Google Maps: increased offline retention
Google Maps supported the downloading of maps to the local device in the past. The feature downloaded the selected region to the local device where it remained accessible for 30 days before it expired.
Offline map access is a useful feature in many situations. It is ideal for situations where Internet connectivity is not available at all or only unstable since you don't need an Internet connection to access the map and some of the functionality of Google Maps.
It may also be handy if you would have to buy a sim card for connectivity just to access Google Maps online.
Tip: Check out our Google Maps offline guide to find out how to save map data to the local device so that it can be accessed while offline.
Expired map data could not be used anymore which meant that users had to download it again to renew the data. Google Maps included an option to renew the map data automatically if only 15 days were left until the expiration date but only if a wireless connection was available.
While 30 days does not sound too bad especially if you take the automatic renewing of the data into account if the device is connected to a wireless network at one point in time during the 30 day period, I always found it quite the hassle to keep an eye on the expiration date of map data.
I always keep a copy of local maps on my device which is quite handy at times as Internet connectivity is not great everywhere. I do download maps of cities and regions that I will visit in the future as well to have it at hand if needed.
It appears that Google increased the limit of offline map data recently on Google Maps for iOS and Android. The change does not affect map data downloaded prior to the change but if you update the data or download new offline map data to your system, you will notice that the new expiration date is set to a period of a year and no longer to 30 days.
It may still be a good idea to update the map data in the 365 days period as it may grow old quickly depending on the location. You can update the data with a tap on Menu > Offline Maps, a tap on the Menu button next to the map that you want to update, and the selection of update from the context menu.
Now You: Do you use Google Maps, another maps service, or none at all?
Related articles
- Avoid Google Maps with GNOME Maps on GNU/Linux
- Google Maps rolls out with improved Explore functionality
- Google Maps' Wi-Fi Only Mode? Not Wi-Fi Only!
- Use Google Maps Go as a lightweight alternative to Google Maps
Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.