Experience with Tread app on an M-series Mac

For help and advice on the Garmin Zumo XT2.
proofresistant
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Re: Experience with Tread app on an M-series Mac

Post by proofresistant »

smfollen wrote: Sat Feb 28, 2026 4:15 pm I have seen points move slightly, but not significantly, when changed from a via point to a shaping point on the zumo itself.
I personally, and others, have also seen significant discrepancies.
However, interpreting what is significant and what is not is somehow also a subjective perception.

Let's see, maybe I'll create a reproducible example.


smfollen wrote: Sat Feb 28, 2026 4:15 pm A route which is on the XT2 only would have to get transferred to the Tread App during the sync and checked there before the Tread App sync'd with the Explore database.
I have never seen, nor heard report of, a route in the Tread app being changed without sync. I would guess that the route change occurs during the sync with the Explore database, but it is only a guess.
Try to question the assumption that the Explore DB is the problem.
Perhaps it's just the interaction between the Tread app and the zumo XT2, at least that's what I've observed.

Then there is also the question of what the Explore DB is?
There are at least two Explore DBs that I recognized, probably three (very likely) .
- One in the device
- One in the cloud
- And one probably (very likely) also in the Tread app
proofresistant
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Re: Experience with Tread app on an M-series Mac

Post by proofresistant »

proofresistant wrote: Sat Feb 28, 2026 4:42 pm
smfollen wrote: Sat Feb 28, 2026 4:15 pm I have seen points move slightly, but not significantly, when changed from a via point to a shaping point on the zumo itself.
I personally, and others, have also seen significant discrepancies.
However, interpreting what is significant and what is not is somehow also a subjective perception.

Let's see, maybe I'll create a reproducible example.
Here is one example (may significant discrepancies for only in my eyes)
371030 [via 2 shp] 373303.png
371030 [via 2 shp] 373303.png (1.22 MiB) Viewed 315 times
  • 1st Action:
    There were well-placed VIA (screen point 1) and Shaping (screen point 2) in my route.
    I changed a VIA (screen point 1) to a Shaping point in the zumo XT2.
  • 2nd Result:
    The zumo XT2 automatically moved (screen point 1), which is now a Shaping point, slightly to the left (screen point 3).
    So far, so good and acceptable.
    But it also moved the previously well-placed (screen point 2) to a completely different road (screen point 4).
The effect is now less than ideal.

Now about 4-5 km of a beautiful route is ruined :-(
I now drive on a main road with traffic lights and avoid the beautiful little country road through "Buchholzen", which has little traffic.

All without the Tread app, only in the zumo XT 2.
smfollen
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Re: Experience with Tread app on an M-series Mac

Post by smfollen »

@proofresistant Interesting. I certainly believe you - I just have not had that experience myself.
proofresistant
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Re: Experience with Tread app on an M-series Mac

Post by proofresistant »

smfollen wrote: Sat Feb 28, 2026 10:57 pm @proofresistant Interesting. I certainly believe you - I just have not had that experience myself.
The biggest problem with all Garmin issues is their reproducibility.
Minimal differences in situations can lead to completely different results, and you don't know why. You think you're doing everything right, and it works as desired, as always, but then suddenly the result looks completely different and you don't know why. The CEP problem is a good example of this, because even a few meters of shifted shaping or different calculation/import sequences can cause a big problem.

Take a look at the shift of a point changed from VIA to shaping. @rhoenschrat has also documented this problem well:
Garmin Hell - Via and Shaping Points | №430.2
Minute 11:20 - 12:00
jfheath
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Re: Experience with Tread app on an M-series Mac

Post by jfheath »

Take a look at this newly added section to my XT2 pages.

I’ve tested routes using the normal process of transferring gpx files to the XT2 by USB cable.
On transfer, with and without Tread being active.
Tested with via points and shaping point and again using waypoints set as both via and shaping.

XT2-P350 And subsequent pages.

I chose this test route as it is one that I sent to Product support to demonstrate how difficult it was to plan a route using the Tread App on phone or IPad. Build the route with via points, Change one to a shaping point - usually it stays more or less in the same position. Change another to a shaping point, maybe nothing happens, change a third and the route jumps onto the nearby motorway taking all three points with it.

Curiously, if you undo those last three changes with the undo button, and then repeat the same 3 actions, it doesn’t happen !

Changing a via point to a shaping point on the Zumo screen has resulted in the shaping point for a few years. It happened on the 595, but not the 590 - which was when I first reported it, and it still happens on the XT1 and XT2. It’s not just a simple rounding error of the lat/long. It always moves backwards against the flow of a route - often before a junction - and leaves open the opportunity for it to take the faster road that you wanted to avoid.

WHEN I get an hour or two, I’ll take a look at the multiple threads and see if I can reorganise. It’s a bit awkward, cos this thread started off as a different topic - Tread and Mac. Might be best to close a couple for additional comments, and provide a link to the active topic.
Have owned Zumo 550, 660 == Now have Zumo XT2, XT, 595, 590, Headache
Use Basecamp (mainly), MyRouteApp (sometimes), Competent with Tread for XT2, Can use Explore for XT - but it offers nothing that I want !

Links: Zumo 590s . Zumo XT & BC . Zumo Navigation Booklet . Zumo XT2
abowen500
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Re: Experience with Tread app on an M-series Mac

Post by abowen500 »

Bringing this thread back around to the topic of Tread on an M-series Mac, I'm the original poster. Sync issues aside, the Tread app is inexcusably buggy on MacOS, iOS, and iPadOS. As I said in my first post I can do "one" thing successfully and then I need to quit and restart the Tread app before doing the next thing across any of the apps. For example, I can edit a route and the program will recalculate it and complete, the spinning wheel indicator stops. If I edit another route or try to perform a sync at that point, I'll get the spinning wheel of death and the route never finishes recalculating or syncing. I'm convinced no one at Garmin actually uses their products or software. Or perhaps, like Google, their best and brightest work on the highest profit producing projects and the more mundane things (like gmail, calendar) are "good enough" and don't get any attention. In Garmin's case I'd think it'd be aviation products.

Thank you all for your helpful and insightful comments as well as your work and investigation in documenting the modification of routes and moving of route points. I'm going back to Basecamp and/or MyRouteApp.
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