If you’re looking for a way to explore your city or town offline, Google Maps is a great option. You can use the app to view public transportation options, find businesses and attractions, and more. However, if you’re not comfortable using a computer or phone in the same room as you are trying to use Google Maps, there are ways to download the data so that you can use it offline. To do this, first open Google Maps and sign in. Then click on the three lines in the top left corner of the main screen. This will take you to a page that looks like this: On this page, you’ll see a list of options:

  • Choose which type of map you want to download: Street View or Aerial View. Street View is what’s shown on your computer or phone while Aerial View is what’s shown on Google Maps on your phone or device.
  • Choose how much data you want to save per day: 10MB or 100MB. The 10MB option will save 10GB of data each day while the 100MB option will save 100GB of data each day. If you choose the 100MB option, make sure that your internet connection is fast enough so that downloading the map doesn’t slow down your device too much.
  • Click on “Download.” The map will start downloading and once it’s finished, it’ll show up in your Downloads folder on your computer or phone. You can then open it up and start exploring!

Cellular networks are more reliable in more areas than ever before, but that doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to have a strong enough connection while out and about. Thankfully, Google Maps on Android and iPhone offer offline maps for use when navigating.

If you own an Android phone, you should already have the Google Maps app installed. If not, you can grab the most up-to-date version from the Google Play Store. On iPhone, however, you’ll need to download it from the App Store.

The process of downloading offline maps is basically the same between the two operating systems, but I will note differences as they pop up.

Once you have the Google Maps app ready to go, open it up. Tap on your avatar in the top-right corner of the window, found on the right side of the search bar.

A little way down this menu, you’ll see an option for “Offline Maps.” Tap that.

On your iPhone or Android device, tap the “Select Your Own Map” option.

A box will appear on-screen, highlighting a segment of the map. Move the box to cover an area that you want to save for offline use. You can also zoom in and out to change how much of the area you want to download.

 

Once you’ve settled on an acceptable area, tap the “Download” button. if you’re not on Wi-Fi, you’ll have to approve the download over a mobile network.

Once you’ve downloaded the data, it will stay available offline for 30 days. At that point, it should auto-update.

At any point in-between, however, you can either delete or modify that data if you want to. Jump back into the Offline Maps menu and tap on the downloaded option you’d like to modify.

From there, you can either delete or manually update the data.

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