How to set up navigation and offline maps for areas with no signal
The unit has its own GPS receiver, so it knows where it is with no phone and no mobile signal. What it cannot do without a connection is download a map it has never seen, so install the app and download the areas you are heading into while you still have WiFi.
What this gives you
Navigation that keeps working past the last tower. The receiver reads GPS, Beidou and GLONASS, so a position fix is not a phone function, and a map already stored on the unit does not care whether anything is in range.
On a remote trip that is the difference between a screen that goes blank at the edge of coverage and one that still shows the track you are on.
Before you start
- The 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 every offline map has to be downloaded once.
- Storage on the unit. Detailed offline maps for a large area are not small.
- A Google account signed in, so the Play Store works.
Step by step
- Check the unit has a position fix before you rely on anything
Open any map app while the vehicle is outside and confirm the unit places itself correctly. A unit that cannot find itself in the driveway will not find itself in the desert.
- Install a mapping app that works offline
Newtracs is what we run internally and it is what most customers use. Wiki Camps is the other one worth having on a touring build. Install them from the Play Store while you have 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 are heading into, plus the way back, and be generous with the boundaries.
- Set your preferred app as the navigation app
Once it is installed, set it as the navigation app on the unit so it is what opens when you ask for directions, rather than whatever was there before.
- Test it with the connection switched off
Turn WiFi off, put the phone away, and plan a route you already know. That is the only honest test of whether the offline data actually downloaded.
- Take a paper backup for genuinely remote travel
A screen is a tool, not the plan. Anyone who has had an electrical fault a long way from anywhere carries paper as well.
If it does not work
- No position fix at all: check the GPS antenna is plugged in on the rear panel and that it is mounted where it can see sky rather than under a metal bracket.
- 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.
- Maps blank once you leave coverage: the offline area was not downloaded, or it was downloaded smaller than the route. Download it again with wider boundaries.
- App will not install: that is a Play Store problem rather than a navigation one. Update the Play Store before signing in.
Worth knowing
Because the map app runs on the unit itself, it keeps navigating with the phone flat, in a pocket, or left behind. That is a different thing to a phone screen mirrored onto the dash, which stops when the phone stops.
Related guides
Still need help?
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