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Old 09-25-2020, 08:09 AM   #1
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Garmin RV 785

I just purchased the Garmin 785. I was really excited to get it up and going as this is my 5 th Garmin in many years. We travel in Ireland so I got one just for that and it is flawless. The others became obsolete over the years and I guess thats to be expected with the new technology.

Anyway when I started up the Garmin Express utility on my MacBook I couldnt get the utility to update some maps for me in spite of the fact it looked like the 785 was connected. After spending many hours over a weekend trying to get this to work, I called Garmin Tech Support on Monday when they opened. I explained what was going on and I apparently got a new tech because it seemed like he kept putting me on hold to ask other techs the questions I was asking him. Bottom line is this. Because I had to plug the 785 into an Apple dongle to connect to my laptop they decided it was Apple’s fault. I didnt buy that for one minute. Apple has had USB C ports on their laptops for several years and if you wanted to connect anything with a USB a or b cable you had to use what they call their dongle. Apple says this is a straight pass through with no mods to the connection. Ive been hooking up old usb scanners and printers that way for over a year now.

Conclusion, the tech said I would have to go to a computer that had a usb a or b connector to eliminate the the dongle. After several hours with this newbie I called Apple and explained what was going on and they were as dismayed as I was. They did a screen share with my laptop and discovered that it was connecting to the Garmin but something in Garmin’s software needed to be fixed so it would allow the map updates to Go to the internal memory. I discovered on my own that I could update the maps wirelessly as long as I had the Garmin plugged in to a power adaptor because something prohibits updates using the battery in the Garmin. CAUTION!!!!!! Until Garmin updates their App that THEY provide to the Apple App Store you might as well give up on backing up the Garmin to your computer and updating maps. I checked this out by trying to update my older Garmin and the same thing happened. So until they stop blowing smoke to their Apple user customers and fix their app not Apples app dont count on using the 785 with an Apple product with a USB C port
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Old 09-25-2020, 08:39 AM   #2
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I just set up my new RV890 and I was trying to transfer my saved places from an RV660 on a MacBook. The RV660 wanted its original HDMI cable to backup, I had to try half a dozen to get one to work but once I had it backed up and went to update the 890 the app would crash. I finally gave up and did the whole process over on a Windows laptop.
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Old 09-25-2020, 08:53 AM   #3
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Garmin RV785

I understand what you are saying and glad you were able to fix your problem but I do not have any PC products for quite a few years. Apple is it for me and if Garmin provides an App to work on the Apple products they should make sure that it is working correctly.

Thanks for sharing.

Ken
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Old 09-25-2020, 09:24 AM   #4
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I was a bit more fortunate than you, my 890 would update okay with the MacBook it was just trying to restore to use the old data that made it crash. But I’m using the North American maps. I had just updated the IOS and had to update Garmin Express as well.
But for me the new one isn’t fussy about the cable like the 660 that wants it’s original cable.
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Old 09-25-2020, 10:52 AM   #5
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Garmin 785

Like you all my updates were made prior to starting and I also was just updating North America maps only. I keep the Ireland maps on another Nuvi

When I finally realized I could update wirelessly everything appears to wok well. We will try it out Monday heading to Cape Cod. Thanks for your reply’s
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