Ability to Disable Basemap Removed?
Posted: Thu May 15, 2025 12:18 pm
G'day All,
Has the ability to disable the Basemap been removed from the 7XX series devices?
Anybody else notice that?
I bought a new Montana 700 to replace my old device that was permanently borrowed by persons unknown without authorisation
Fully charged it then turned it on for a look, had a look in the map manager to see what maps were on it, shown in map manager there was a Basemap, TopoActive Africa North, TopoActive Africa South and TopoActive Aus/Oceania.
Beside each there was the on/off slider to enable/disable them individually.
The new 700 came with Software Version 16. something or other which I knew was not the latest, so I updated it using Garmin Express to 23.30 which went without issue.
Then I used Express's 'Manage Maps' to remove the African maps as they're not required, and update the Australia/Oceania map to the latest version, which was also successful.
After doing that I checked in map manager to be sure the African maps were no longer there, which they weren't.
I also noticed that the Basemap is no longer listed in map manager, there's only Outdoor Maps+, Map Sets, Automatic Maps, then the maps themselves listed, but no Basemap.
The gmapbmap.img still shows on the 700 in mass storage mode connected to the pc.
I then went back to Express to check I hadn't removed it by accident but it can't be unchecked and removed with Express as the other maps can, there's an info note in Express stating "This map is required for your device to operate."
I then reinstalled it using Express which was apparently successful but it's still not visible in map manager.
So I guess that means Garmin has removed it from showing in map manager, probably to stop people deleting it, though it doesn't stop people from deleting manually via mass storage mode, which I did
and the 700 runs fine without it.
I've never had a basemap enabled in any Garmin device I've owned, and up until now there's always been the option available to enable or disable it.
Has the ability to disable the Basemap been removed from the 7XX series devices?
Anybody else notice that?
I bought a new Montana 700 to replace my old device that was permanently borrowed by persons unknown without authorisation
Fully charged it then turned it on for a look, had a look in the map manager to see what maps were on it, shown in map manager there was a Basemap, TopoActive Africa North, TopoActive Africa South and TopoActive Aus/Oceania.
Beside each there was the on/off slider to enable/disable them individually.
The new 700 came with Software Version 16. something or other which I knew was not the latest, so I updated it using Garmin Express to 23.30 which went without issue.
Then I used Express's 'Manage Maps' to remove the African maps as they're not required, and update the Australia/Oceania map to the latest version, which was also successful.
After doing that I checked in map manager to be sure the African maps were no longer there, which they weren't.
I also noticed that the Basemap is no longer listed in map manager, there's only Outdoor Maps+, Map Sets, Automatic Maps, then the maps themselves listed, but no Basemap.
The gmapbmap.img still shows on the 700 in mass storage mode connected to the pc.
I then went back to Express to check I hadn't removed it by accident but it can't be unchecked and removed with Express as the other maps can, there's an info note in Express stating "This map is required for your device to operate."
I then reinstalled it using Express which was apparently successful but it's still not visible in map manager.
So I guess that means Garmin has removed it from showing in map manager, probably to stop people deleting it, though it doesn't stop people from deleting manually via mass storage mode, which I did
and the 700 runs fine without it.I've never had a basemap enabled in any Garmin device I've owned, and up until now there's always been the option available to enable or disable it.