Google Maps is almost irreplaceable for so many users and, although there are various different apps to choose from, there’s no app that includes everything into one well-rounded package as good as Google Maps. Especially with the use of offline maps that make the lives of many users so much easier.
Today, we made sure to explain how to use offline maps on Google Maps. If you are a novice user, make sure to check the explanation below.
Table of contents:
- Can I use Google Maps offline?
- How to download and use offline maps on Google Maps
- How to remove old offline maps you don’t need anymore
Can I use Google Maps offline?
The answer is yes. Google Maps offers offline maps for any given area that allow users to navigate without a wireless connection or mobile data. This is especially valuable when you are abroad and don’t have access to your mobile data due to roaming limitations.
With the downloaded maps, you can get directions, use navigation, or search for locations, sites, and venues in that particular region. The only thing you have to do is enable Location Services and that’s it.
How to download and use offline maps on Google Maps
Using offline maps is rather simple. Just make sure you have enough storage space and no data cap on your Wi-Fi since maps can be quite large ( depending on the area you want to cover). You can use an SD card to store downloaded maps as well, if available.
Once you’ve selected a region you want to download maps for, just download it, set a name for it, and you are good to go. Once downloaded, maps will update over Wi-Fi automatically or you can manually update them at your own volition.
The procedure is as intuitive as possible so here’s a short explanation for you:
- Open Google Maps on your Android or iOS device.
- Tap on the hamburger menu and open Offline Maps.
- Tap Select your own map.
- Pinch in or pinch out to zoom in/zoom out and navigate through the global map to select a city, state, or region you want to get offline access to. The larger the region, the bigger the size of the offline map.
- Finally, tap Download. Once the map is stored in your local storage (or the SD card), name it and you are good to go.
Maps will automatically delete after a year if not updated. If you reset your device to factory settings or format storage for any other reason (e.g. flashing custom ROM on Android), all maps will be removed.
How to remove old offline maps you don’t need anymore
Now, if you don’t need a particular map anymore, you can always delete it with almost no effort. There’s no reason to keep maps hog your storage space, especially if your trip abroad is over.
Google Maps will also store maps of your Home and Work areas automatically (if you enabled this option), but you can delete those too if you don’t deem them necessary.
Follow these steps to remove unused downloaded maps:
- Open Google Maps.
- Tap on the hamburger menu and open Offline Maps.
- Tap on the 3-dot menu next to a map and choose Delete.
That should do it. Thank you for reading and don’t shy away from asking additional questions regarding Google Maps. We’ll do our best to help you out.
