I mainly use my Macbook Air with Basecamp to plan the routes, together with Google Earth and Birdseye (great on the Montana!). For the weekend rides I do here in the United Arab Emirates and Oman the Montana is just perfect. For an upcoming 10 day trip to Salalah, Oman I want to take my HPmini Netbook with me (upgraded with a SSD, sweet). The Question was now how to get the database from the Mac to the PC. First I tried to make a Basecamp backup from the Mac and then transfer that file to the PC. Unfortunately, for whatever reason I could not complete the backup, some error message came up. Maybe too much data from the birdseye images? I don't know. So in the end what I did is just coping the database and JnxFiles folder from the library in the Mac and pasted it in the same garmin folder location in the PC (replacing the folders on the PC) Done and working fine! Like this it keeps my Basecamp Folder and File structure as it is on my Mac. It even keeps my smart lists. Also the Birdseye images loaded just fine. Nice would be now if I can just sync between Mac and PC, maybe somebody can help me out on this.
Nine times in ten, googling the exact text of an error message will tell you what is wrong. Fail to copy/google the exact text and you're out of luck most of the time - the level of precision is important for this kind of thing. After all, usually your software is telling you exactly what went wrong. That is nontrivial unless you wish to spend some money, or feel like you can find and follow some free/open-source directions to the letter and can diagnose any minor hiccups along the way. (I'd start with rsync, but before that I'd suggest a novice not try it).
Error message: "An exception occurred during the backup process." I googled it. But if i don't find an answer after 5 pages I give up. Anyway, I wasn't even sure if i can just import a backup file done on a MAC into a PC. Couldn't find an answer for this as well. Then I tried with exporting "My collection" as .GBD and .GPX file and importing that to the PC. Got all the data but I lost the file structure and no birdseye images were imported. In the end I managed to get the data the way I want on the PC as described before. Took just ten minutes. To sync would be nice, but I can live without it. I'll just replace the files before I go for the ride.
I'm going to go out on a limb here. I don't think the backups between the two flavors of BaseCamp are compatible. What does work is to export the folder containing all of your data and then import it into the Windows app. You'll get the data, but loose all of your organizational formatting, sub folder and such. As well, I've had much better results using Garmin .gdb files for exchanging data between Garmin apps than .gpx. Garmin is doing something weird with certain gpx files that render them incompatible between applications.
The solution to transfer the data from Mac (Lion) to PC (Win7) I have, as shortly describe above. The file and folder structure for the garmin basecamp database is identical for the Mac and PC. Here the steps I made: >>Copy the 'Database' folder with everything in it from Mac (Lion) >>MacintoshHD/Users/'your user name'/Library/Application Support/Garmin/BaseCamp/Database >>Copy the 'JnxFiles' folder (if you have Birdseye) from Mac (Lion) >>MacintoshHD/Users/'your user name'/Library/Application Support/Garmin/BaseCamp/JnxFiles Put both folders on a memory stick or in your dropbox so you have them on your PC. >>Paste (replace) the 'Database' folder in the PC (Win7) >>C:/users/'your user name'/AppData/Roaming/Garmin/BaseCamp/Database >>Paste (replace) the 'JnxFiles' folder in the PC (Win7) >>C:/users/'your user name'/AppData/Roaming/Garmin/BaseCamp/JnxFiles Like this you will have on your PC the same data with the same folder and list structure as you have it in Basecamp on your Mac. Even the smartlists are there. The birdseye images will work as well. If you just export the files you won't have the folder and list structure and you will not have the birdseye images. I first wanted to copy a backup file, but I couldn't even create one. If I can't sort that problem myself, I will send Garmin an email. But for now I'm happy with this solution. I just thought I share it. Maybe somebody else needs to do the same. I actually was hoping somebody has a simple solution to sync between Mac and PC, so you could change things at both ends. But as I said, I can live without it.
