Tutorial 12: Importing and Exporting Waypoints and Tracks to and from your GPS and your Computer

If you’ve never saved a waypoint or track from your GPS onto your computer, now is the time to learn. I will go through the steps of saving a .gdb file with waypoint & track information using Garmin’s BaseCamp software.

Backing up your Waypoints and Tracks using a Garmin GPS and Garmin BaseCamp software:

To watch a basic video tutorial on this process hit play below or continue below to read a more detailed version.

Having trouble watching the video?  Click here for the YouTube version.

  1. Open Garmin's BaseCamp software
  2. Start by plugging your GPS into the computer (typically through a USB port)
  3. Turn the GPS on
  4. BaseCamp will automatically detect your GPS and begin importing your data
  5. Give it a minute and your GPS will show up on the left hand side of your screen under ' Devices'
  6. The folder called 'All Data' is the Waypoint, Track, and Route data that was imported from your GPS.  Right Click on this folder and select 'Export', then save a .gdb file to your 'My Documents' or other location that is easy for you to remember.  Name it something like '06162011 Waypoints Backup'. 
  7. You now have saved all of your valuable Waypoints to your computer!  If you lose your GPS or break it, now you can easily import your data into your new Garmin GPS!
  8. Under the 'All Data' Tab at the bottom of the screen you can see a list of all the waypoints and tracks that were imported from your GPS.  You may notice there are a lot of 'Active Log' Tracks in the list.  These Tracks are breadcrumb trails of everywhere you walked when your GPS was on.  Each time you turn your GPS on a new 'Active Log' is created (As long as your 'Track Log' is set to 'On' on your GPS).  Note:  Your GPS only has a certain alotted memory for this Track log, so after a week of walking around in the woods your Track log will start saving over itself and automatically deleteing old tracks.  If you don't want to loose this data you MUST save it to your computer.
  9. A lot of these 'Active Log' Tracks are Garbage data, so you might want to delete them.  Under the 'All Data' Tab at the bottom of your screen (All Data must be highlighted under 'Devices' to see this) you can right click each of these active logs and select 'Show on Map'.  The Track will be highlighted and you can see on the map which Track this Active Log represents.  If you find a track that is worthy of saving, you will want to rename it 'Best Route to Wapiti Basin Camp' or 'Wapiti Creek Game Trail 2009'.  Sometimes these Active Logs are just a circle around your house from when you had the GPS on in your house.  Delete these 'Garbage' Active Logs.  
  10. You may notice you have multiple different trips from this data import and you may want to organize them separately on your computer.  Right Click on the 'My Collection' folder under 'Library' on the left side of your screen.  From the menu that pops up, select 'Add new list to Library'.
  11. Name your list an appropriate name for your trip.  I like to organize my trips by Date (MMDDYYYY) and Location, so I am going to name this one '06162011 Wyoming Unit 104 Elk Scouting'.  I also had a separate trip in this import from my GPS, so I will create another List ('Add New List to Library') and name it  '06252011 Montana Deer Creek Muley Scouting'
  12. With the 'All Data folder highlighted under 'Devices' I will zoom into the area where I was on my Wyoming scouting trip and select the 'Select' tool from the Toolbar at the top of the screen.  Now I 'Left click and drag' to draw a selection box around all of the waypoints and tracks that are relavent to that trip.  Select 'Edit', then 'Copy' to copy this data.  Now Select  the list you created under the 'My Collection' Folder - '06162011 Wyoming Unit 104 Elk Scouting' in this example.  Then select 'Edit' and 'Paste' to organize the data from that trip into the appropriate collection.  Repeat this step for the other trips you have in this data set.
  13. Now you will want to save each of these new lists that you have organized.  Right Click on the List under the 'My Collection' folder and select 'Export'.  Then save a .gdb file to your 'My Documents' or other location that is easy for you to remember.  Name it the same name as your List Name '06162011 Wyoming Unit 104 Elk Scouting'. 
  14. Now that you have all your data saved in 2 separate files, you can delete the data from your GPS memory if you want to.  On your GPS go to your Trip computer and press the 'Menu' button then select 'Reset'.  You may want to 'Clear Track Log' and Delete everything else.  However, you might not want to 'Delete Waypoints' - Your GPS should have plenty of memory to keep your waypoints in there.
  15. Tip: to make it easier next time you import data from your GPS, always download tracks & waypoints when you get back from a trip where you used your GPS. Then delete the track log on the GPS so the same tracks and waypoints aren’t transferred after your next trip. Stay organized and Stay Confident!  Always Backup your Backup!

 

Importing Data you have Saved on your computer to your Garmin GPS using BaseCamp:

Now when you want to go back to Wyoming on your Elk Hunt you can Bring the import the tracks and waypoints from your scouting trip into your GPS before your trip. 

  1. Open BaseCamp and plug in your GPS. 
  2. Go to 'File' - 'Open' and browse to the location where you saved your Trip data.  Open the .gdb file that pertains to your trip (06162011 Wyoming Unit 104 Elk Scouting.gdb) in our example. 
  3. Right click on 'your trip name' under 'Library' on the left side of the screen and select 'Send to' and then click on your GPS's Name.
  4. Zoom in to your area on the GPS to verify your tracks and waypoints have loaded.
  5. You're Ready for your Trip!  If you want to use BaseCamp and Google Earth to add a few Tracks and Waypoints created on the computer, see our other Tutorials - Tutorials 13 and 14.

 

I hope this tutorial helps you become familiar with your area faster!  Go Hunt Smarter!

-Eric