one question per post, or things can very muddled get.

A track is not a route, in the sense that it does not contain all the information that a route can hold. For example, a track will not give turn by turn instructions.

This maybe explains it best:

https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=v0rJAHy2hq3prHjRlxdRw5

Where it can get extra confusing, is when third party software (in this case MyRoute) is used to create a route but the third party software then exports it as a track, which then requires conversion in either BasCamp or from within the device itself, from a track into a route. It might also get extra confusing when Garmin start renaming ‘routes’ as ‘trips’ but you’ll get used to it.

One bit of advice….. If you really want to use Google or other ‘non-Garmin’ route creation software and / or to avoid all the perceived horrors of BaseCamp, you and others really might be better off buying a TomTom from day one….. or just buying a paper map

As to why you are seeing straight lines, I’d probably hazard a guess that the problem starts from within MyRoute.

This thread and others like it (it’s a reoccurring topic) might give you some answers: https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/567250-My-Roue-App-(MRA)

I have moved the post and thread into the ‘other software’ section, only because I am pretty sure that the problem seen on the XT device, has its root cause in MyRoute.

Is the route that you are saving from MRA actually a route or is it a track that has the file extension .gpx, if you are not sure drop it into basecamp or mapsource and report back with your findings.

leedude03 said:

Is the route that you are saving from MRA actually a route or is it a track that has the file extension .gpx, if you are not sure drop it into basecamp or mapsource and report back with your findings.

Click to expand...

It is a track - saved as GPX1.1

Wapping said:

It often helps if you ask just one question per post, or things can very muddled get.

A track is not a route, in the sense that it does not contain all the information that a route can hold. For example, a track will not give turn by turn instructions.

This maybe explains it best:

https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=v0rJAHy2hq3prHjRlxdRw5

Where it can get extra confusing, is when third party software (in this case MyRoute) is used to create a route but the third party software then exports it as a track, which then requires conversion in either BasCamp or from within the device itself, from a track into a route. It might also get extra confusing when Garmin start renaming ‘routes’ as ‘trips’ but you’ll get used to it.

One bit of advice….. If you really want to use Google or other ‘non-Garmin’ route creation software and / or to avoid all the perceived horrors of BaseCamp, you and others really might be better off buying a TomTom from day one….. or just buying a paper map

Click to expand...

Well, I did explain at the start of my post that i have been using a Tomtom and only changed to the XT for the perceived benefits of a larger screen.

Try this:

Create the route in MyRouteApp on your MacBook.

Then don't try to do anything else on the MacBook at all. All your routes are cloud synced and will be immediately available on your phone, tablet, whatever....

On your phone, open the route and then do the "Save As" gpx 1.1 thing and it should pop up an option to allow you to save via Garmin Drive. This will then pop up Garmin Drive and ask if you want the route sent to the Zumo. Click on yes. If your Zumo is connected to the phone it will send immediately. If not, it will wait until the Zumo is connected and then send.

It will dump the route into Trip Planner as a saved route, and the Track into (unsurprisingly) Tracks as a track. I normally use Trip Planner as then the route gets updated with traffic information. It works well.

The beauty of this is that (as you know) you can carry all your routes on your phone and just send whatever you want to the Zumo, whenever you want to. And you can do it via bluetooth anywhere in the world without needing Wifi. It's super easy to plan routes in the evening on the laptop, then just send them to the Zumo in the morning when you are getting on the bike.

I use my route and MacBook but to nav 6 , shouldn’t be a lot if any different To load to an XT , the only thing I do different to your way is I save as GPX 1.0 not 1.1. Try it

There is now what might be two pieces of contradictory advice in this thread.

1. Post #7 says use version 1.1

2. Post #8 says use version 1

My suggestion to stroller would be to try both methods, to see which works best for him. Then report back.

The straight lines stroller is seeing, are nothing more than the XT device’s inability to display a road following route, as it lacks the data to fill in the intricate (road following) space between A and B. A track version of the route will (or at least should) carry enough data to fill in the intricate detail, allowing the XT device to render up an intricate (road following) route from the original track. Indeed, stroller in his opening post, says that it does, quite reliably.

Is a conversion of a route from track always perfect? By and large, yes or at least more often than not, yes. Where it can go awry is if the track takes roads or paths that the Garmin map does not know exist. Then the device might give up or it might show a bizarre routing (which might be accompanied by straight lines) in its attempt to join things up. You can also sometimes see the same thing happening if the track follows a one way street the ‘wrong way’ as the device will do its best to avoid taking its owner down a one way street in the wrong direction. There would be plenty of complaints if it did.

The last way a route from track conversion might result in a problem, is when the person who created the track goes wrong or just goes ‘off-route’ themselves, then then forgets to edit the error(s) out. I see this quite often in tracks I receive from third parties, particularly those I download from magazines. You can spot the errors sometimes and / or sometimes see where the bod maybe dived off just to get petrol, have lunch, maybe stop for a smoke or to take a pee in a hedge, or even apparently just stopped or diverted to some small village, maybe to catch-up with his mistress or boyfriend. If you don’t check things and blindly follow the converted route, you’ll be meeting his mistress or boyfriend, too. In short, ALWAYS check things, BEFORE you set off. Errors are relatively easy to correct when you are sat at home but can be very frustrating to amend when you are sat on the side of the road.

Please let us know how you get on, stroller, with your experiments using the v1 and v1.1 methods.

http://https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/567250-My-Roue-App-(MRA)?highlight=My+route

See post 5 on the above link OP. Good luck

DC said:

http://https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/567250-My-Roue-App-(MRA)?highlight=My+route

See post 5 on the above link OP. Good luck

Click to expand...

Link doesn’t work.

could you possibly post the track up (upload it ) so we could have a look at it, the track before and after conversion. someone then maybe able to shed some light on it.

adm1 said:

Try this:

Create the route in MyRouteApp on your MacBook.

Then don't try to do anything else on the MacBook at all. All your routes are cloud synced and will be immediately available on your phone, tablet, whatever....

On your phone, open the route and then do the "Save As" gpx 1.1 thing and it should pop up an option to allow you to save via Garmin Drive. This will then pop up Garmin Drive and ask if you want the route sent to the Zumo. Click on yes. If your Zumo is connected to the phone it will send immediately. If not, it will wait until the Zumo is connected and then send.

It will dump the route into Trip Planner as a saved route, and the Track into (unsurprisingly) Tracks as a track. I normally use Trip Planner as then the route gets updated with traffic information. It works well.

The beauty of this is that (as you know) you can carry all your routes on your phone and just send whatever you want to the Zumo, whenever you want to. And you can do it via bluetooth anywhere in the world without needing Wifi. It's super easy to plan routes in the evening on the laptop, then just send them to the Zumo in the morning when you are getting on the bike.

Click to expand...

Yes, I've done this and it does seem to work well, and I will probably rely on this in future. I am just intrigued why I can't achieve the same thing from the Macbook

Thank you chaps for your time and the helpful advice. I will carry on experimenting and will report back.

Please share your route / track with us, as Lee suggested. I use a Mac and BaseCamp and have a new Nav VI. I wonder what result it gives?

From other threads and posts, the problem might lie in your exporting the MyRoute V1.1 route (or is it a track) to your Macbook. All the perceived wisdom is that it is best to use V1. Though why V1.1 should work using the Bluetooth method is a mystery.


I don't use MyRoute, simply as I can get on with BaseCamp pretty well and do not have an XT device into which I can dump routes remotely using BlueTooth from my phone or home computer. Nor do I see any pressing need to introduce the foibles that third party software (such as MyRoute) can bring.

A quick update......
I sent a couple of short GPX 1.1 tracks from MRA on my iPhone to Garmin Explore which synced with the XT correctly. I then rode the tracks, which worked correctly, including a planned coffee stop via point, so all seems well with this method.

As a back-up method, I dug out my old PC and sent a lengthy GPX 1.1 track from MRA to Garmin Explore and transferred this to the XT via a USB connection - this also seems to work correctly.

I then tried to send the same track from the MacBook, but no joy either by Bluetooth or by USB connection. There appears to be an interface problem between the Mac and the XT, which is well beyond my capabilities to understand. Now that I am fairly confident with the iPhone method, I will continue to use this, but I will probably also have a look at Mapsource to see how I get on with that.

Did the XT appear as a drive on your MacBook? They can sometimes take a while to sync.

Wapping said:

Did the XT appear as a drive on your MacBook? They can sometimes take a while to sync.

Click to expand...

No it didn't, and this is probably the issue.

Be patient, it should appear.

If it doesn't appear, you can probably go to Disk Utility and then tell it directly to mount the (unrecognised) disk. That may fix it.

Sound a pain in the ass to me though. Just do it wirelessly from your phone.