Viewing previous tracks

[Bobbynj66]

So I have been using GPS on my sleds since before trails were introduced to them. Using a hand held Garmin Etrex to just find my way around. I'm using a Garmin Zumo XT2 now coming from a Zumo 660. I used to use Basecamp to view and share my previous tracks with a source like GPS Trailmasters. Now this new GPS uses the Tread app on my phone which I hate. Now when I go to look at my tracks I'm finding tracks that are short(12 miles or even less) instead of my complete ride for that particular day. I'm asking you the community to help me figure out how to see my complete tracks on my laptop if possible. The particular day I'm looking for I was riding in Quebec and the naps I had loaded were off from the actual trail I was on probably because the landowner took the trail away but I cannot find it for the life of me. Any help because I need it lol

[jfheath]

Sorry this has taken so long to pick up on your first post - so first of all, welcome to the forum !@Bobbynj66
I'll take your comments one at a time :

I'm using a Garmin Zumo XT2 now coming from a Zumo 660.

The basic operation of the Zumos since the 660 was the device to lust after is very much the same - except for one important difference.
The 660 and the later zumos differ in the way that they use the term 'Via' Point. Although the term was still around with Mapsource - its menaing for the Zumos has changed.

Your XT2 has two types of route point. Via Point and Shaping Point.
Via Points appear as flags on the XT2. Shaping points appear as light blue discs.
Basecamp can create both - in fact you are probably already familiar with how to do this. In basecamp you add a route point and int he route list it will show in either black or grey text. If in grey text it will have the comment "Do not alert on arrival (Shaping Point)" alongside it in the route list.
Right click on any route point and there is an option to change it from one to the other.
Via points are the ones that alert; shaping points are the ones that do not alert.

I wrote a document relating to the Zumo 590 and Basecamp which you are welcome to download for free.
viewtopic.php?t=521

The first couple of chapters will detail all the things that you need to know about route points and routes.

I used to use Basecamp to view and share my previous tracks with a source like GPS Trailmasters.

In spite of what Basecamp tells you about not supporting the XT2, you can still use it for planning routes. I have access to other route planning software, but I still use Basecamp with my XT2. It works and in my opinion it is better than anything else that is available.

Now this new GPS uses the Tread app on my phone which I hate.

Welcome to the club. Garmin seem to have gone in a completely different direction from the way that they planned routing for the Zumo 590.
It seems that with tread, Via Points are the only points that can be relied upon. Shaping points can be moved at will. Both of them can be renamed. Not by you, but by the Tread software and by the XT2.

However, they have not made this a universal change. Build a route just using the XT2 screen and it behaves perfectly, and it remains exactly how you planned it. And there are ways of getting it do do this with routes in gpx files. More later.

In my opinion the best thing to do is to not allow Tread to Synch with your XT2. If it is already set up to synch, then you have to uninstall tread, reset your XT2 to factory condition and start from scratch as if you had just got it out of the box. Then re-establish the link between phone and Zumo and re-install the Tread app, but do not select the option to save data or to synch.

That means that tread is there to get the up ahead information, petrol locations and prices, weather, trtaffic information, road closures etc. But Tread does not get to mess around with your routes.

I'll post a link giving the fine detail of how to do this later (ie when I rememebr where I put it) !

Now when I go to look at my tracks I'm finding tracks that are short(12 miles or even less) instead of my complete ride for that particular day. I'm asking you the community to help me figure out how to see my complete tracks on my laptop if possible. The particular day I'm looking for I was riding in Quebec and the naps I had loaded were off from the actual trail I was on probably because the landowner took the trail away but I cannot find it for the life of me. Any help because I need it lol

If your tracks are short sections of your route - that may be an indication of what I consider to be serious faults with the Zumo XT and XT2. Something that I call RUT behaviour - it repeatedly seems to want you to go back to where you left its route, even if there is now a better way to continue your ride. One of the symptoms is that it breaks the track up. But long tracks may be broken if you stop for coffee for example, or if the log is getting to be too long.

There are a few ways that you can manage this.

1. Rather than relying on the automatically recorded tracks - in /GPX/CurrentTrackLog.gpx and in the Archive Subfolder - you can start your own recording. It will record both simultaneously. On the main screen there is a Track Recorder icon. Click that and then Start. It will keep recording until you select stop fromt he same screen. The Track Recorded icon on the main screen shows a little blue symbol to show that a recording is in progress. When you select 'Stop' you have to save it and give it a name. That gpx file can be found in the same location as the automatically recorded tracks.
2. Basecamp has a facilty to deal with this. It is quite intelligent too. Connect your XT2 to BAsecamp with the USB cable. (Get into the habit of unplugging the lead at the computer rather than the back of the Zumo - it saves wear and tear on the XT2 socket). When you have dismissed the message that says that XT2 is not officially supported by Basecamp, then import CurrentTrackLog.gpx into Basecamp:
   * Create a new folder and a new list within that folder.
   * Select the new list that you have just created
   * Select File / Import Into ... (your newly created list)
   * Navigate to Zumo XT2 / Internal Storage in the dialog box that opens
   * Select CurrentTrackLog.gpx
   
   
   You will see a list that looks like this:
   
   

   

   TrackLogList.png (29.58 KiB) Viewed 450 times

   
   This should be in date and time order, but if not, you can click the gear icon to the right hand side and ask it to sort by name in either descending or ascending order. The date is deliberately formatted year-month-day time so that sorting the name puts it into the correct sequential order.
   
   Multi-select the day and times of the sections that you want to join together. (Click the first, hold down the shift key and click the last to select a number of items). The image above shows that I have Select all track logs for 10 April 2026.
   
   Move the mouse pointer to any one of the higlighted items, and click the right hand button.
   From the pop-up menu, select 'Join the Selected Tracks'
   
   It gives you the option of either keeping the original tracklog files, or deleting them. That is up to you. These are copies of the ones that are in currenttracklog.gpx. They are not the originals.
   
   What is clever about it is that it uses the data and time of the track points to put them in the correct order. So even if all of the track logs were jumbled up - you would still end up with all of the pieces of the track joined together.
   Ditto if I selected all of the logs across a number of dates. All of the points would be ordered sequentially by data and time.
3. If you just want to see them on the screen you can use the folder / list structrue of Basecamp. Select the folder and it displays all of the items that are inthat folder - including the contents of all of the lists. Select one list within a folder it shows only the contents of the list.
   Select one of a number of tracks in the same list, it will show all of the tracks, but the currently selcted track will be in a darker colour.

Getting Around the XT2 problems.

I mentioned earlier that the XT2 behaves itself completely for routes that have been created on the XT2 itself. Particularly so if the Tread App is not allowed to synch. You can make any route that has come from a gpx file behave liek a route that has been create don the XT2 itself. And it will then behave accordingly. However, there is nothing in this method that gets round the fact that the XT2 import process likes to change rhe names of route points.

On the XT2 - there is a copy facility. Import your route from the GPX file. Load it, select the spanner icon, select copy. I tend to use the original name with a character at the front so that I can distinguish it from the original '@' is a favourite because it comes before 'A' in the computer alphabet. Eg @myRoute.

The runs the copy verison.

But by far the best solution that I have come across is to use TripManager. THis is a piece of software developed by @FrankB of this forum and it is a game changer. It completley bypasses the normal import process and creates a route without the knowledge of the import process. So route points retain the names that you gave them, they do not alter their position and the Zumo treats the via points and shaping points as (Ithink) that it should.

USe BC to plan your route and export the tracks, routes and any waypoints that you have saved as a gpx file. Use the gpx file and get TripManager to send it to the XT2 . And as an added bonus, the route 'never' displays RUT behaviour.

By 'never' I mean that have never managed to force the zumo to display RUT behaviour using numerous test routes - in the same circumstances where where I can make a normally imported routes from GPX files misbehave.