Select your product to confirm this information applies to you

My Outdoor Garmin Handheld is Navigating in a Straight Line

If you are not receiving detailed turn-by-turn routing when navigating to a waypoint or following a route, this indicates that your device either does not have mapping that supports turn-by-turn routing, or its routing setting needs to be changed.

What is Needed for Detailed Routing?

A Map That Supports Turn-by-Turn Routing

  • Not all maps support detailed turn-by-turn routing. Mapping products like the Worldwide DEM basemap or TOPO U.S. 100K do not support turn-by-turn routing, TopoActive supports turn-by-turn routing but not when in an Automotive profile, while TOPO U.S. 24K West supports turn-by-turn routing in all land-based profiles and activities.

  • If you have a map, you can confirm it is capable of detailed routing by looking it up on Garmin.com. It should state that it has routable roads and/or trails, or it supports turn-by-turn directions.

  • If you do not have a map and want one, see - Choosing and Purchasing a Map for your Outdoor Handheld.

    NOTE: Not all maps are compatible with all products. Before purchasing a map, it is important to make sure the Garmin device is compatible.

A Profile or Activity That Supports Turn-by-Turn Routing

  • Activities and profiles on outdoor handhelds are designed to quickly change settings so recording your outings is easier. Some profiles and activities, like Automobile or Hike, will support turn-by-turn routing. Other profiles, like Off Road or Direct Routing, will only support direct routing to draw a straight line to your destination, or straight lines between points of a route that you are following.

  • For more information on setting up your device for detailed routing, refer to the Routing Settings section of your owner's manual.


What are Routes Used For?

  • Routes are best used for reaching a specific destination, or set of destinations, when the specific path being taken is not important.

  • When navigating a route, directions to the destination(s) will be provided as a straight point-to-point path or will follow roads and/or trails depending on device capabilities, mapping, and routing settings.

  • If you go off course on a route, the path will recalculate based on your current location. When using routable mapping, the route can recalculate you on available roads and/or trails.

For more information on setting up Turn-by-Turn Routing, see - Route Calculation Error on an Outdoor Handheld.

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