Please help with unlocking maps, sooo frustrated

[beckbond]

ok so I am brand new to this, have a garmin oregon 450 and I want to put the MO topo map on it for a float trip coming up. I have basecamp, map install and map mgr. I download the map from here and then try to click on it and open with... map mgr.. it then say.. it found no unlocked maps., There are NO other things to click to unlock it like a lot of the forums say. I have benn round and round, reinstalled everything. Nothing works. been at it 2 hrs and am about to say screw it and take it back  and just use an app to track my miles on my phone if its this hard to use. can u help? thanks.

[beckbond]

I am on a mac as well...

[Boyd]

That map should not be locked so you must be experiencing some kind of bug. For starters, download another one of the free maps here (any map) and see if you can install that. If so, then the problem may be specific to the Missouri Topo. I recall several threads here a couple years ago where Mac users were getting bogus errors about certain maps being locked.

My memory is a bit fuzzy on this, but I *think* re-installing basecamp fixed this problem in some cases. It would be worth a try, especially if you get the same error with another map. Make sure you have the current version of Basecamp too (the app store version is current).

If things are working properly, the download will give you a .tgz file and you need to extract a .gmapi file from it. That should happen automatically by double-clicking the .tgz file. You would then double-click the .gmapi file and MapManager should automatically start and ask if you want to install the map. Is this what you did?

I assume this is the map? http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/124/

The author is very active here on the forums, so I'm sure he will be around to respond to you eventually. But I also don't think he has a Mac. 

[Boyd]

Here's a followup: I downloaded the map in the link above (Missouri Topo) on my Mac. I'm originally from St. Louis FWIW.

Everything worked exactly as I described above and I am able to view the map in Basecamp.

the download will give you a .tgz file and you need to extract a .gmapi file from it. That should happen automatically by double-clicking the .tgz file. You would then double-click the .gmapi file and MapManager should automatically start and ask if you want to install the map.

So I would say that one of three things is probably happening:

1. you have not followed the procedure I described
2. your downloaded file is corrupted
3. your installation of Basecamp is corrupted

[maps4gps]

Thanks Boyd for helping the OP.  You are correct, I do not have a MAC.

[Boyd]

No problem. But I wonder if the OP just returned the GPS and gave up, like he said he might do?