I just purchased the Paddle Nav map from Red Pine Mapping. I am on a Mac and trying to transfer it to a Garmin but although I am (I think) carefully following instructions, I am getting the message "Can't unlock maps." This is happening if I put the map on a micro SD card or on the device itself.

Anyone with any experience who could help me out? Thanks.

Are you first loading it into Basecamp? I am a Mac user and I have a Garmin. When I downloaded the Red Pine Maps onto my computer, I used Basecamp to then transfer them to the GPS. If you do not have Basecamp, you can get it free @ the Garmin site.

Basecamp Download

Thanks... yes, I have Basecamp and Paddle Nav is installed on it.

But I have been using Garmin's MapInstall to try to load the map on to SD card or the GPS receiver. How do you use Basecamp to transfer the map?

When in Basecamp, I then connected my GPS to my Mac, and then Mapinstall opened and I found my device in the dropdown menu. I then highlighted all of the sections of the Red Pine map and followed the prompts to load it to my GPS. I did not copy it to a chip. I am by no means a GPS wonk, and I did not get the "cannot open maps" prompt that you did.

Thanks again... exactly what I did. Tried a couple of SD cards and both of my Garmin GPS devices. Each time it appears to be transferring the data, but when I turn on the unit, I get the ""cannot unlock maps" message.

I've contacted Red Pine, and they're trying to help, but we're still stuck.

That sounds real frustrating; wish I could help! I assume you've tried the "unlock maps online" from the Maps dropdown on the Basecamp software when you're in the Red Pine Map?

Maybe I should have thought of this before... but I moved everything over from my iMac to my MacBook and it worked fine. I am a beta tester for Apple and am running OSX 10.8 on the iMac and I guess that had something to do with it, as OSX 10.7.2. on the MB was just fine. Not sure why it would be a problem, but it apparently was.

Odd, but glad you figured it out...that would have been my next suggestion:)

Odd, but glad you figured it out...that would have been my next suggestion:)

quote mntentman: "I am a beta tester for Apple and am running OSX 10.8 on the iMac..."

To heck with Red Pine, we all want to know what you think of Mountain Lion. :)

Well, you know, I'm not supposed to discuss it... so I'll just say there's some cool stuff, but some work remains to be done before it is ready for prime time.