How-to Guide
How to Set Up Navigation and Offline Maps for Areas with No Signal
Quick answer
Your unit has its own GPS receiver, so it knows where it is with no phone and no mobile signal. What it can't do without a connection is download a map it's never seen. Install the app and download the areas you're heading into while you've still got WiFi.
What this gives you
Navigation that keeps working past the last tower. The receiver reads GPS, Beidou and GLONASS, so you get a position fix without a phone, and a map you've already stored on the unit doesn't care whether anything's in range.
When you head somewhere remote, that's the difference between a screen that goes blank at the edge of coverage and one that still shows the track you're on.
Before you start
- Your GPS antenna connected and mounted where it can see sky, usually on top of the unit behind the dash.
- A working internet connection at home, because you download every offline map once.
- Storage on the unit. Detailed offline maps for a large area aren't small.
- A Google account signed in, so you can use the Play Store.
Step by step
- Check the unit has a position fix before you rely on anything
Open any map app with the vehicle outside, then confirm the unit places you correctly. If it can't find itself in the driveway, it won't find you in the desert.
- Install a mapping app that works offline
Newtracs is what we run internally and it's what most owners use. Wiki Camps is the other one worth having if you're touring. Install them from the Play Store while you've got a connection.
- Download the areas before you leave
Do this on a fast connection at home, not on a hotspot at a roadhouse. Download the whole region you're heading into, plus the way back. Be generous with the boundaries.
- Set your preferred app as the navigation app
Once you've installed it, set it as the navigation app on the unit. It's then what opens when you ask for directions, rather than whatever was there before.
- Test it with the connection switched off
Turn WiFi off, put your phone away, then plan a route you already know. That's the only honest test of whether the offline data downloaded.
- Take a paper backup for remote travel
A screen is a tool, not the plan. Have one electrical fault a long way from anywhere and you'll carry paper as well.
If it does not work
- If you get no position fix at all, check the GPS antenna is plugged in on the rear panel and that it's mounted where it can see sky rather than under a metal bracket.
- If the fix takes a long time from cold, give it a few minutes with a clear view of the sky the first time. A first fix after a long time switched off is always slower.
- If the maps go blank once you leave coverage, you either didn't download that offline area or you downloaded it smaller than your route. Download it again with wider boundaries.
- If the app won't install, that's a Play Store problem rather than a navigation one. Update the Play Store before you sign in.
Worth knowing
Because the map app runs on the unit itself, you keep navigating with your phone flat, in a pocket, or left behind. That's a different thing to a phone screen mirrored onto the dash, which stops when the phone stops.
Still need help?
Tell us your vehicle and what you're seeing on screen, and we can point you to the right step.