How to save offline maps in the new Google Maps application
Google Maps for Android and iOS had a useful offline maps feature up until recently which you could use to save parts of the map for offline use. All you had to do is zoom in on the location that you wanted to access without Internet connection, hit the menu button and select the offline option from there.
The recent update to Google Maps 7 changed the process significantly. If you have been updated to the new version of the app already you may have noticed that there is no such functionality anymore. In fact, a tap on the menu button does nothing at all anymore.
Google has changed the way how maps are made available offline. It is not as intuitive as before and if you do not know what to do, you probably never figure it out on your own as it is simply not clear how it is done when you are using the Google Maps application.
So, instead of having a menu that you can click on to save a map to the device for offline viewing, you now have to enter OK Maps into the search to do so. It is near impossible to know how that is done unless you have read the official announcement over at the Google Blog or have someone else tell you about it.
If that was not unintuitive enough, the search box will automatically jump to the suggestions screen as soon as you start typing in the O of the command. This adds to the confusion as well as you are not sure if the command will work at all because of this.
If you type OK Maps and hit search, another thing that is not optimal, you will notice that the application switches back to the maps display. Here you should see pre-loading maps and the loading progress in per cent in the search box.
This tells you that the app is saving the contents of the part of the map that you are viewing to the device so that you can access it while you are offline.
The settings do not have options anymore to clear offline data and I'm not sure how you go about it. It is likely saved to the cache directory that you find under Android/data/com.google.android.apps.maps/cache from where it can be deleted again.
The main question is this: why did Google change the way offline maps are created? The company does not reveal any reason for that in the announcement. If I had to guess, I'd say it is to keep people from using maps offline so that they are online all the time. That's just an assumption though.
What's your take on this? Let me know in the comment section below.
Update: Google is rolling out an update right now that adds a "Make this map area available offline" link that you can tap on to make it easier to download maps for offline usage to the device.
Advertisement
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?