Garmin Active Captain - New Owner

[UVAfisherman]

I recently sold my R27 and took possession of a used 31 CB. The prior owner had created an Active Captain account with his email address, so when I connect to the Garmin wifi, I cannot perform any updates because it lists me as a guest. The prior owner has removed all the devices from his Active Captian account on his phone, but the Garmin units still shows him as the owner and me as a guest.

I called Garmin and was surprised to get through to someone knowledgeable at customer support. They told me to disconnect both Garmin units (the main one and one on command bridge) from the NMEA network by unplugging that cable in the back of each unit. After that, perform a factory reset on the main unit, which will exorcise the prior owner's information.

I am of course terrified that the factory reset will mess up all the other connected devices, but that is, according to Garmin, what you avoid by first disconnecting the units from the NMEA.

Has anyone dealt with this issue and/or have any experience with the ramifications of the factory reset?

Thanks in advance.

 

[marksandyham]

I had the same issue over a year ago. I was told to perform a backup just in case. Connect the unit to WiFi and then do factory reset. They did not have me disconnect the N2K network. I have an R27OB so only one CP on the network. You will lose all waypoints, routes, vessel info but that was not a problem for me. Hope this helps.

 

[BB marine]

If there is information you want to save, Way points, routes, tracks and you can connect has a guest to the plotter with you mobile devise. Open the active captain app on the mobile devise and sync the devise. It will load all the information on to the mobile devise. After you do a factory reset, if all the information is removed from the chart plotter you will have it saved on the mobile devise. Once you get your Active Captain set up in your name on the Garmin chart plotter sync the mobile devise again to the chart plotter and all the information saved on the mobile devise will transfer back to the Chart Plotter.

I'm sure the Garmin representative told you that the previous owner should inform Garmin that transferring ownership of the equipment to your name is required so you can set up an account with Garmin. This helps when troubleshooting issues or downloading new software updates and charts. If the previous owner had a MMSI number for the VHF or AIS this can be transferred or you can use that number again if the previous owner cancels that number with the FCC.

 

[UVAfisherman]

Brian and Mark/Sandy,

Thanks so much for the replies! Previous owner has notified Garmin and he never put MMSI in his radio, so we are good there.

Kevin.

 

[dbsea]

It was an act of god to reset it on my c-30 cb. Required two people to ensure one of the screens didn’t push the old info back to the other two after resetting. Finally got it done after several agonizing attempts.

 

[bsaitz]

I had this and it was hell but I got it done. Tips:

Remove both plotters from the network and remove all SD cards. then do a factory reset and bring back one online and owner changes, then bring the other.