I've noticed the new maps include display of speed limits for many streets. The 2008 maps only showed them for highways, IIRC.

I just wonder if I can delete files left on my C drive when the update is done, they're taking up lots of space.

I just purchased my Nuvi 680 on the week-end (gave my 650 to my father-in-law). I noticed that the up-grades on 2009 don't include my area where there were several new roads and freeways opened within the last 2 years and aren't on the 2008 maps.

If I don't register the 680, do they allow an up-grade to the 2010 maps when they come available next year?

David,

You can definitely delete the old files, basically the downloaded file is already on your GPS device, although, if in the future you need to reinstall those maps, you will have to download the file again... not a big worry as I'm sure it will be available in the future.

Rec'd a Nuvi 760 as a Dec/07 Xmas present......like approx FOUR months ago. Wonder why this unit is not eligible for the 2009 upgrade. Seems kinda chintzy on Garmins part !

I think to have to find out yourself by registering your GPS at garmin. Also if you're qualified for free update, don't forget to download the map within one month from you activated the update at garmin.com, otherwise it'll get expired, at least that's what they say on their website.

I have the Street Pilot c330 and just registered on Garmin.com. Garmin does show an update for my unit but only if I buy the software. Am I doing something wrong or not looking at the right area?

Is there a time limit for installing the 2009 map on the GPS once you have downloaded it from the garmin site? Also if you quit the map update ( at the first dialogue window before the gps is connected)do you have to run the whole extraction file again?

Anyone???
I purchased my Nuvi 680 last week-end.
If I don't register the 680, will they allow an up-grade to the 2010 maps when they come available next year?

My family has 3 Garmin GPS units....why should we have to buy 3 map updates?? So much for Garmin loyalty. I understand it from a business perspective but hate it as a customer....

OK I see it saying City Nav NA AT 2008 but not 2009 and under it it still shows City Nav Lower 48 States NT 2008 is this OK? and should i be worried if while doing the Download my Wonderful Laptop decided to snooze on me?

Fletch:

You stated: "If you purchased a qualified Garmin GPS recently (or even if you purchased it a long time ago but never registered it on Garmin's website), Garmin will give you the update for free."

How long is long?

I recently purchased my Nuvi 680. The new update doesn't cover some of the recent (last 2 years) major road openings locally, so I've hoping they'll be on for 2010.

If I don't register the 680, will they allow an up-grade to the 2010 maps when they come available next year?

I just installed this and did a spot check. The 2009 maps seem to have deleted a few places around where I live. Several restaurants and a convenience store which are still there and were on the 2008 maps. When I upgraded to the 2008 maps they put several locations on the wrong side of the road and the previous version has it right. I do hope that for all this money there will be some improvement and not a worsening of the situation.

Well, I just registered my Nuvi 780 that was purchased 2 days ago. The Garmin website is only offering me the option to BUY the 2009 update for $70.00. Although everything about my unit seemed to be new (packaging, protective screen sticker, initial setup process, etc.), the First Satellite Acquisition Date is indicated as Feb 1, 2008. According to the Garmin support site: "Based on the First Satellite Acquisition information, you may be eligible for free Map Update." Evidently, the 30 day upgrade period applies to this first acquisition date rather than the registration date. In the meantime, I will be taking this issue up with the retailer for possible return or exchange. It seems to me that Garmin is inviting a heap of trouble for both themselves and their their retailers.

When you know that the reported first use date is incorrect when you register, why would you not call Garmin customer service? It should be quite simple to straighten this out talking to a live person. The website is simply reading a file date.

Of course, you are right, it should be quite simple. Whether it will be remains to be seen. I will follow your suggestion and contact a live person at Garmin Monday. Thanks !

Ugh, I purchased the Map Update 2008 just 5 weeks ago! Any suggestions on getting Garmin to give me discount on the Map Update 2009?

I own a Nuvi 260 and downloaded the 2009 maps for free. One issue that has not been brought up is that my unit will not install both the lower 48 United States and Canada. I have 4 choices:
1) Lower 48
2) Eastern US and Canada
3) Western US and Canada
4) Canada and bordering US states.

Garmin Support has this to say:
"Thank you for contacting Garmin International. Unfortunately this is a limitation with the unit and you would either have to install the lower 48 states or the Canadian states to the unit, and this are interchangeable..."

This issue may not concern most but I live 12 miles from the Canadian border so losing Canada is an issue for me. For now I've decided to stick with the 2008 maps unless someone can give me another compelling reason to upgrade other than it's cool to have the latest maps.

I just updated my nuvi a few days ago.

The newer neighborhoods in my area that wasn't in the '08 are now there. :-) Yay.

Also RT-27, a main artery that stretches across the south shore of Long Island NY has been restored to its original name. 'Sunrise Highway' as popularly known for decades instead of POW-MIA Memorial Highway.

It was annoying to see 'Turn right onto POW-MIA in 200 ft' and mumble to myself 'Sunrise dammit....get it right!'

PROBLEM TAKEN CARE OF:
I just got the Nuvi 760 on 6/6/08 and was told on the website that I could "buy" the new 2009 maps, not get them for free.

After calling Garmin support and being on hold almost 20 minutes, I spoke to a customer service rep "Peggy" who was unaware of any issues. But she discovered what someone here found- it is THEIR issue as the computer uses the 1st satellite aquistion date. That means someone in the factory turned the unit on to make sure it works, and caused us the problem when we bought it.
I had to forward her my e-mail confirmation from Costco showing when I bought the unit, which she confirmed she had while I talked with her, and she told me I would have an e-mail today letting me know when the issue was taken care of. NICE!

I though I read somewhere that the 2009 Update now shows the posted speed limit on the current road your driving on.

I have a Nuvi 660 with the updates 2009 maps and I dont notice that anywhere. In navigation mode or just when driving around.

I am in Metro Hartford CT.

For Keith...My Nuvi 760 (with 2008 maps) shows the speed limit on the left-hand side of the screen ONLY if the speed has been programmed in along with the street. I have found it displayed mostly on highways so far. I will be upgrading to 2009 ASAP and expect it to be the same.

In most parts of the country, speed limit data is displayed for secondary and local roads in addition to the primary's, such as interstates and toll-roads after updating to nt2009. This applies (for now) to the 700's, 800's and reportedly the new 2x5 series.

After all of the trouble to update, the map still does not contain the neighborhood roads around my house that have been there for years, and still lists businesses in the area that have been gone for over 4 years... sigh.

I bought the 760 for father's day. It worked great. I thought the 2009 map update would take care of the few minor issues we saw... wrong! Now, almost everything is off.

Where am I info was correct, now it goes through 6-10 addresses on our street, none of them ours, most do not even exist.. it ends up going between two addresses a few houses north of us.

When we were out earlier, every POI we chose had incorrect directions. Had we listened to nuvi760, we might be in Utah. ;)

Does it take a while for the info to settle in? Or are there big issues here? I am sorry I updated the maps.

Thanks from a GPS newbie.

New GPS user~

If I upgrade to the 2009 Maps, will I lose my previous saved Favorites?

I bought my 860 about 15 months ago and registered online with Garmin. In fall 2007, I downloaded and installed the North America 2008 NT maps. When I heard the 2009 NT was available, I logged on, and was not eligible for a free update, so ended up buying the NA2009 NT disc at a local Radi0 $hack. Installation went flawlessly (yes, it really did take over 1.5 hours!), and all my favorites were intact.

I just started my 2009 update on my 330. The limitation of not being able to install for all of North America (both Canada and the US) is a real concern. I live in Canada and enjoy driving all over the US, but now I can only have either Canada or US on my GPS but not both at the same time. I think that Garmin had better start talking to their clients (and listening) before issuing new updates, or at least identify these limitations on the packaging!

Here's a tip for you. I build my own computers and my boot drive is not C. The map update is the first program I've seen that insists on writing to the C: drive, instead of the default drive. Good grief. So I dug out a 4GB memory stick and made sure it was the C: drive (via disk management). Works. Slower of course.

after i installed the 2009 map update, the map image was black instead of white. how do i change it back to white?

I downloaded a 2009 update to NUVI 680. Every thing went fine till I hit trouble with server. This happened after I entered the new product key. How do I get back to Product Key screen on install program or is there a way to unlock the new map?

I purchased a nuvi 760 last week and registered to get the 2009 updates. Knowing about the "First Satellite Acquisition" issue, I called Garmin to have them reset the date.

Customer service rep said the unit was activated on January 1st, 2008, and that it was not a factory test, but that the retailer had opened the device. Of course, when I first turned on the 760, the map centered on Taiwan, so I'm fairly certain my retailer (based in NY) couldn't have messed with the unit. As with Vinnie Z (above), Garmin will reset the date once they receive my purchase receipt -- but who knows how long it will take (the rep said she has to forward it to her sup for review).

Upon mentioning that I had read on various forums that other customers were having the same "false activation" factory test problem, the rep advised me not to read said sites.

i bought the Garmin 200 few days ago.
I just registered my device on garmin website and try to get the updated 2009 map for free. But after registration, the only option for me is still "buy” the map.

anyone facing same problem?

First Satellite Acquired: Jul 5, 2008

Purchased my 200 yesterday and it already had 2009 on it.

I was able to download the 2GB package for 2009 from Garmin, I connect my Nuvi 250w to the computer, its recognized as such but the Garmin program itself starts the update, then an error message appears that its unable to communicate to the unit and terminates the update. Any ideas of what to do. Still waiting an email from Garmin.

help!
i'm trying to install the 2009 update (free download) i've gotten to the point of transferring it to my unit.
i can't get to the screen that needs the product key. it' telling me i have no internet connection
i do...i even disable norton security and windows firewall but it won't recognize my connection. what's up? thanks.

update:
it's not into my nuvi 350 yet...i meant my computer but the map trasfer isn't happening due to the "no internet connection" message. (i do have connection).

Please help. I was trying to download a free update as I just bought my nuvi and the website told me that it had an HTML 500 error. What is up w/ that?

Mitch, I'm having the same problem. Both Circuit City and Best Buy have had some good deals on this units for the past couple weeks and I wonder if it has anything to do with the amount of people who have been getting the updates.

I got the update downloaded today, but when I go to install it, it tells me there is was an error connecting to the Garmin server.

It's rather annoying that it has to extract itself each time I try to install it.

tcs, I had the same problem. it's because your 30 days has expired, even though YOU never turned it on, someone else did before you so that was the date they went by. Mine was back in april. I had to call Garmin, be on hold for 20 min, then email the rep a scan of my receipt. I relogged into my account and the dl was made available. hope that helps!

So I finally was able to download the 2009 update, however now it will not open when I click it on my desktop. I have vista and all I see is the spinning circle. It worked once when I put the usb in the computer after I double clicked, but then when I went to update, it told me I needed 39 more MB which I dont know how to get. Do I need to buy a SD card just to make this work?

@Brian X.:

I had the same problem as you...

Try this on you internet explorer:

Tools> Internet Options> Connections > Lan Settings and make sure the checkbox with "Automatically Detect Settings" is checked.

It worked for me

@Mitch

I think it says you need more space on your computer rather than on the device. The maps are first extracted from the update exe to your C drive and then are copied to your device. Just make sire you have 3GB space on your C: drive

I just updated my garmin (Would have been quicker just to go buy and read a damn map) and now I would like to reclaim the 3 gigs of space used on my computer. Where do I find the files so I can delete them on a mac?

Bryant

When I tried downloading the 2009 City Navigator update to my Nuvi 360 through using Mapsource, I realized that there was not enough space on my GPS's internal drive. So I had to install only parts of the North America map. Is there a way to delete the old (preloaded) maps from the GPS drive so as to free more disk space? I didn't find anything about this on Mapsource Help or in my device manual. Anyone knows?

OK, now I got another problem. I donwloaded the 2009 update, but my GPS says it cannot unlock the maps! What to do?

What I did to remove the Garmin files from my computer was to go to "My Computer" than open the "Control Panel", then click the "Add/Remove" Icon. Look for the Garmin Maps 2009 and click it, then click the "Remove" button. This should do it.

You guys think you have problems! Down here in Australia, the maps are from 2 - 4 years out of date, seriously inaccurate, updates can't be downloaded at all and there's no Australian distributor. I think '2009' is a deceptive misnomer. They HAVE to have been created months ago, and so are really not even current for 2008.
Won't buy Garmin again - the maps aren't good enough, are too proprietary (meaning Garmin CAN gouge lots of money out of us for very little), and the support is awful.

I installed my Map Update 2009 and it says it is transfering data. But when I go to turn the gps unit on in the car, the screen says to "unlock the data." I have a 330c Street Pilot. How do I get the #$*^$!! to work?

Been trying to Download the 2009 maps for NA, but can't even get the "download manager" to work....

From what I've read, I'll stick with 2008...

I am planning to take my Garmin 750 Nuvi on a trip to Europe and have purchased the AC adapter cable with the international adapters and MapSource City Navigator Europe NT. I have a 2GB SD card installed in the unit and would like to load the Europe maps onto it. Are there any tricks or traps involved in loading an additional map set onto an SD card?

I have a streetpilot c340 and i just purchased the mapupdate 2009 from Fry's electronic. when i try to up date the it keep pop up the error " problem with the garmin server..." I called Garmin and wait for 40' to talk with special update rep.
The rep. wanted to access my computer to install the map by himself....after 1h 30' installing he told me let him check with the "server people... and send me a email for a solution, in the mean time i should try to install it" 2 days went by with out any word from him, I tried to call but could not get to him. I send him a email asking solution, now I was asked for copy of invoice. I scanned and email it to him. next day my email was replied and now the picture of the back of the DVD case which has the product key on it was requested. I took a picture of the case, the DVD, the packet and the invoice and again email them to the rep. If I want to cheat It would be faster and $save $75 by dl img and unlock utility. I called Fry to report the nonworking product. after transfer around, I was told that Fry can not do anything about it.

I have been shopping for a Garmin Nuvi 880. I have found great prices online but when I call to order I am concerned that they are trying to milead me. Got a price on $419.00 and was told the 880 had 2006 maps but for a fee they would upgrade it to 2008. Now the price would be $599.00. Is this true?

I bet you're dealing with one of the infamous anything-photo sites. They all operate pretty much the same. Stay with well-rated web vendors and authorized Garmin dealers.

After reading the possible "issues" with loading the Map Update 2009, I was wondering if there was a way to backup the 2008 maps already loaded on the C580. This would be in the event that a botched update or corrupt data on the DVD, one could go back and reload (restore) the 2008 Maps?

Thanks for your response.