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Google Maps Offline, How?

Posted: 1 Oct 2013, 8:24pm
by simonhill
I have recently bought a Nexus 7 tablet for taking with me on my next trip (Taiwan). I will mainly be using it for internet type stuff with hotel wifi, but having access to Google maps when offline would be useful, particularly in urban areas.

Unfortunately this doesn't seem possible as it only allows me to save a very small area in any detail. I am sure some of you chaps have come across this before, so does anyone have any tips on how I could save the whole Island?

Re: Google Maps Offline, How?

Posted: 1 Oct 2013, 8:42pm
by al_yrpal
When the area capture square appears, zoom out to capture a bigger area. Or start capuring an area when zoomed out. Does result in big files...

Al

Re: Google Maps Offline, How?

Posted: 1 Oct 2013, 8:46pm
by mnichols
I use OSMand which is an free offline map on Android. You download the countries that you need. I used it recently on an end to end of Italy and found it very useful. You can show your route on the map if you have it in GPX format. I didn't use it to navigate as I have a Garmin for that, but found it useful to browse the map/route the night before each trip.

Re: Google Maps Offline, How?

Posted: 1 Oct 2013, 11:02pm
by sjs
A couple of android apps I've found useful are Maverick and Oruxmaps. Maverick caches the maps you look at when online, so you could hoover up the Google maps you'll need before you go. Incidentally Maverick will do the same with OS 1:25000 maps in the UK. Oruxmaps seems a bit more comprehensive with its features, but recently removed access to non-free maps "for legal reasons". Not sure whether that includes Google maps. However you can create offline maps for it, for instance using MOBAC on a PC. MOBAC is also useful for creating Birdseye imagery for Garmins, though researching and implementing the process needs some persistence.

Re: Google Maps Offline, How?

Posted: 1 Oct 2013, 11:25pm
by mjr
RMaps is another good map viewing app for Android, which you can find on F-Droid as well as the usual. OSMAnd beats it as a route-finding sat nav, but RMaps is smaller, easier to use and works more reliably as a GPS track recorder in my experience.

Re: Google Maps Offline, How?

Posted: 2 Oct 2013, 12:40pm
by 1982john
+1 for OSMand having sat nav capability offline was great.

Re: Google Maps Offline, How?

Posted: 2 Oct 2013, 8:01pm
by simonhill
Thanks Chaps. I have downloaded OSMand and it is just what I want. It is not as detailed as Google maps (for Taiwan anyway), but shows most of the roads and has names in Chinese which will be useful if I need to ask directions.

al - I found the capture square for downloading Google maps, but it wouldn't open up very big, so I could only download a small area.

Re: Google Maps Offline, How?

Posted: 3 Oct 2013, 12:03am
by al_yrpal
Simon, you can use the square again and again I think to build up bigger map sections.

Al

Re: Google Maps Offline, How?

Posted: 3 Oct 2013, 5:48am
by RonK

Re: Google Maps Offline, How?

Posted: 3 Oct 2013, 6:51am
by Sooper8
I've no useful info on the maps but just to say I went to Taiwan about 5 years ago for a month and loved every single minute, it's an amazing place.

Re: Google Maps Offline, How?

Posted: 3 Oct 2013, 9:36am
by groberts
I also have a Nexus 7 (great piece of equipment) and can recommend the Alpine Quest app which is free to download and takes various mapping formats. Best of all for a £4.99 'upgrade' you can get the entire 1:50,000 OS Landranger coverage of the UK. If you want to use it off offline, just zoom out over the area / region required before going offline - the OS detail can then be accessed by simply zooming in again. Of course online, using WiFi or if you have the 32Mg version + micro SIM card, you have constant access to all the OS coverage. Amazing!

Re: Google Maps Offline, How?

Posted: 26 Oct 2013, 4:37pm
by Barrenfluffit
Wondering if using headphones and spoken directions was a viable route to longer battery life. There are no screen updates or frankly screen so it could be quite helpful. As always worth testing. Went for a wander to the chippy. Oh dear.

The directions were just too vague. "At roundabout take A1001 in the direction of Hatfield court". This junction doesn't have signs so you cant tell which exit is A1001. By definition Hatfield Court isn't at the roundabout so there is no clue as to which direction it lies. If the sat nav had said straight on or 1st left it would have been ok but without looking at the actual map its not enough.

It wasn't accurate enough to put me on the right street either. Hopefully a good view of the sky should improve that.

I've looked at OSM; coverage is good near here. In rural france its a bit short on names and detail in the only area I can judge.

Not sure what the best mapping solution is; I need good coverage, flexible routing, waypoints and a postcode/address lookup facility.

Re: Google Maps Offline, How?

Posted: 26 Oct 2013, 6:02pm
by Redmountduo
This app is brilliant https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... o&hl=en_GB
Small fee for the pro version but then you have full world mapping Free.
Have all of Europe on the Nexus 7 and it is really great. All available offline.

Best regards
John and Dawn

http://www.redmountduo.co.uk

Re: Google Maps Offline, How?

Posted: 26 Oct 2013, 7:09pm
by andymiller
IIRC the problem is that Google's End-User License agreement prohibits the downloading and storing of the map tiles - I know there used to be at least one program that could do this, but I think google sent the boys round.

It's a shame really because Google's maps are often the most detailed.

I've heard people say good things about Nokia's mapping, but whether they work offline I don't know.

Re: Google Maps Offline, How?

Posted: 26 Oct 2013, 7:42pm
by mjr
Google's maps are often the most wrong. I've seen them directing people to the next village by mistake!