Garmin BaseCamp App Reviews

After updating to 4.3.1 I keep getting “List file corrupted” error on application startup

It’s a great idea but has a lot of issues. Right off the top of my head: 1. User-created waypoints should not need to have unique names 2. Should have an OpenCycleMaps web layer as a base map. Too bad, Garmin could create a truly good community for the outdoors but they couldn’t make it work.

I have used different versions of the application over the last 8 years. The interface is not as intuitive as many would expect today, but it does work - for me at least. I use it to preload waypoints for driving trips (hotels etc). I also use it to back up, and edit as necessary, waypoints for my handheld GPS that I use for hiking / hunting trips.

I’ve used BaseCamp ever since it came out for the Mac, and I’ve usually been pretty happy with it. But this BaseCamp update combined with the system software update on the Garmin zumo 660 & 665 motorcycle GPS systems no longer works. I reported this to Garmin, and they confirmed in a letter: “Due to product testing that has occurred it has been determined that the [sic] BaseCamp is not compatible with transferring created routes to either a Zumo 660 or 665. This is likely [due to] the latest software update which was released in 2014. The best option at this point would be to either go back to using RoadTrip on your Mac, or to download Garmin MapSource on a Windows based PC.” No mention of whether they plan to fix this or not.

Multiple crashes, poor performance, poor design, bugs galore, ancient UI: it’s as if Garmin’s Mac software is coming straight from 1995 through some temporal anomaly. It’s as if the executives are thinking “Who needs quality when we have the market cornered?" Sure, folks: that strategy worked great for Microsoft. Until Apple came along, that is. You only exist because your Apple (whoever that may be) has not entered the market yet.

It took a little effort to get it setup on my Mac Air book, but after it was setup I as able to do everything I wanted to do. I looked for all kinds of tools to setup routes on my Garmin Montana and it was impossible. I am in California and off roading in my FJ Cruiser 1 or 2 times a week. Using the Montana interface was painful, Basecamp works really well for what I do! I have not had any problems with the product. It does act a little strange when calculating the route. If this gets corrected, then I would rate this app a “5”.

This app is terrible. I can’t think of any other program that has caused this much frustration since I’ve switched to mac. I’m 26 (the problem is not generational) and use technical software every day in work and classes for my masters degree in *electrical engineering* and I STILL cant figure it out! Ive tried YouTube videos, tutorials on the website - everything I can think of. Just avoid this app if you’ve got any other choice. It’s as if they’ve had the same guy doing user testing for the last 30 years and he just keeps saying their incremental changes in every version are easy to use, but if you’re trying to figure it out in 2016, you’re completely screwed because it’s all based on software written in the 80s and includes every little quirk and workaround that has been built in during that time. Here’s a brief list of the most recent problems I’ve had: - can’t get waypoints off of my GPS (but I can get tracks for some reason???) - making routes in Basecamp takes forever due to their terrible interface - once you’re in the routing menu, you can’t select points on the map and navigation becomes extremely ungainly - once you’ve finally selected the two endpoints, you can only get a direct route ("as the crow flies”), even when you select travel by car. Isn’t this the primary function of basically ALL mapping apps these days?? How do you screw that up? - you can only view satellite imagery in Google Earth - as a SEPARATE window - very helpful…

I installed this primarily to manage geocaches on my 62S. BaseCamp totally failed at this task. Installing multiple geocaches from a list? BaseCamp hangs. Importing the caches and waypoints in a pocket query? BaseCamp hangs. Deleting multiple geocaches on the device? BaseCamp hangs. Its far easier just to manually copy the GPX files to the device and to manually delete them when Im done. Sad. On the plus side, it did seem to be able to reliably manage the track data on the device. The odd map perspectives made me a bit queasy, though, and the modal interface really made me long for Google Maps. I hope that theres an alternative to BaseCamp out there.

I downloaded this, after plugging in my Montana GPS it took about 5 minutes to transfer the maps to the computer. After that I opened a group of about 50 waypoints, it placed them on an accurate map and I then used the View in Google Earth option. It placed all my points and notes on a google earth 3d image that I could then send to somebody else. It doesnt get any better than this. BTW, this all took me (from no app to sharing) about 25 minutes.

I have a garmin nüvi 255WT. Although the app starts up correctly, it crashes as soon as the GPS device is connected. They still need to fix some bugs but the app behaves alright.

Everytime I try to update it tells me it failed to try again. After 30 times, I give up.

I downloaded this app to plan a cross county driving trip for me and the family. I had intended to build my trip with the app then export to my Garmin nuvi 3790. However, this app will not allow address searches makeing it difficult to input stops to build a route. Garmin products are loosing value with the consumer. Joe

Update: still crashes. The app crashes on start. There should be possibility to choose zero stars rating: if the app does not even show up on screen then its zero. And if it crashes after update, and you loose all your data entered in previous version, then it must be minus one (good for me, I backup regularly). Tech support is helpless, and seems not competent.

Since updating I cant import GDB files or export to GPX

This app is notoriously unreliable. I cant use it for more than 5 minutes without it hanging indefinitely (spinning beach ball). You cant quit it, you have to force quit. Unfortunately launching again doesnt help, it instantly hangs. Given the architecture of *NIX, this takes some serious incompetence to accomplish. Maybe they should have invested in some software quality assurance before releasing this? Anyhow, the solution to get up and running again is to completely restart your machine. A suggestion, the GPSMAP and eTrex series can display more than one map at a time. You would think BaseCamp would be capable of such basic functionality as well but nope... you have to toggle between maps if you want to view different maps that have different types of information. Quite lame.

The app has obviously been thought through, but suffers from a bunch of serious problems. For example, non-English address search just doesnt work at all, which makes most interesting features useless. I have not experienced crush problems noted by other reviewers and in fact, I enjoyed playing with the app, but when I tried to start using it, I had to give up. Problem is, it fills some gaps and omittances of the navigators UI, and if it worked, the navigator would have been much more useful. Non-working address search is totally unacceptable, IMO.

I am considering purchasing a Garmin device. I thought trying this app app might give me a chance to preview some of the features on my Mac before I spend the money. It seems like the software could be good. However, I cant figure out how to purchase any maps without already owning the device. It says you can and download them, but when I get to the website, it wants the code for the device. Does each device use different maps or do they work on all Garmin products? I wish this was clearer.

Previous versions worked like a champ. This version often crashes or reports the rather useless "Error exporting GPX files" when I ask it to do so. Seems to have trouble with large data sets (as when running the GPS for most of a day). Am now looking for another app that can help me rescue the otherwise orphaned data on my GPS unit. :-(

The BaseCamp app isnt highly intuitive, but proves to be pretty powerful in allowing one to plan custom driving routes. It connects to your Garmin device and uses the map data on the device to allow you to design custom routes & send to your device. Heres where it gets tricky. While the app will allow you to connect your Nuvi device (and spend lots of time planning routes) and while it will aloow you to transfer these routes to your device, the device itself may or may not be able to use the route you created. My Garmin Nuvi 2360 for example, cant see or use the route data I created. All-in-all it was a huge waste of time. Check Garmins website and support documents before you use this.

Basecamp 4.2.1 crashes when sending routes or any data to the device in my case a BMW Navigator IV. Pretty unreliable and so far I havent been able to send anything to my device. However reading from the device works. I could get the log files. Anyhow, Garmin support issue.