Offline google maps android

How to Use Google Maps Offline on Android Phone

You can actually use Google Maps Offline on your Android Phone to provide you with turn-by-turn directions, pretty much in the same way as you would use Google Maps when your phone is connected to a Cellular or WiFi network.

In this post we will be providing you with the steps to download Google Maps for offline use and the steps to use Google Maps offline on your Android phone or tablet.

Using Google Maps Offline on Android Phone

In order to use Google Maps offline on your Android Phone, you first need to download a Map of the area that you want to use offline. In order to do this, it is recommended that you make use of a WiFi network at your home, office or a coffee place (to save cellular bandwidth).

Once you have the Map of the area downloaded to your phone, you will be able to use it offline at any time. In-fact Google Maps will automatically move into offline mode whenever it detects that you are moving into an area with poor or no internet connection.

In terms of functionality, Google Offline Maps function more or less in the same manner as they do while you are connected to a network. You can get turn-by-turn driving directions, voice navigation and other useful info.

However, you will not get traffic info, alternate routes and you won’t be able to modify routes (like avoiding toll routes). Also, in offline mode you will not be getting transit, and bicycling info.

Download Offline Google Maps to Android Phone

As mentioned above, you first need to download a Google Map for a specific area to your Android phone or tablet in order to make it available for offline use later. Follow the steps below to download a map for a specific area to your Android phone.

1. First, download the Google Maps app on your Android Phone from Google Play. You can skip this step, in case you already have the Google Maps app installed on your Android device.

2. Open Google Maps app on your Android Phone by tapping on the Google Maps icon.

3. On the next screen, use the Search box to type the place or area for which you want to download an offline map (See image below).

4. Next, Tap on the 3 line menu button, located to the left of the search box (See image above).

5. From the drop-down, tap on Offline Areas.

6. Next, tap on the + Button located at the bottom right of your screen (See image below).

7. On the next screen, you can select the area that you want to download.

Note: You will find the download button grayed out in case the area is too large. In such a case you need to zoom in until the download button is visible.

8. Once you have selected the area, tap on the Download button located at the bottom right of your screen (See image below).

9. On the next screen, Enter Name for the offline area and tap on Save.

10. Wait for the map to be downloaded to your device.

Note: There is no limit to the number of maps for specific areas that you can download and use offline on your Android device.

Once you have offline Google Maps for specific areas saved to your device, you can make use of then at anytime to find directions offline.

1. Open Google Maps on your Android Phone by tapping on the Google Map app icon.

2. On the maps screen, use the search box to type the name of the location that you want to go to. (See image below)

3. Next, tap on the Route icon located at the bottom right corner of your screen. (See image below)

Note: The route icon may also show up as a Car icon in some places.

4. On the next screen choose the starting point of your journey. You can either choose your current location or type in any other location name manually (See image below).

5. Google will immediately generate a Route Map from your starting point to the destination point.

6. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to get turn-by-turn navigation or you can also tap on the two arrow button to start navigation (See image below).

Managing Offline Maps

You will find all the offline maps that you have downloaded to the device listed on the Google Maps app. Follow the steps below to manage an offline Google Map.

1. Open Google Maps on your phone.

2. Tap on the 3 bar menu icon.

3. Next, Tap on Offline Areas from the drop-down menu.

4. On the next screen, you will see all your offline Maps listed by names that you had given them.

5. Tap on the offline Map that you want to manage.

You will be taken to the next screen where you will see the options to either Update or Delete the Offline Map. You can also edit the name of the offline map by tapping on the pencil icon.

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How to Use Offline Feature of Google Maps in Android

Google maps is one of my favorite apps when it comes to Android. Let’s just say it would make it to the top three if I were to create a list someday. It has an incredible number of cool features which are exclusive to the Android version of the app.

The only problem at times one can face is poor or no network connectivity while using Maps on the go and in such cases, the app fails to serve its purpose. As you know, both GPS and 3G/WiFi connection work in tandem in the background when you use the app to find directions. The GPS feeds your coordinates to the app, and they are in-turn displayed using a visual map that’s loaded from the server using a data connection. That’s why lack of internet connectivity can make the app pointless. (image credit: kalleboo)

Although the app does create a cache by default when you are connected using a WiFi connection, it’s not easy to zoom down to all the levels manually and cache the desired area. Google maps 5.0 introduced the offline feature, but it’s not accessible directly. Here’s how you can use the feature and precache (download) an area of the map before you hit the roads.

How to Download the Map For Offline Use

Step 1: Make sure you are connected to a WiFi network and open Google Maps on your Android. Although it’s not mandatory to connect to a WiFi network, it’ll be cost effective when compared to 3G in this case. The bottomline – ensure that you are online on the phone.

Step 2: On the app, press the menu button and select Settings. On the Google Maps settings, select labs and enable the Precache Map Area option.

Step 3: Having done that, return to map view and navigate to the area you want to save for offline use. Long press at the approx. center of the area you would travel to (for example, if you are traveling to a city, make sure you are selecting the heart of the city on the map) and wait for the map to load the address of that spot on the map.

Step 4: Once the address is loaded, click on it to open the detailed view and select the option Precache map area (you will see this feature only when you have enabled the feature from labs). Google Maps will then download 10-mile area radius around the selected address (represented by a square box) and once the download is complete, you can have a look at all the details in the cached area even without an internet connection.

Note: If the 10-mile radius is not enough for you, repeat the process at different places on the map to cover the required area.

Deleting a Cached Map

As map caching takes a considerable amount of space on the internal SD card, it’s always advisable to delete the cached area once you are done with them. To delete a precached map navigate to Map Settings—> Cache—>Precached map area and then press the red cross next to an address.

Conclusion

So next time you are planning a trip, doesn’t matter where, it’s always advisable to cache the area of the map before you et started. You never know when your network might betray you in the middle of the woods.

Last updated on 8 Feb, 2018

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How to Save Google Maps Offline Android

Are you going some place where you don’t expect internet connectivity. No problem, you can save Google Maps offline on your Android phone to view saved maps later without internet. Of course this will decrease the map loading time and save data usage as well. Process to download Google Maps offline is very simple, just search specific location and save it. Lets see how to do that and save maps by following step by step guide.

We already posted a guide to save offline Google Maps using an older version of Google Maps for Android that had a built-in option in the menu. But after that in previous version Google hide this option from menu and wasn’t readily available to common users. It was bit tricky to save maps offline in that version of the app. User had to navigate to specific area that he wanted to download offline and then type ok maps in the search bar to save it.

Now with Google Maps version 8.0 this feature was brought back allowing users to save maps offline on Android. Here is

Open Google Maps app and make sure its updated to the latest version.

Tap the search box and type the area of location name that you want save offline as Map. Once you type the name Google Maps will suggest you with a list of options, you can either select from suggested list or hit the Search icon.

Tap the area name that searched at the bottom of the screen and then Tap the Save map to use offline option on the next screen.

Google Maps will ask you to pan and zoom to adjust the map’s specific area and hit the Save button, this will help to reduce download size and save offline map’s data more quickly.

Give a proper name to this offline map and tap the Save button to start downloading and saving map offline.

Now you can navigate to the map that you saved offline without internet connection on Android.

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Android Offline Google Maps

There is no limit to how many miles you have travelled on Google Maps Navigation. Recently Google announced that Google Maps Navigation on Android has guided 1 Billion+ miles in America alone, over the last year.

Evidently, people love Google Maps more than other Mapping services like Bing maps, OpenstreetMap.

I travel around 70 miles to work and use Google maps extensively for finding out best traffic conditions for my journey. Apart from that when I travel in the capital region, its hard to find routes, as I’m new to the city. Obviously, my data plan was going way above the limits, and I was ending up paying high royality.

I started to look out for Google Maps Offline for Android, and finally settled with RMaps, that work with a charm. Other Alternatives: AndNav, Maverick, TrekBuddy.

Google Maps Offline on Android

Update: Google Maps 7 Android Offline Cache Pre-requisites:

RMaps (from Android Market, free)
Mobile Atlas Creator
sqlite_jni.dll

How To get Offline Maps on Android

Step 1. Go to Android Market and Install RMaps.

Step2. Install/Unzip Mobile Atlas Creator and keep the dll file in the same directory

Step 3. Open the Mobile Atlas creator and Choose map source as “Google Maps”, and use following controls to select a desired areas:

Right click to Drag
Scroll to zoom In/Out
Left click to select downloadable area

Step 4. Once the area is selected, you need to specify the zoom level. I personally prefer Zoom level of 18 since its detailed enough and not as detailed as Zoom level 19.

Note: zoom level 18 is the highest available for most non-US cities.

Step 5. Once you are satisfied, go ahead and select “add selection” with a name mentioned. Then select “BigPlanet SQLite” from “Atlas Settings”.

Note: If you plan to use another Application for Android Offline maps, say Maverick, AndNav, the default settings would be “Maverick atlas format” and “AndNav atlas format” respectively and maps source can be any.

Step 6. Go ahead and click “Create atlas” and the downloading would start. The duration of download is directly proportional to the area you selected in step 3.

Step 7. Once done, open the download folder mount SD card and copy the “BigPlanet_maps.sqlitedb” to /sdcard/rmaps/maps and disconnect USB.

Step 8. Open RMaps and Menu > More > Settings > User defined maps > BigPlanet_maps.sqlitedb > Enabled Maps. return to main maps screen and then Menu > Maps > BigPlanet_maps.sqlitedb.

The downloaded maps will now become active.

Now on, you can navigate around the downloaded area with GPS alone, without a need for data connection 😀

Note: However, for directions, it will fetch data from Google, but the data usage is trivial.

Update: Google Maps 5 is now Availble with Support for Offline Caching, 3D maps, Compass mode.

Update 2: Google Maps hacked to enable Navigation

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