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Agent Derek Meister-Geek Squad spoke to Bill about It's a Good Idea to Download Google Maps Offline. Here's How to Do It. Your mobile phone and the Google Maps app have replaced standalone GPS units for many car owners. But on a long car trip, you might encounter an area with little to no cell signal. And that means your Google Maps app can stop functioning. Fortunately, the fix is to download an offline map of any big trip you're taking as a precaution.
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First off, you won't download all of Google Maps in its entirety. Instead, before your trip, you'll want to download a specific area, which could be a city, county or region where you'll be spending time and might not have service on your phone.
To download a map in Google Maps offline, open the Google Maps app on iOS or Android and tap your profile picture on the top right (you must be logged in to your Google account for this to work). In the menu that appears, tap Offline maps > Select Your Own Map.
Use your fingers to place the map you want to download within the confines of the rectangle border. Use one finger to move across the map, and a two-finger pinch to zoom in and out. As you move around the map, you'll see how much storage space the download will take up on your phone. Once you're happy with the area, tap Download.
Note: Alternatively, you can type a city or other area into Google Maps and then hit the Download button that appears in the pull-up window to download the map offline, but this only works on the iPhone.
It's best to be connected to Wi-Fi to download the map. If you want to download over cellular, go to the Offline maps page, tap the gear icon on the top right, tap When to download offline maps and select Over Wi-Fi or mobile network. Once your map is downloaded, you'll be sent back to the Offline maps page, where you can see all your offline maps.
Now you'll be able to use Google Maps even when you're offline in the area you downloaded -- and in that area only. You won't get extremely accurate travel times or alternate route options because traffic and other road issues are not accounted for, but you will get a general ballpark idea of how long your trip should take. Transit, bicycling and walking directions are also not available offline -- only driving directions.