New exFAT Support on Garmin Marine Chartplotters

On January 9th, 2024, Garmin introduced a software release that increased the microSD/SD card size capacity for some marine devices up to 1TB (exFAT). Devices that gained this support are listed below and will require being updated to at least the software version listed before they can use these larger capacity cards.  For this reason, a smaller capacity card (32GB or less) must be used to apply the update.  Devices not listed below will only support a maximum size of 32GB.

Products Offering Up to 1TB Card Support Via Built-in Card Reader

• GPSMAP® 90xx chartplotters |GPSMAP® 92xx including Volvo Penta models ( Software Version 34.00 )

• GPSMAP® 10x2 chartplotters | GPSMAP® 12x2 chartplotters (Software Version 34.00 )

• ECHOMAP™ Ultra chartplotters ( Software Version 27.10 )

• ECHOMAP™ Ultra 2 chartplotters ( Software Version 34.00 )

• ECHOMAP™ UHD2 6x chartplotters | ECHOMAP™ UHD2 7x chartplotters | ECHOMAP™ UHD2 9x chartplotters (Software Version 34.00 )

• ECHOMAP™ UHD2 5x chartplotters | ECHOMAP™ UHD2 7x Keyed chartplotters (Software Version 34.00 )

NOTE: If a chartplotter that does not support larger capacity cards (exFAT) is networked to a supported chartplotter that has this type of card inserted, the unsupported device will be able to access the information (charts, user data, routes, waypoints, tracks) on the card.

Products Offering Up to 1TB Card Support Via External Card Reader

• GPSMAP® 90xx chartplotters |GPSMAP® 92xx including Volvo Penta models ( Software Version 34.00 )

• GPSMAP® 84xx chartplotters | GPSMAP® 86xx chartplotters (17 in - 24 in), including Volvo Penta models ( Software Version 34.00 )
  

• GPSMAP® 8700 Black Box ( Software Version 34.00 )

• GPSMAP® 7x3 chartplotters | GPSMAP® 9x3 chartplotters | GPSMAP® 12x3 chartplotters | GPSMAP® 16x3 chartplotters including Volvo Penta models ( Software Version 34.00 )

These devices will require the use of an external card reader to utilize larger capacity cards.  There are a number of ways to accomplish this:

• Directly connect a USB Card reader, which supports up to 1TB card size

• Network the device to another chartplotter that has a built-in card reader that supports larger sized cards

• Network the device to another chartplotter that is directly connected to a USB Card Reader

Other Card Readers

The Garmin Card Reader (Ethernet) and NMEA 2000 Network Updater will not be compatible with cards larger than 32GB.