saving maps offline

[MikeB]

My iPhone is rather full and I’ve noticed that the 20 maps I installed in PE is using almost 3GB of space. Is there a way to save these maps offline (including the data I’ve input) and reload them when need?

[GeoMagik]

At the moment there are 2 options:

1. Settings > Data Cache > tap Map Data, it will ask you if you want to delete all of the maps, freeing up the 3GB. You may then want to re-download any places you would have liked to keep.

2. Un-star any places you no longer need maps for. After the next in-app data update, these maps will be removed.

For both of the above options, all of you routes, tracks, pins, etc will not be deleted, only the maps. To get the latest in-app data update, please go to Settings > Data Cache > Check Now.

We are working to provide an easier to use map data management function in one of our next major updates.

[MikeB]

Thanks for the reply, GeoMagik. It would be wonderful if it would be possible to make a backup of all apps, then delete the unneeded maps from my iPhone and when I come back to iTunes, I would see all the maps listed in the document window and could select which ones I wanted to re-install. I don’t know if all that is possible, but it would be very handy. Certainly all the pins, tracks, routes, etc. would be available again once the map is reinstalled. Thanks again.

[Ozgeo]

+1. I Agee with this idea. I would love to be able to store my own maps on my PC, but in addition it would be great to have a PC version of PE. Why be restricted to just mobile use.

[nounours]

1. I think there is no sense in saving the maps on the PC for later use. Maps change quickly. If you’re map has six months, il will be so outdated that you don’t want to go traveling with it, do you?

2. I also prefer PE over standard OSM, and sometimes miss it on my desktop (Mac). But, PE is a OFFLINE-map, and therefore has it strength offline. On a desktop you have internet, and thus access to an online copy.

But yes, PE is so much nicer …. but I think the development for a desktop is much different, so probably not really a big chance that Geomagik would invest in that …

nounours

[BuckyE]

Dear Nounours,

1. Coming from a paper-only background directly to PE, I have no idea: do OSM based maps change so much in, for example, six months? If that’s the case, then yes, I need to become accustomed to updating maps before a trip!

However, the sticking point is, as mentioned above, the current inability to update any particular map alone. I’m glad to hear that the developers are working on this!

2. I have what we in the U.S. call a sneaking suspicion that working offline is going to be a very small niche concern within a relatively few years: three or so at the most. Of course we understand its advantages, but…

A. I belong to the online community/bulletin board Slow Travel ( http://slowtalk.com/ , http://slowtalk.com/groupee/ ) and have for years. See, for instance, http://slowtalk.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/280109402/m/954004888001 .

I can say from experience that for every one person talking there about working offline, there are ten people trying to find out how to, and for the most part succeeding in, having affordable data connections while traveling.

B. The American company T-Mobile has just announced a plan to eliminate roaming charges. ( http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/technology/t-mobile-to-make-it-cheaper-to-make-calls-while-abroad.html ) Whether they will be able to actually sustain this remains to be seen, but obviously it’s of concern to a lot of people.

So…
C. With those two points in mind, the future of PE, and its strength, will lie with customization, personalization, ease of storing one’s data for recovery, ability to link to/suck data from the other big central mapping providers, sharing data amongst users, providing links to useful data sources, creative ways to use data we collect, or that comes from OSM, an ability to feed-back to OSM/become part of that community, etc. Not with working offline per se. We’ll see!

[MikeB]

I am opening this topic again since several versions and improvements to Pocket Earth have come in the meantime. I have several maps with a large number of POIs and I would like to remove them from my iPhone for use when I will travel to those countries. What is now the best way to do this (including all the data I have input, of course)?

As to the point made by Nounours last year: you are correct. However, doesn’t Pocket Earth have the feature to check for map updates? Once the map is reloaded on my iPhone, that would be the first thing I did.

[nounours]

The best way of working:

1: Load the maps you need to the iPhone. Delete the one you don’t need.
2. Before going to a trip, make sure you have all the maps you need.
3. Keep all your personal stuff (selected POIs, routes, Custom pins, whatever) always on your iPhone, it takes so few space that it does not matter.
4. Make regularly a backup of your personal stuff to iTunes or email, just in case. Maps can be reloaded anytime, your personal stuff can’t.

Yes, PE can check if your map is outdated. OSM is updated several times every second, all over the world. This changes are replicated about every month into PE. So, if you come back after more than a month, ALL your maps will be outdated. So what’s the point in storing them to your PC? Making a differential update with your old map and the new map is much too comlicated, this does not make any sense.

Hope this helps!

Nounours

[MikeB]

Thanks for you post, nounours. I did it almost like you suggested. I first made a screen shot of Pocket Earth’s list of my maps. This way, when I need to download them again, I will know which ones I had.

[nounours]

I first made a screen shot of Pocket Earth’s list of my maps.

Yes. In earlier versions of PE, it was possible to actually delete the map, but keep it in “MyMaps Listing”. So, you could just go there and select it for reload. I personally thinks it’s a pitty that this was removed.
I think the arguement was that deleting maps but keeping them in the list was to complicated, so this was simplified.

Anyway, you will normally know what you need before you start travelling.

cheers, nounours

[Author]

Posts